How we fell in love with cars
Ehsanur Raza Ronny, Editor, Shift
Dream car: Is a truck
It's my dad's fault. Really. He had to go and buy two of every model car he would buy. One for himself I think. And he would show me all the cool iron from his youth. 68 Chargers, 79 Lincoln (my brother has two now), 65 Riviera; all cars with sinister hidden headlights but more importantly, silly big engines. He himself had a 68 Falcon XT with menacing factory GT spec foglights. And Datsuns and a Corolla. A strange mix that led me to obsessing over a 1985 Toyota Hilux. You know, the one from Back to the Future where Marty McFly chooses it over a silly DeLorean. Why not? It looks killer in all black and can go over anything every single day without breaking.
Ahbaar Mohammad,
Photographer, Shift
Dream Car: 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution in Cosmic Blue
One of my fondest and earliest memories are intertwined with cars, thanks in no small part to my dad's office cars as I was always around a certain white Land Cruiser, which always smelled of octane as I now recall fondly. Beyond that, I always had a knack for toys (anything and everything with wheels) as my dad would buy me nothing but Hot Wheels and such. However, I really dived headfirst into cars through printed issues of Top Gear, which meant frequent trips to New Market or DCC Market with my dad. So, really I have my dad to thank for my irrefutable love for cars.
Haseeb Chowdhury,
Contributor, Shift
Dream Car: 2000 Honda S2000 AP1 in Spa Yellow
It is no secret that I LOVE Japanese cars. Old and new, 2JZs and the ones with German hearts. Ask my friends about me and they'll tell you the same. But not many know however, that my knack for automobiles was ignited by an American muscle car. A young Haseeb was casually enjoying the first Transformers movie. Remember that scene, when the old, rather beat up 70s Camaro Bumblebee "transformed" itself into the new Camaro concept? That's when I had an epiphany, that it was indeed motor oil, not blood, running through my veins. I've been hooked ever since.
Rahbar Al Haq, Reporter, Shift
Dream Car: 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe in Wimbledon White
People tend to form a strong bond with things they grow up with. For me, that was vintage cars. When I was little, my mild stammering and poor social skills meant I had a hard time finding friends, meaning spending time was quite difficult for me. Fortunately, one of my landlords was E.M. Faruk, the famous car collector. He would routinely bring in derelict classics in our small garage to restore them. This meant when other kids were busy with cricket and cartoons, I spent hours watching his team of craftsmen expertly turn rusted shells into running works of art. These experiences made me obsessed with preserved classics and strongly dislike restomod, a view that is admittedly quite controversial among many of my fellow petrolheads.
Akif Hamid, Photographer, Shift
Dream Car: 1967 Volkswagen Beetle in Baby Blue
Back in 2009 my father bribed me with a fantasy Hot Wheels model in an attempt to get me to school as I had woken up with quite the temper that day. It was an odd looking car as far as I can remember. Fast forward to 2014, I made a hobby out of collecting die-cast cars. My affection towards these toy cars soon grew into an affection towards the cars they were modelled after. The car closest to my heart is the 1967 Volkswagen Beetle, a car that I dream of calling my own someday.
Shaer Reaz, In-charge, Shift
Dream car: 1992 Porsche 911 Turbo S 3.3 Leichtbau Coupe in Speed Yellow
My first contact with cars came from a 1991 issue of Road & Track with the incredible Vector W8 on the cover. The year was 1997, and I was a wee little boy of five running around my aunt's house in Bakshibazaar. My cousin had in his collection a fairly big stock of car magazines like Autocar, Car Magazine and more, mostly featuring cars from the 90s that sat in that sweet spot of being manual, comfortable and fast. All the cousins on my mom's side of the family carried the car bug thanks to my grandfather, a rail-road engineer who had served with the British Railway—mechanical fascinations drove one cousin to prop a giant poster of the Ferrari F40 on his wall, another bought a mint Mango Corolla KE30 instead of buying something "normal", and yet another found the junkyards of New York very useful in building a 700 HP nitro-methane injected Nissan 240SX in his backyard. I went on to write on cars, combining two of my favourite things in the world. With family scattered all over the world, it's good we don't have much gathering, otherwise it'd turn into a giant car meet.
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