As a kid, I was always fascinated by
cars, especially the sporty kinds. I had all the hot wheels and
matchbox cars in my collection. Infact my grandma once said, I will
grow up and become a driver! Well in those days computers weren't a big thing
:-) but thats where I ended, like most people of our generation
The addiction for cars, got me hooked to all things cars - formula 1, top gear, fifth gear, etc :-)
I had some experience driving dad's maruti suzuki 800 and fiat premier padmini in my engineering days and ended up owning a hyundai santro while working in Bangalore. A rather unlikely car to modify, but I managed to get a a nice CAI (cold air intake) and FFE (free flow exhaust) on the santro and even a few track days. I did seriously think of a ford fiesta sport or mitsubishi lancer in those days, but knew very well anything more exotic (hell even a mitsubishi evo X) would just be a dream given the crazy import duties in India. Held on to that dream as I knew one day my time will come.
The addiction for cars, got me hooked to all things cars - formula 1, top gear, fifth gear, etc :-)
I had some experience driving dad's maruti suzuki 800 and fiat premier padmini in my engineering days and ended up owning a hyundai santro while working in Bangalore. A rather unlikely car to modify, but I managed to get a a nice CAI (cold air intake) and FFE (free flow exhaust) on the santro and even a few track days. I did seriously think of a ford fiesta sport or mitsubishi lancer in those days, but knew very well anything more exotic (hell even a mitsubishi evo X) would just be a dream given the crazy import duties in India. Held on to that dream as I knew one day my time will come.
The time came in sep 2010 when I moved
to the land down under and although in aussie-land good sporty cars
are 2-3 times as much as they cost in US/UK, I knew I was close to
getting one. Infact the day I got my residency visa, I was already
checking out websites to understand what can be had in aussie-land.
I even had a thread http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/luxury-imports-niche/89307-sporty-car-40k-80k-aussie-dollars.html
hinting there was a friend moving to australia, when it was actually
me. Got some good suggestions then.
Things didn't come easy though.
Frequent work travel kept me from getting my driving license in
australia. There was no direct conversion for an indian license
(understandable), so had to go through 2 computerized tests (learners
and hazard perception) and some driving lessons, before even being
eligible for a drive test. After an agonisingly long wait, finally
got to giving my drive test and passing it first attempt in sep 2011.
The night before the drive test I was back to searching for cars, and
infact even during the driving test I was thinking – I can't
believe this is it, I am passing today and getting a car soon!
The test was passed on a friday (23rd
sep 2011) and I was already doing test drives on saturday and sunday
with just a drive test result in my hand (license hadn't even shipped
from vic roads). There were so many options – lotus elise, mazda
mx5, rx8, holden/ford performance cars, mitsubisi evo X, subaru wrx
sti, golf r, nissan 370z, audi tt, etc.
Given that I follow road rules and
there are strong road rules here, I knew anything very high on power
would just be pointless. But I did wan't something fun to drive,
which would mean a rear wheel drive. That narrowed it down to lotus
elise, mazda mx5 and rx8. I figured the elise was barely in stock,
impractical as a daily driver (it rains a lot here) and slightly over
my budget. RX8 was out due to its awesome yet impractical engine and
only marginally useful claustrophobic rear seats with almost no leg
room.
That was it the decision was simple, it
had to be the MX5 – no tons of power to sort you out, just a modest
2 litre 167bhp, rear wheel drive, 50:50 weight distribution for lots
of fun on the twisties while still staying legal on speeds. A great
track car, but also add to that creature comforts like
stability/traction control for wet days, power retractable hard top
for occasional top down fun and 7 speaker bose sound system. I don't
need more than 2 seats at the moment and the boot is big enough for
weekend shopping from the farmers market!
In under a week of passing my drive test,
I had my finances sorted out, jumped some hoops to get a loan (due to no
previous borrowing history), negotiated a cool 10% off the recommended
retail price to end up in a brand new aluminium silver coloured Mazda
MX5 Special Edition ( MX5 Special Edition ). There are only 200 speciial editions made with
some nice bilstein shocks, cool alloys and grey leather insides. I
chose one of the only ones available at a
dealer next door and it was driven only 26kms, out of which 6kms were
driven by me during the test drive.
The car is loads of fun, still running
in, but I am enjoying every bit of it. Here are some pics I took on
the morning after delivery
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