Gull wing. Swan wings. Scissor doors. Gulp. Three things enough to make anyone who knows a thing or two about cars salivate. The previous decade was a sunset era in the supercar universe. The world saw a lot of lasts as stringent environment and emission norms took over the planet and somehow, it was only big-engine cars that were tearing a hole in the ozone layer and killing the polar bears. The brunt was laid on the ones that built these cars and this triggered a paradigm shift in the form of turbo chargers and, more recently, hybrid tech. All this coupled with the rat race for numbers and track timings, supercars saw a whole evolution in what was expected of them. Somehow the very hardcore Porsche 911 GT3 is now comfortable enough to be driven to office and the top-of-the-line V12 Lamborghini isn’t out to kill you anymore.

Amidst all of this, the 2010s were punctuated with a few cars, many not realizing the importance they would garner going down just a few years. Amongst a handful of them, the Lamborghini Murcielago, Aston Martin DBS and the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG stand out. They stand out for the simple reason that when these cars were launched, they had a well-defined, designated purpose set about to them. It was clear from the get-go that these cars weren’t built to do multiple things well. The Murcielago was built as a balls out supercar with oodles of character and it did essay that role well enough to make the driver sweat right from the turn of the key. The Aston Martin DBS was intended to be a cross country mile muncher, delivering people from one time zone to another in utmost comfort and panache. The DBS was so good at it that James Bond wanted one for himself. Mercedes-Benz decided it was time to pay tribute to the legendary 300SL with a modern rendition and thus the SLS AMG was born. The tribute hit so hard that the SLS AMG became an instant classic. What is very fascinating about this trio is that not one of them is trying too hard to do too many things at once. Aston didn’t sell you a DBS saying you could take your la femme to Hotel du Cap on a Saturday and then hit Spa in the same car on a Sunday. Merc didn't tell you the SLS was as comfortable as their S Class and Lamborghini couldn’t possibly do a full lap on the ‘ring in a Murcie without giving the driver some amlodipine.

All of these three cars are a very rare sight in India. Most of the Murcielagos that made it to India aren’t road-worthy (this one being an exception), four out of the five DBS in India remain in their first ownership (this one included) and it is nothing short of a miracle if you manage to convince someone to let go off their SLS AMG. So when Bren Garage managed to buy a Murcie and an SLS in the last year and a half, we had our tongues hanging out loose! We knew we had to get these three cars together, not only for the plethora of reason discussed above but also because these were the cars from my formative years. These were the cars ripping through the streets of Monaco and London when the supercar scene took to the Internet and was accessible without having to buy a plane ticket. By virtue of that, I grew to develop a deep fondness for these three cars. And to ensure I conveyed to you the same euphoria that I witnessed, our very own camera genius, 5anket, was roped in.

The earliest memory of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG dates back to the epic “Tunnel” advert Merc had made with the legendary Schumacher doing a 360 in the SLS through a tunnel. The SLS was the first modern car built by AMG that wasn’t based on an existing Mercedes-Benz. The task was simple – to make a car fitting enough to be called the modern day 300SL – and boy did they knock it out of the park! A 6.2L naturally aspirated V8 upfront with a mile-long bonnet and a stubby rear made for a very distinct persona that the car world hadn’t seen before. And as if that wasn’t enough, the iconic gull wing doors made a comeback on the SLS. Merc engineers conceived the gull wing doors on the Mercedes-Benz 300SL as a solution to the thick door sill of the car owing to the then revolutionary, race car-inspired, tubular frame construction. In order to make ingress and egress easier, Merc built the car with upward hinged doors which became a design sensation. It was only fitting to bring back the iconic silhouette with the SLS AMG. Fun fact, Merc initially considered fitting an auto close mechanism on the doors so that the passengers don’t have to grab the door down as they sit in the car but the idea was ditched in order to save some precious weight so that the car stays true to it’s Sports Leicht Super name. This particular example that just made its way to Bren Garage is finished in a special shade called Designo Allanite Grey Magno. To our eyes, this shade of silver, although Merc calls it gray, is the closest to the silver that featured on the 300SL. Delivered new to a gent in Delhi almost a decade ago, this car remained shy from public eyes for almost half a decade. The gent in question rarely drove the car and when Mr. Reddy of Bren Garage was offered to procure this prime example of the SLS, he swooped right in! Fitting perfectly with the theme of the garage that is packed with the tastiest of supercars in the most beautiful specifications, this SLS was right at home here. With the car guys’ OCD running deep, Mr. Reddy got right on to working on bringing the car to the condition it was right off the assembly line.

