-By Rohan Santhosh in collaboration with Anurag R. Nambiar
Anurag:
When and how did you start liking cars?
Rohan:
I’ve always been interested in cars, since before I can even remember. I don’t remember why I was drawn to them, it just happened, I guess. My mom could tell pretty quickly that I was quite fond of toy cars and real cars alike, so to encourage my “passion”, she bought me a boatload of Hot Wheels cars. Initially, I wasn’t that picky about what kind of vehicle it was, the size, shape, the number of wheels and colour never really mattered. However, I gradually slowly became more and more attached to vehicles with a low body style and four wheels: supercars.
Rohan's Hot Wheels collection
A: I see you like cars with Anurag style: get it? “low body style”; because I'm short… Ugh, nevermind.
A: Like Rohan, Hot Wheels has also been a huge part of my life. It probably started back when I was around 5 years old and my brother decided to grab two cars, one of which he broke as soon as he reached home. Funny thing is I still have the car, with a couple of very bad self-made paint jobs. So yes, my love for cars and designing cars has been a constant in my life.
Anurag's Hot Wheels collection
R: I think being an annoyance is also a constant in your life but okay.
A: It’s a personality trait I’m sorry. So does your love for cars only revolve around, you know physical cars or are you an Epic-racing-car-game-dude as well?
R: I think my love for cars started to blossom at a more rapid pace mainly because of games. I used to play games like Need for Speed: Underground 2, Burnout: Revenge and Need for Speed: Most Wanted on my PS2. To this day, I’m an “epic-racing-car-game-dude” and I still play Forza Horizon 4 all by myself. Honestly, I love it the most since it's a free-roam game and there’s always a game mode for every mood.
A: OH MY GOD! The Need for Speed games were the best things to ever exist. All we used to do back then was pull out a chair and sit right in front of the TV playing Underground 2. That might be why my eyesight is this bad. Just kidding, I have 20/20 vision unlike Anurag in 2020. He is not doing great man, trust me.
R: #Feelzbad. I remember the reason I was drawn to supercars was because of their otherworldly styling and performance, there was a strange allure to those nearly unobtainable cars. The styling is very complex, taking aerodynamics and aesthetics into account. I know nothing about either of those so maybe you could tell me what you know, as an art student.
A: Well you see the funny thing is when a car is in its initial stages of design, none of the complicated “science terms” come into play, it’s pretty much just pencil on paper, an artist drawing a bunch of lines and curves if you must. This is then further modified digitally, where you consider the airflow and resistance, engine space, and aesthetics.
They also make a clay model of it before anything is finalised, so you can see why I make all those clay sculptures haha. Fun Fact: the very first car that was designed using aerodynamic principles shaped like a bullet, ran at a top speed of 135 kmph was considered a failure due to its shape. Car design also draws inspiration from nature. Shapes of birds and animals are taken into account while designing the body of the car. I wouldn't know too much about the biological part of it so would you care to elaborate, biology student.
R: A car that draws inspiration from animals is the McLaren P1. Drawing inspiration from a sailfish, a fish that has textured scales that reduce drag, all of the P1’s ducts and creases have textured surfaces to increase airflow, reduce drag and improve cooling. Some car manufacturers are associated with certain animals too: Lamborghini with a bull, Ferrari with their prancing horse, the Ford Mustang with a horse. Lamborghini is known for their futuristic and adventurous styling, often being widely criticized or acclaimed for their designs. Controversial or not, their designs are far from dull. Anurag, what's your favourite Lamborghini?
A: The Lamborghini Gallardo for sure. Pretty much the first Lamborghini I saw. I remember having this Lamborghini Gallardo in Need for Speed: Most Wanted and it blew my mind. Took the second spot in my Top 10 favourite cars in the game, after the BMW M3GTR obviously. Did you know that the first Need for Speed and Need for Speed: Porsche are the only two games in the entire franchise to have realistic simulation, having better driving physics than some of the games we see today.
R: The physics in games are a whole lot better nowadays though. The immersion is much more improved due to realistic graphics and driving experience. Games have gotten so realistic in terms of driving dynamics that even Formula 1 teams use simulators to train their drivers. Simulation racing has become a competitive E-sport with realistic tire wear, fuel consumption and weather conditions.
A: Well you’re not wrong there, saying that it's worse right now would be very wrong. It's pretty amazing how a couple of hot wheels cars brought us this far into the world of cars huh.
R: Regardless of what got Anurag and me into cars, one thing's for sure: we're going to be into cars for a lot longer still.
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