Cars!

How do you know so much Hindi, and also about Indians??

So who rides the bikes?

they are quite old now, my kids used to.

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Kalra, I'm not sure how much business interest you still have in India, but I'm curious to know your opinion on Manmohan Singh and the upcoming Congress-led government?

Excuse my somewhat simplistic view, but as you may know, the Indian Government has always been corrupt, will always be corrupt, and I do not think it will change now.

Although I do feel that if Sonia Gandhi had come into power, the state of affairs may have changed, but for me at least, the state at present is best left unchanged.

This corruption is what, in my judgment, leads to the two extremes in prosperity in India toady, amongst the population.

Congress has always been the superior party for me, BJP are idiosyncratic nationalists.

I do feel that eventually, things will improve, and what they really need out there is a good government to lead it, but I do not think that Manmohan is the man for the post.

And again... Porsche Cayenne Turbo

Kalra:

All those cars and no Hummer?

A Hummer in England?

Might not even fit on the roads.

I like a select few classic cars: The old gull-wing SL Mercedes-Benz Some of the old American models Some of the old Rolls Royce and Bentleys The old Maybach (but that is really old) However, I do not own any classic models. My cars are all very new, for example, my fleet of 10 E500s for my corporate use (me not employees) is changed every year, and it costs far less that way.

Every time I see one of those Porsche trucks, and it's an all-too-frequent occurance of late, I want to throw something at it. Something hard, dense and travelling at exceptionally high velocity and/or something possessing immense potential energy connected to a fuse. If there is a more abominable vehicle on the face of the earth I want to know nothing about it. At least the Hummer (by which I mean the HUMVEE, not the crude rebadged General Motors truck that one occasionally sees in the hands of the vulgar and mentally unbalanced even over here, though not as many of the vulgar and mentally unbalanced as probably drive such things in the USA), Gelaendewagen, and Unimog have real heritage and respectable uses. The Porsche truck is simply an awful disgrace, as is anyone who considers buying one.

Brian SD, I've always loved the Esprit, especially after the Peter Stevens reskin, but if you've not driven one then you may wish to either confirm or dispel your lust for it by wedging yourself inside. My attempt at a test-drive was curtailed by the car's shocking inability to provide space for my body. Apparently, Colin Chapman was a giant mind trapped inside the body of a runt; resenting that fact, he made it impossible for the tall to live with his masterpieces. That said, I have sat in an Esprit that had enough room -- barely -- in which to function, but it was an imported US commorative edition, a great white X180R with black cloth racing buckets sitting considerably lower/further back than the stock seats and an unslightly but highly necessary Gurney bubble in the roof, that was in any case priced identically to an undriven build year 2002 V8 Esprit and considerably less fun to drive -- though a fair bit faster -- than my Elise. Still, if your dimensions are such that you physically fit in an Esprit, I cannot imagine the soulless and insipid Honda NSX being a comparable choice unless current values are much lower than those of Esprits. Insurance costs, given the cost of repair for the Honda's frightfully complex alloy tub compared to repairing the Lotus's GRP bodywork and steel backbone, should actually favour the Lotus. Upkeep costs might actually favour the Lotus, too, as the Honda has a rep for eating rear tyres and requiring frequent and (on this side of the pond, at least) frighteningly expensive clutch swaps. If you must have a Honda, there's little to recommend the NSX and much to recommend the S2000....though of course the S2000 feels rather porcine when compared to a real sports car while riding much harder than it needs to. Said real sportscar, my Elise, has for the record cost me thus far about EUR110 in upkeep, all of which coming from an oil change involving a few litres of Mobil-1 and a new filter. Other problems attended to were a shim on the hardtop that has thus far been entirely successful at keeping the rain at bay. Though on a hard downpour at the right angle the soft top will leak slghtly, besides that my only other complaint about the Elise is that none of T&A's shirting fabrics have stripes matching my car's bright "lava orange" paint.

Peace,

JG

Honda NSX insipid and soulless? You bring a tear to mine eye. It is such a beauty, and is so pure in its handling and driving... A friend of mine owns a show room here in downtown SD called "VIP Classics," and I have to say I was extremely disappointed after having driven the Ferrari F355 which was the competing car for the NSX at its creation. The NSX is like a dream machine compared to the F355.

BTW, I'm totally not sold on that Bugatti being in front of the same garage that those horrendous chunks of sheetmetal Mercedes were in. Take a look at the ground on the driveway, and the grass behind the Bugatti. You can produce large high-res pictures of your other cars, but the best you muster up is a well-edited well-photographed sparkling-clean bugatti that is cropped tightly around the edges of the car?

And this just bothers me:

Quote
[On the F 360]How does it handle?


Terrible.

I am not allowed to put pictures of the Bugatti up, as it is a prototype, so you are correct there, that is not my Bugatti, but it is the same model.

The 360 Moderna does handle terribly, so why does it cause you such harm.

Every time I see one of those Porsche trucks, and it's an all-too-frequent occurance of late, I want to throw something at it. Something hard, dense and travelling at exceptionally high velocity and/or something possessing immense potential energy connected to a fuse. If there is a more abominable vehicle on the face of the earth I want to know nothing about it. At least the Hummer (by which I mean the HUMVEE, not the crude rebadged General Motors truck that one occasionally sees in the hands of the vulgar and mentally unbalanced even over here, though not as many of the vulgar and mentally unbalanced as probably drive such things in the USA), Gelaendewagen, and Unimog have real heritage and respectable uses. The Porsche truck is simply an awful disgrace, as is anyone who considers buying one.

Click to expand...

Here I must vehemently disagree with you. In testing against the Humvee, the Porsche basically kicked the crap out of it. In one test whereas most vehicles could not get up a certain incline, the Humvee made it with a running start, but the Porsche was able to start at the bottom and climb it from a dead stop. Apparently the (US) military is considering them now. I don't care for them either way, but they don't look any more or less offensive to me than the X5, Lexus, etc.; in fact they all pretty much look the same to me. It is, however, a very capable vehicle, much more so than any of the aforementioned.