When I arrive in Chennai, known as India's "Gateway to the South," my taxi driver, Arun, informs me that monsoon season may be returning a bit early, the sheets of heavy rain blanketing our car providing some compelling evidence. Trying to peer through the windshield, with the wipers of the Tata unable to dance to the quick beat of the downpour, it's hard for me to disagree. The locals seem rather unaffected, though-one motorcyclist wears a plastic bag over his head, another's passenger holds an umbrella, shielding both riders from the wet. Indians, obviously, don't suffer from a lack of improvisation.
After only a mile of taking in the scene from the back seat, I realize I'm in for a week of utter mayhem. The traffic is heavy, seemingly without rule, and of, oh, a diverse variety. Naturally, there are the usual suspects, i.e., cars, trucks, vans, SUVs, and buses, but in India an array of other vehicles, including tuk-tuks (three-wheeled, motorized rickshaws), motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles-all of which toot their horns and ringers as if collectively performing Beethoven's Fifth-transform the streets into a mosh pit of wheels. Add in throngs of pedestrians and a potpourri of on-the-loose animals-dogs, cows, goats, and pigs, to mention a few-and what you have is a proprietary blend of traffic jam, walk-a-thon, and zoo. Making things worse, there appears to be no right of way on the road; rather, it's first come, first go, be it on wheels or legs. I begin to wonder: What'll it be like to drive a $300,000 Ferrari through these villages and cities, where traffic is frenzied and conditions are a striking juxtaposition of future and past, first-world and third-world? Only one way to find out.
Expedition Tradition
Just last year, Ferrari celebrated its 60th anniversary, a commemoration that included such production cars as the 365 GTB4 and 599 GTB Fiorano, such race venues as Le Mans and Monza, and such drivers as Fangio and Schumacher. Suffice it to say, Ferrari has had a memorable and triumphant six decades, a span positively overflowing in tradition.
It should come as no surprise, then, that, following its China 15,000 Red Miles tour in 2005 and Panamerican 20,000-kilometer slog in 2006, Ferrari would keep alive its tradition of expeditions. The P.R. stunt for 2008? None other than South Asia, namely the Magic India Discovery Tour, an 8200-mile journey that started in Mumbai in late February and, after 12 stages, 50 journalists, and 74 days circumnavigating nearly the entire country, will return to Mumbai in early May.
I've been invited along for stage five, a leg that will span the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, covering 900-plus miles of southern India in seven days. The transporter? A 612 Scaglietti, Ferrari's luxurious Gran Turismo. Freshened for 2008, the 612 has received minor but vital alterations for duty in India, including a slightly raised suspension (about 0.6 inch), a 4mm-thick aluminum underbody protector, and a fine-mesh radiator grille. Other than that, the two 612s relegated for the undertaking have come as stock as those in Beverly Hills showrooms.