Car news

01 April 2011

Exclusive drive: Ferrari F430 in Mumbai

We spend a day driving a Ferrari in Mumbai...

Abhinav Mishra
Car image

UPDATE: APRIL FOOL! The car you see here is not the original Ferrari, but a modified Toyota Corolla. Fooled you didn't we? Check out our behind the scenes of driving the modified Ferrari around Mumbai, or you can reminisce by continuing reading our great fake Mumbai drive in a Ferrari F430 article...




Mumbai is getting hotter as April dawns but I still prefer driving with my windows down. Yes, I agree it is humid and sweaty and it will be sometime before we get accustomed to the heat, but for now the heat is not bothering me much. As I wait for the lights to turn green, a taxi that stops right next to me. The driver looks at my car and inquires, ‘I have read in the papers that there is a car which can fly. Is this the same car?’ I smile and tell him ‘No’.

By the time he can ask me anything more the light turns green and I zoom off. At the next signal, a similar situation arises. A bunch of kids in a van next to me stick their little heads out the window and scream in high pitched voices. It’s a sports car! It’s a race car! IT’S A FERRARI!

I coolly wave out to those kids and try to pretend this is an average day in the life of a supercar owner. This fame makes me feel like a hollow movie star. I am shallow. I am happy. And I am in a Ferrari.

With all the hype surrounding Ferrari’s entry into India we decided it was time to get our hands on one. What we have here is a Ferrari F430 finished in that perfect scarlet red. You may be wondering why are we featuring an out of production car. The answer is simple. We could not get our hand on the 458 Italia. But as we all should agree, a Ferrari is a Ferrari and the minute it goes out of production, it becomes a classic.

Like all mid-engine Ferraris, this one has a V8 that makes 483bhp and does 0-100 in 4 seconds. So did I take the car out of town and risk my life to achieve its top speed of 320kmh. Uh... no.

Thing is, we got the car only for a day and were strictly instructed by our Editor not to try anything stupid (something which comes very naturally to us) while we were behind the wheel. Now with all the power sitting just a few inches behind me I took the prancing horse and puttered around town and occasionally pushed it between 80-100kmph. That felt like flashes of light. One of the more interesting things we did was putting the car in neutral and revving it. The V8 would scream, people all around would look at us, and we’d keep a straight face. 

What surprised me the most about this car was not the power—I was  not allowed to use that at all—but  it was as easy as driving any mid-sized Rs. 15 lakh car. It had a Jekyll and Hyde sort of personality; we were supposed to stay only on the Jekyll side of things.

The car did attract a lot of attention on the streets. We got to see the city in a whole new perspective. Rather, we were not used the city seeing us like it did. Pedestrians would stop to let the red beauty pass. Drivers would put their thumbs up as we passed. Cops smiled. And just as we were getting used to privileged life, the day came to an end. We drove down our Ferrari to its rightful owner.

We had we roamed the city in supercar and the world was as sweet as it could be. At least for a day...



Tags: toyota, corolla, f430, ferrari



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