Basement banshees!

We celebrate our 18th birthday with the cars that are spectacular, to look at and to drive.

- Rishabh Bhaskar

Our anniversary issues over the years have involved fast and exotic machines. And we’ve either taken them to racetracks or to fast roads around Rajasthan. So for our 18th birthday,

we decided to party in a different style. No, we weren’t planning to get sloshed at the hippest pub in Mumbai. We are OVERDRIVE, you see? Party time is behind the wheel of an interesting car. It should arouse sensations that remind us how lucky we are to find ourselves doing a job that we love. But we did not want exotics. What’s the point when you are driving less and worrying more about managing the car in the chaos that’s Mumbai.

We zeroed in on three cars. Cars that bear names so iconic, you could probably name streets after them. They possess enviable history and a generous dollop of character which is seldom found in cars these days. The Mini Cooper S, Abarth 595 Competizione and the Volkswagen Beetle were ours for few days, and we loved every bit of our time spent with them.

As my eyes fell on the little Abarth 595 Competizione in Fiat India’s parking lot, the first word that sprang in my mind was “choo cute”. Just look at it. It’ll even make a stone-faced army major’s heart melt!

I have never seen a car that draws so many eyeballs and evokes such myriad reactions, ever. Everywhere I went, people’s faces were of disbelief, awe, surprise or inquisitiveness. It’s almost as if the car looks extraterrestrial.