Merc of a man who loves cars

Merc of a man who loves cars ANASUYA BASU

The Mercedes SL 63 AMG at the Interkrafts workshop in Behala, with its vario-roof that opens and retracts in 16 seconds. Picture by Amit Datta

A gleaming silver dreamboat shipped to town all the way from Germany has raised the gold standard for superfast luxury wheels on Calcutta�s pot-holed roads.

Exporter Babi Nobis�s gift to himself on his birthday may not be the costliest car cruising through town but his new Mercedes SL 63 AMG convertible � priced at over Rs 1.5 crore, including duties � is the most expensive piece of machinery yet to be sold by a city dealer.

The SL 63 AMG, which swimming legend Michael Phelps also owns, is a two-seater, twin-door gazelle that does 0 to 100kmph in 4.7 seconds flat.

You might think that�s no big deal for someone who owns three Ferraris, but even Nobis was left wide-eyed when he turned up in his Bermudas at the Interkrafts workshop in Behala on Tuesday, on the eve of his birthday, to have a look at his latest acquisition.

�The heart of every AMG Mercedes is assembled according to the one-man-one-engine principle, and the signature of the engineer who crafted this engine (Phillip Waibel) is inscribed across its face. It�s about exclusivity,� said the car connoisseur who still drives his Tata Indica to work.

But Nobis, who had gifted himself a black Ferrari F430 three birthdays ago, could find feeding the Merc�s 6.3-litre AMG engine a tad tougher. The convertible does not run on anything other than 97 octane petrol, which is available only at two pumps in Calcutta � one in Alipore and the other on Camac Street.

Fuel availability apart, Nobis thinks there is nothing that would keep his SL 63 AMG � powered by the same engine as the F1 Safety Car � from being �a driveable superfast car on decent roads�.

So where would the resident of New Alipore test Merc�s claim about cruising at 250kmph and feeling it is 80kmph? �I generally don�t go beyond 45kmph,� said Nobis, who tests his superfast cars on the Delhi and Bombay highways.

Even if he drove his SL 63 at its highest speed of 250kmph with the vario-roof open � it takes all of 16 seconds to open and retract into the hood at the touch of a button � not a single strand of his hair would apparently be out of place. �The air scarf at the back of the seat�s headrest will deflect the rushing air,� explained a Merc technician at the workshop.

On the city�s go-slow roads, Nobis can raise the car suspension at the touch of a button to comfort, sport, sport plus and manual modes. �I usually do a recce of the roads first before I decide which route to take when I drive my cars,� he said.

Nobis had showcased his Ferraris at the Ferrari India Discovery Tour that came to Calcutta last year. Apart from his Ferrari line � including a yellow 360 Spider and a red 348 � Nobis owns a 3 series and a 7 series Beemer, besides a C-Class and an S-Class Merc that he keeps at his Delhi Panchsheel address.

But it�s the SL 63, assembled at the Mercedes AMG plant and performance studio at Affalterbach, Germany, that promises to be his most prized beauty on wheels.

 More stories in Calcutta  • Merc of a man who loves cars  • Four robbed on Puri train  • Price no bar in buy-buy week  • Illegal parking claims boy  • Cops protest against boss  • Rahman's back where he began  • Italian envoy dies in sleep  • Reprieve for flout pandal