Driving Them Crazy

Jonathan Ive, Chief Design Officer of Apple and chancellor of the Royal College of Art, once said, “One person’s car is another person’s scenery.” With this phrase, the designer summarised the most intimate relationship a man has ever had with his car(s).

Having earned my first profit by selling a pen to a friend at the age of 10, I can safely say that my initial trysts with my two muses — cars and entrepreneurship — came fairly early. In hindsight, my memories of the illustrious timeline of school days tilt favourably towards my current vocation.

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I would always be dreaming about exotic cars from afar and identified countries not by their flags or geographical positions, but by the iconic automobile manufacturers originating from there. If only my Geography teacher knew his way around the world’s top car makers, I would have been his favourite student!

While the concept behind Big Boy Toyz was getting a constructive touch ups in my mind since sixth grade, the romanticism ended only when I was able to get a broad view of the technicalities involved in automotive engineering. During college, I immersed myself deeply in projects modifying accidental Ambassador and Fiat cars that enabled me to get a peek into the product cycle, thereby shedding the boyhood fascination to a real world understanding and appreciation of the efforts invested behind making some of the greatest cars.

Being a car aficionado for as long as I can remember, I have asked this question to myself: what is it that drives men to their wheels? And after many deliberations, most of them behind a steering wheel itself, cruising through the capital’s empty roads in the middle of the night, I have come to a conclusion.

Every man fancies two kinds of women - ‘good’ and ‘desirable’. While the first gives him stability, security and comfort, the latter, always lying on the periphery of his imagination, stokes the adventurous streak within him, always challenging him to achieve something more, attempt something outrageous while always keeping him guessing. She is unpredictable, and it is this element of surprise that makes her so attractive. Same goes for our cars.

And if a car provides an ideal blend between these two dimensions of a man’s imagination, well, there’s no resisting it.

For men, a car is not just a mode of conveyance to go from A to B. It is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. For some, it’s the speed that thrills, for others it can be elegance, and yet for others it is technical sophistication. Every man is looking for a life-long companionship with a car, but not without exciting features.

Imagine this: Riding smooth and easy on the highways with your body easing into the plush interiors of a cool car or letting the sunrays caressing the face through the sunroof. Can words do justice to the feeling a man gets? Probably not.

Just like any other relationship, however, men always like to know every intricate detail about their favourite cars before taking the plunge. ‘Don’t you get badgered by the incessant, fanboy-like queries regarding the latest fancy models in your inventory?’ is an oft-repeated question for us at Big Boy Toyz. And our emphatic answer is: No.

We love the curiosity for every new arrival that gets added to our stock, as it validates our belief that along with us, our customers are also putting in efforts for their quest to find the perfect match. It creates an interesting situation in which our buyers and we are sailing on the same boat, trying to establish our undying love to those exotic, four-wheeled beauties and beasts.

However, while some buyers come focussed on certain make or brand, things become interesting when we have to play an advisory role in selecting a car that suits the buyer’s persona.

For instance, selling a BMW 640d Gran Coupe to the television actor Prince Narula or a Porsche 911 Turbo S to cricketer Dinesh Karthick wasn’t really difficult, because initiating an advisory role played its part pretty well in their case.

With their respective personas established in the public space, it was an interesting ‘matchmaking’ process for us to identify, and bring together, the ideal cars for their famed owners.

In Shakespeare’s play Richard III, King Richard, famously yells out ‘A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!’ after his horse is killed in a battle while he wanders to find it for hours, killing everything that comes in his way with a fatalistic rage. The phrase fits perfectly well when it comes to men and their cars.

Well, if only the Bard knew of a man’s intimate relationship with his ride, he would understand the King’s lament in a whole new light, and probably might write a new Romeo and Juliet with a Mustang or a Ferrari as one of the protagonists! An intriguing idea, isn’t it Big Boyz?

about the writer Jatin Ahuja is the founder and managing director of Big Boy Toyz, a one-stop destination for premium luxury cars by global automobile giants.

From the April 2018 issue of FHM India.