Most of us editorial chaps in the business of writing about cars and bikes aren’t gifted with great business minds. Marketing meetings can be useful, though, to help us identify that we’re rather good in other creative areas – like drawing random shapes on paper that make sense only to us, and solving puzzles like Sudoku! Else, there are tech companions, like smart phones, that help us with new-age distractions called apps – there are many to choose from that cover everything from games to intriguing reading material. I’m writing this from a metropolitan city far down South, where I’ve come for a series of presentations and meetings. Exactly why I’m wasting myself in the domain of what business guys do best I don’t know. And this will go on for three days – three days! Nevertheless, I should’ve thought about it before agreeing to be a part of it – so I can’t put the blame on anyone else either. A substantial number of hours into the meeting, strategy and marketing pieces ended, only to make way for digital technology presentations. Bugger! That type of technology is as alien a concept to me as not gossiping is to girls. Good, time to dig into some automotive reading then! There were many things that I read – right from the McLaren P1 GTR to the 38 million dollars worth Ferrari 250GTO Berlinetta. We live in the age of autonomous cars and smart-watch phones (or whatever the hell those things are), but I still like things that are properly old school. I absolutely love the feeling of being able to do without my mobile phone when I’m off work or vacationing. Anyway, I’m going off topic. After the meeting and presentations ended, we dined with the same chaps and there was much laughter over various topics like sports and politics. A big hazard of my job is that, invariably, the talk drifts towards people asking me for automotive-related suggestions. Time I started a consultancy. Once I satisfied – I’d like to think I did – all the questions and made those guys zero down on the cars they should each invest in, one chap asked me which was the ‘best’ car in my view? A lot of names started flashing in front of my eyes and I kept crossing them out – they weren’t really stand-out examples to be honest. Not even the Lamborghini Aventador. I’m not kidding. Most of the modern cars are losing out on the most important things – individuality and personality. So I ended up telling him that the most fun for me in not in brutal horsepower figures, but in the way the car talks to you – and that the best time I’ve had in the recent past was in the Morgan 3 Wheeler and the Toyota GT86. Now, those who read this magazine regularly would recall me going on about these two machines in the past as well, but that’s my point – they are truly the best things that I’ve sampled over the last 5 years at least. That brings me back to what I was asked – which is the best car in my view? I’m a bit lost on that now – the Lancia Stratos has always been the one that I’ve lusted for, the Ferrari F40 has always been a dream thing, and the Bugatti Atlantic – oooh, that beautiful coachwork! Oh, add the Jag E-Type, the Maserati Tipo 61 and AC Cobra too. McLaren F1, Lambo Miura, Countach, and a ‘73 Porsche 911 Carrera RS features too – the list is massive! Yeah, you get the point then, don’t you? I don’t quite know which is that one car that I like the most. What I know, though, is that writing this op-ed has given me enough reason to work my smart phone keys and read up on awesome stuff on some awesome cars. And, since today is just Day 2 of the meetings, I have some time…
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