Down force kicks in and I’m thrown back against the seat as I listen to Thakkar. “I always believed that the high perception of the brand had a lot to do with its marketing and the many years of brand-building that gave Ferrari its appeal. But once I bought one, I truly did feel that my portfolio was complete,” Thakkar says, as we find a straight stretch of road and the sound of 700 horses in full gallop with Ferrari’s trademark exhaust pitch note silences all conversation.

Thakkar also owns a Lamborghini Huracán Performante, a Porsche 911 GT3, a Lamborghini Urus, and a couple of Mercedes-Benz AMGs. He’s also got a Mini Cooper but the common denominator for the most part is that his favourites are all high-performance track cars.

Why these and not others? The answer is simple.

He says that no company can guarantee that the spares needed to repair a car immediately are going to be available at the time one needs them anywhere in India. What an owner does expect is that a dealer will promptly send alternative transportation, have the primary car retrieved simultaneously, and the problem fixed in a timely fashion. “Very few brands get all of that right.”

Thakkar makes it clear that he is not into cars for promoting his business or for keeping up appearances. It’s all about the adrenaline rush from enjoying the machines. Neither is he an aficionado who puts minimal miles on his cars either, he clarifies. “I actually get into my cars and drive all of them regularly. There is magic in all the cars. I like something different about each and every one of them—the Porsche for its deft handling, the Lamborghini for its thrills and ability to drive fast and hard, and so on.”

Some of the best moments he’s spent in his cars are when he’s alone and on long stretches for as many as seven or eight hours at a stretch, he says. Top on the list of drive trips are rides from Bengaluru to Ooty, Mumbai to Udaipur, roads in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur triangle, and stretches in Leh and Ladakh.

His preferences have come a long way since he bought his first car, a Premier Padmini, in the mid-’80s, followed by his first luxury sedan, a Mercedes E-Class. “Although I have loved driving since a young age, my passion took a backseat to business until five years ago, when I was drawn to the race track and state-of-the-art track cars from around the world,” he says. Will he ever sell his cars once he tires of them? “Never!” He still owns the E-240 that he bought 15 years ago.

Thakkar goes to the professional race tracks in Chennai as well as in Noida from time to time to open the cars up on the circuit. “They are entirely different animals on the track, and that’s where you truly get to appreciate the way they have been made.” This is true. For example, most cars have start buttons but the one on the Ferrari I’m sitting in says “launch”.

Dinesh Thakkar

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