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It’s not like a normal car,’ he said, ‘before you head out onto the road, you better get acquainted with all the controls,’ but being who I am, I headed out anyway. How different could it possibly be? After all, I still had a steering wheel in my hand and three pedals on the floor. Boy was I wrong! For starters, the steering wheel was like nothing I’d ever used before. Quick ratio doesn’t even begin to describe it, the car changes direction like a fly. For example, I had gone the wrong way and had to take a U-turn, so I flicked the wheel to the right and before I knew it, I was already facing the other direction and nearly tipped the car over in the process. The pedals were fine, but the shifter was a sequential unit, so naturally, I shifted from 1st straight to 4th and wondered why it stalled out on me. To add to that, I was in Pune, so you can bet traffic was chock-a-block, and every pair of eyes on the road was glued to the car, making this ordeal that much more embarrassing.
Before you start hurling expletives at me, let me tell you that I wasn’t behind the wheel of an uber-exotic super car, but a bizarre machine the likes of which you've never seen before. And the ‘he’ in question was the owner of the car looking on as I made a fool of myself.
So, what is it?
It’s called the Bajaj Personal Transport Vehicle, or PTV for short, and it was Bajaj’s first attempt at taking the car market by storm. Now, I generally don’t like getting up early in the morning, and couple that with a long drive to Pune and you can bet I wasn’t exactly chipper. All that went away the moment I laid eyes on this quirky machine, though. Just look at it, the size, the proportions and the, er, how do I say, aesthetics will certainly bring a smile to your face, if not outright laughter.
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