P.C. my behna Shoa Afroz.
This picture… I have put it up pretty much on every shelf of the internet that I have access to. There’s a story attached to it, one which I’ve been meaning to write and finally, I have.
There was a static noise as the radio buzzed to speech. “Welcome to this Peter Pan shuttle. I am Mark, your driver for this trip. The weather seems clear with moderate traffic …” I was smiling slightly as I looked out of the window and saw the busy streets and alleys of Manhattan rushing by. There’s still something about ground travel which you cannot have in the air. “Next stop, Hartford CT in two hours. Enjoy the trip ”. The bus smoothly got onto the freeway and the driver’s voice clicked out. Passengers connected their devices to the wifi, my sisters put on headphones, my mom nodded off, and I turned to face the window and savored the colorful palette that fall brings with it.
We were on the way to visit my mom’s cousin who lives in West Hartford for a couple days. The start of the trip felt perfect, and I wondered what the rest of it would be like. Probably like any other family visit, I guessed. We would meet everyone, have fun and fill up with lots of delicious food, share stories and then bid goodbye. And it was like that, apart from one part which I did not see coming and was never ready for.
While we waited on the bus station for my Khala to arrive, I checked the cars around in the parking lot. There were the usual Japanese sedans, some SUVs and then I saw a pair of bright, sharp double-iris headlights that could only belong to a new BMW. My retina focussed… It was a black 2016 X6. As it got closer I noticed the ‘M’ trimmings and the M bodykit. Now, there are many who buy BMWs but only few get the M versions due to the massive price gap between the regular and the M versions. It was safe to assume that the owner of this X6 M surely loved performance cars.
I watched it approach the waiting area where we were sitting and I stood up to admire it. As it got closer, I prepared to face the other way so that when it passes by, I’ll get a close look at the rear bodywork. So I turned, but the car didn’t follow; it stopped right in front of us and didn’t move. Taken aback, I looked at the driver and to my surprise, it was my Khala smiling at us.
That was a shock, because I didn’t know there was someone in my family who was into performance cars. I have people in my family who love performance and artsy cars. However they don’t love them enough to buy one. This was the first time I was sitting in a family member’s car that had alcantara in the interior and it felt special. I got excited as I got in. It had the red and blue M stitching on the panels, and my name on the screen. I never imagined I would see my name in the contact section of someone’s X6 M.
We drove off, and on the way I learned that my Khala’s hubby (my Khalu) is a car enthusiast. My Khala explained how he took it to the track before he bought it. I was excited to meet him, and I started telling my Khala facts about the car she was driving. As we steered into the driveway she said that if I liked this car, I will love the ones that are there in the garage.
I didn’t have time to absorb those words as I was still admiring the car we just drove in, when the garage door rose up and I gasped!
At this point I didn’t know if it was real or I was still dreaming on the Peter Pan. The garage revealed a metallic grey Porsche Carrera! I was so excited that I didn’t even notice the BMW 5 series beside it. And I was only thinking that there’s just one thing that could make it perfect - a stick shift gearbox. And guess what, it was a stick shift Porsche 911 Carrera S.
Back in that year Porsche had just rolled out the 911 R, which was a limited edition and it cost thrice the regular 911’s price just because it had a stick shift gearbox, which was reintroduced to please the car purists. And here, in front of my eyes was a Porsche. One with a stick shift gearbox. I checked it out for a while before heading inside the house, grinning wide.
We got fresh, ate, talked, swam in the pool, played around with Boots (the family pet cat). It was a fun and eventful day and with that the first day of our visit flew by. We got close to Boots and I was still talking about the Porsche when Khala said that if Khalu was there in CT, I could even have driven it, but he was away on a trip. I wished that he was there. I really wished that I could drive it. Night fell, and we all went to bed. That night I saw a dream in my sleep. I saw that I was driving the Porsche.
When the sun rose up the following day, I got up and was coming to terms with the fact that my dream will remain a dream since Khalu was away, when I heard a lot of voices from the floor above. There were voices of my cousins, and also my Khalu’s voice, coming from the living room. My heart beats rose up. Had he returned from his trip? I climbed up the stairs and found out; indeed he had returned, along with more of my cousins.
I got ready for breakfast and came up to the kitchen. He was showing pictures of the Grand Canyon climb that he and my cousins had just come from. We hanged around there for some time and then headed to the dining room. After we ate, we started assembling an original Cuckoo Clock that had been delivered that day.
