Well guys after nearly a decade of not blogging I am trying to break back into blogosphere. I thought I would make it really interesting by starting the new innings with the coverage of the launch of Lotus cars in Oman. Let me be very frank, I was never a big fan of Lotus or in fact of British cars in general especially the ones that started their life in a shed/garage, or as in the case of Lotus in a stable behind a railway hotel !!!! After several owners washed their hands off it, including GM and the owners of Bugatti, guess who owns Lotus now ??......the world-renowned-high-quality-perfomance car manufacturer........The one and only Malaysia based Proton !!!!!!! Yup, WTF is the exact feeling that went through my mind also when I heard this news.
The famous Proton of Malaysia...You will find hundreds of them...but only in Malaysia
Now you may or may not be wondering why I am so anti-Lotus, but to be fair to them I have to tell you the truth, Lotus is a very well acclaimed manufacturer of premium sports 'drivers' cars. They are actually powered by Toyota engines, and unlike the W12, 1 million bhp and 1000.6 litre engines in most sports cars, the Lotus babies have just 1.6 and max to max 1.8 litre Toyota engines in the most premium model. A 1.6 litre Toyota that is going to set you back at least R.O. 20,000 (to put things into perspective let me point out the fact that a Toyota Yaris has a 1.5 litre engine and the old Toyota Echo used to have a 1.3 litre one !! ). These cars are not at all meant for the daily driver. A lot of amenities that most petrolheads in the middle east love are not even on the options list simply because this car is meant to perform on the tracks and not meant for showing off to a lady friend or for a long drive to Salalah (unless you don't mind having a backside that feels like bricks by the time you reach your destination !!).
Another beautiful Proton, the Wira....what a name and what a backside....looks like somebody gave it a sound thrashing !
I was there at the venue even before the organisers were and those nitwits didn't even consider my continued plea for an entry into the place....finally I decided to break in.....did a 360 degree scan of the OAA premises and found a nice little spot where I could jump in and watch the whole show ( 'Prison Break' is really giving me a little too many ideas thats gonna get me into some serious trouble sometime soon !)....
The ROP guys standing guard at the venue....;-) just kidding...just a poor traffic cop...
...well I almost did break in, if not for the fact that the very next property adjacent to the OAA is some buildings belonging to none other than the ROP and the whole place was milling with people in Khakis ( The vehicle registration center and vehicle inspection centres are right next to the OAA plot ). Damn man, I could hear those babies screaming and howling on the tracks and all I could do was fantasize about the lucky privileged basketballs driving them around the tracks.....and guess what ?? as soon as I left the main entrance a 3 ton truck drove into the huge cut-outs placed in the front of venue and tore them apart...hehehe....and the tragedy doesn't end there......it seems that one of the journos who couldn't actually drive a manual drove one of the Lotus onto the tires placed at the sides of the track and broke the car......and he blamed it on the brakes not functioning properly......You deserve it Lotus......for not knowing the fact that every car that has become a supercar is because a million teenagers have put posters of those cars besides their beds and dreamt about them day and night, and one day when those very same teenagers made it really big, they went and bought those crazy toys which they could not when they were much younger (How else can you explain the crack successes of Hummers and Lambos, and to an extent every supercar on this planet.....they all tickle the inner child within us). So next time if any carmaker wants to assure a good public opinion or at least a good review on this blog, BETTER LET US IN !!!! All I got was a lousy pic of the lights of the events (there were 2 laser beacons that were lit up to make it look more attractive but god knows for what since nobody was invited anyways) from the rear side of OAA.....for the time being guys be satisfied with this......I promise you that there will be an amazing article coming up this friday, post the Red Bull Drift competition....at least those guys know how to market a product well.....Well guys honestly saying Lotus may not be that bad a brand, and all the comparisons that I made earlier to other Toyotas are totally irrelevant as you must have already guessed or known, in the car world, god is in the details, F1 races have been lost just due to different tyre manufacturers !!! So simply comparing a highly engineered product like the Lotus to a Yaris may be unfair...but say what you may what they did was not right, period.
Yup...this is all I could get....obviously I cannot share the sounds of tht nite... so for now this is it !
