I've loved cars since I was a kid. Perhaps it's because my Mummy really wanted to have a son after having two daughters - I have photographs of me wearing bow-tied suits and some amazing polyester dress pants. And don't get me started on the years of "boycut" hair.
Fast forward to my teenage years and in lieu of having Tom Cruise or Kirk Cameron on my wall, I had an exquisite framed poster of a shiny red Ferrari 308 GTS. Yup, here it is...that very image...
Little did I know that somewhere along the road - no pun intended - that car would feed my love for speed. It was 1987 when we moved to Bombay, India. There were no road rules, no speed limits, no driving rules really. It's where I learned how to drive a stick shift among the cows, cars and people and what an amazing experience it was. I know you may not have heard of the Ambassador, (photo below), but let's just say it could seat many people and it was quite the gas guzzler. Tatas, Fiats, Marutis and other brands were all over the road and when the wee hours of the night were available to me and my friends...fun things happened.
Don't worry, there were no seat belts in the car so we didn't break any seat belt laws. And there were no speed limits, so we were okay in that department too. Worli Seaface was the place to be after going to a club or party. All of us would squish each other in the car and turn up the music really loud just so we would have to talk even louder over it. And there lay the beautiful open roads of Bombay. Dotted with street lights and roadside vendors selling jalapeno-filled grilled cheese, every sense was on fire. Moving back to America in 1992, I remember those roads and the speed a lot. My first test drive in a Toyota Corolla landed me on the wrong side of the road (hey, I first drove in Bombay, okay?).
All those years later, at 43, I still have a love for speed. NASCAR? Better than watching the evening news any day. My car history is pretty plain: Toyota Corollas, Nissan Muranos and now a BMW X3. And while the latter does fuel the road pretty fast, where am I supposed to go in Jacksonville, Florida over 35 miles per hour?
So I ask you...where oh where are these "Closed course. Professional driver. Do not attempt." roads that you advertise in your head-turning commercials? I mean do you honestly think you can tease us like that? You play a really cool song, add a good-looking guy, a gorgeous open road and then fuel it with fast-paced images of your car speeding down a road I have never seen and well, is a closed course. I'll go through all the driving school needed if that's what it'll take for an invitation.
So hopefully, I have your attention and I'll be happy to give you my address and phone number. My driving record is good (okay, a few speeding tickets, but nothing was over 85mph - even though I once went 103mph...ssshhh). I really don't want to be caught at the age of 88 flying down a road, so if you would love to see me smiling at 95mph on one of your courses, my birthday is December 9th. Just saying...
No comments:
Post a Comment