On a cloudy Sunday morning, more than 40 proud Porsche owners from the city and beyond gathered at the Sofitel hotel in BKC to celebrate the 70th anniversary of their beloved brand. The humble parking lot of the hotel had slowly transformed into something that auto lovers swear by. Dozens of Porsche’s in all colors and generations from 718 Boxsters to 911’s from Macans to Cayenne’s to Panamera’s, they were all there. While I was expecting a full house of SUV’s and a handful of the coupe’s, to my surprise it was the other way – the 911’s and 718’s dominated their bigger cousins.
After the photo opps the drive flagged off, and all one could smell in the air was high octane fuel as enthusiastic owners tried to trump one another by revving their turbo charged engines. Our route was BKC to Nariman point via BKC and back, for this epic drive I was behind the wheel of a shiny red 718 Boxster cabriolet.
I put the top down and took off, it was a first time getting behind the wheels of a 718 but being a Porsche in no time I was slicing through the city traffic. From all the angles all I could hear was the roar of the engines and their echoes. The drive was organized along with the Mumbai Police and thanks to the men in uniform we had green lights throughout our route.
While a Porsche coupe can slow traffic a convoy of them can literally stop traffic. Passing vehicles would line up next to us to catch a closer look, the more enthusiastic ones would pop out of their sun roofs and start filming. As the word got out of the drive, there were car spotters ready with their mobile phones and DSLR’s in every junction. After all its not every day that you see 40 Porsche’s roaring in one line.
Getting back to the hotel as we broke for lunch, I could not help but notice the smile on each of the owners as they alighted from their cars, I could recollect the statement – ‘A Porsche is not something you need, but it is something that everyone wants.’
Note – Special thanks to Porsche India for inviting me to this memorable event.