I was shy to ask him about the car, and I didn’t know how to tell him that I love cars too. So, I added him as a friend on Facebook. I thought if he saw my profile, he might see that I like cars and we would talk about them.
A few minutes later I heard him calling my name. I went there and he asked me “You like cars?”. I smiled and said “Very much”. Then he asked me if I saw the Porsche and I said I did. “What are you doing here then? Why aren’t you driving it?”, he asked.
Next thing I know we were climbing down to the garage where he started the car up and reversed it out into the driveway. I was getting ready for the moment. Probably I would be driving and my Khalu would be sitting on the passenger seat. Obviously I won’t be driving it alone because that would be too good to be true. Once the car was out he turned off the ignition and to my utter surprise he got out, walked over to me, handed me the key and said “Take it away!”.
I couldn’t believe what I just heard. There was a stick shift Porsche in front of me, one that belonged to my family, with it’s driver door’s open for me. I had the key in my hand and nobody else was in the car… “I will be driving it alone??”, I thought.
I was ecstatic. I walked up to the car, taking it in. It felt unreal. Not just the car, but the entire situation. Being handed the key by my Khalu, gripping the steering wheel and manual gear lever of a Porsche that belongs to my family. It felt unreal. Was that for real? It all happened to quickly for anything sink in.
As I got in, the faded grayish-navy interior came into my my view. It was all old-school-driving oriented. I closed the door after me and the window went up a cm to seal it shut. It felt so quiet inside. I put the key in, pressed the clutch pedal and turned the key to ignition. The 6 cylinders fired up and idled on a rich baritone that sent shivers up my spine. I revved it a little and the exhaust blared out it’s tuned music. Outside the car, it was so loud that my mom who was sitting in the living room got scared. And she got even more scared after she came to know that I’m the only one inside the car all by myself. On the inside it was chill, and sounded like I was wearing headphones listening to each cylinder of the engine with bass amplified. It felt so settled but bold.
I put down the handbrake, slotted the gearstick into ‘1’ and lifted off the clutch while balancing the accelerator. I was a little terrified. Manual transmission is trickier than automatic and even though I learned driving on a stick shift car and have driven it for years, I was a bit petrified. This was a Porsche after all. I carefully creeped up to the end of the driveway and indicated right, as if I was taxying onto the runway. I looked out for oncoming traffic and realized how good the visibility actually is. As soon as it was clear, I drove off. It was two years ago but I still remember every tiny detail of that experience.
I remember the sounds that came from the car. I felt how stiff the body was, I felt how tight the wheels were. The suspension was as firm as I had expected it to be, but the sound… it was better than I had imagined it to be. At low revs it droned along like a distorted but stable bass note. The tires swept across the streets with a smooth roll, ironing out any cracks on the road. I watched the lush green trees and bushes speed past me in the opposite direction. It almost felt like a normal car; that changed when I put the foot down and lifted off the clutch completely.
The engine exploded with huge amount of powerrrr and I got pushed back to the seat. The steering became lighter, the front almost lifted off and the car sped forwards with a deafening bellow. It felt as though instead of wheels it had rockets attached to its driveshaft. You know car journalists keep saying how mechanical a stick shift Porsche feels to drive… well I felt it. It’s true. That gearstick.. every shift made me understand the definition of ‘mechanical’ a little bit more. It was precisely gated, and it made the whole experience go up to another level.
I drove for around a minute and then came back to take my sister along so she can experience it too and also, importantly, take some pictures for me to remember the day that felt like a dream. In total I drove it for around 10 minutes but those 10 minutes really got engraved in my mind for ever. I loved that car to the core, and was overjoyed to have driven it. I couldn’t stop smiling when I got out of it and everyone was smiling back at me. Looking back, it was the most real experience I ever had in a driver’s car and it was one of the most memorable trips, made dreamy by everyone there along with the Porsche.
I used to ask about the cars whenever I talked to my Khala after that. I always looked forward to going back and seeing them again and see the Porsche too. Sadly, I won’t get to. I recently came to know that it is no longer there. An year after I had visited, a mishap occurred due to some people who cut off my Khalu on the freeway and there was an accident. Thankfully he survived without any injuries. The car however was totaled. They got a new Panamera after that which is far better in every detail but it’s not the same car and I find myself wishing that the Carrera I had driven had stayed forever. It will be missed.