While the SLS AMG took the market by storm, the other part of Europe had something extremely beautiful on offer. Aston Martin pulled the covers off the DBS in 2008 and till date, the car hasn’t aged one bit. I have had the good fortune of devouring a sizeable number of cars with my eyes and all other senses, and I can safely confirm that there isn’t a car as beautiful as the DBS. The DBS came as a one-up of Aston’s hugely successful Grand Tourer, the DB9. The agenda with this one was clear, take the DB9 and better everything that they can on it. Thus came the DBS. The car featured carbon fiber panels and carbon ceramic brakes in the late 2000s, all of which was unheard of. This Aston Martin DBS is a Carbon Black Edition that Mr. Reddy purchased in 2010. Only a handful of these were produced towards the end of the DBS’s production run and the car was characterized by a rich black, metallic paintwork coupled with a carbon fiber front splitter, rear diffuser and wing mirror arms, all with the interior swathed in matte carbon fiber! Powered by a massive 6L naturally aspirated V12 mounted up front, the DBS makes for a fantastically comfortable car. “I love this car!” quips Mr. Reddy as he starts the car to reverse it out of his garage, and I am bent to agree. Under the bright lights of his garage, every little swirl on the paint is accentuated and despite being black, the Aston is so clean that you could eat off it. The way Mr. Reddy has maintained this car, he has somehow managed to keep the interior leather still smelling new through the decade of his ownership. Clean lines, smooth surfaces, taut shoulders, neatly laid out vents in the front bonnet – all of this and more make the DBS an absolute work of art. Park a DBS next to Margot Robbie and you’d still catch me ogling at the DBS.

Coming down to the oldest yet the most striking one in the room – the Murcielago!
Lamborghini practically started the segment we know today called supercars. The Miura is widely regarded as the world’s first supercar and what is interesting is that the same Bizzarrini designed V12 that powered the Miura powers the Murcielago too. Over the decades, the motor saw some major revisions and a steady growth in the engine bore, but the blueprint remained the same. The engine completed its service for Lamborghini with the Murcielago and thus the car is regarded as the last ‘real' Lamborghini by purists. On the outset, one look at the Murcielago is all it takes to realize that this is no ordinary supercar. Sitting low on the ground, wider than anything else you’ve seen, the visual assault is palpable. The steeply raked windscreen blends into both the hood and roof in an almost straight line. The scissor doors open up vertically. Ingress and egress isn’t the easiest task, but that is where the uneasy begins around this car. “I like how difficult this car is. It is what makes the Murcielago a Murcielago” says Mr. Reddy before adding, “Challenge is what makes things fun”. He couldn’t be any more apposite. The Murcielago is a thoroughbred Italian car where ergonomics is the last thing on the agenda. The cabin is tiny, the scissor doors leave little room for one to squeeze themself in and the steering wheel is very oddly angled. This combined with the offset pedals is a sure shot recipe for bum cramps. But this is exactly what makes the Murcielago a purist’s dream. It is what a supercar must be distilled to in order to reach its purest form. Climbing into the car and starting it is a task, getting it rolling needs careful clutch-accelerator actuation and once on the roll, it is very important to learn how the car puts down the power lest you want to find yourself in a bush, sunny side up. “Respect the car and it will keep you alive, one second of shifted focus is enough for it to chew you up and spit you out. It makes my Aventador SVJ seem much more drivable!” says Mr. Reddy when prodded on his driving experiences with the Murcielago. He picked up this example from Delhi late last year. The Murcielago has been on his list since the time he passed on a chance of owning a brand new one in 2008. It remained a long-lasting itch which was finally satiated in 2020 and there couldn’t have been a better example to call Bren Garage home. Finished in Giallo Orion Pearl with a Giallo Taurus leather interior, the combination on this car is classically Lamborghini, typically in-your-face. In all, the Murcielago is that one bad boy that everybody loves. It is loud, it is brash, it is unapologetic. But most of all, it reeks character of that hairy-chested, cigar-smoking, tattooed Italian villain in the form of a car. It is hard to hate a car like this but it also requires absolutely no justification as to why it is so widely loved.

The by-gone decade was an era of great cars and we make that realization every passing day as we see the market getting taken over by cars driven solely by performance figures. The 765LT looks crazy with all that aero work and the Ferrari 296GTB is mega cool with its trick exhaust system making the V6 sound throaty, but none of these cars share the same charisma and mojo of the Lamborghini Murcielago, Aston Martin DBS and the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. With the horsepower game saturating, we really hope manufacturers dial back the clock and focus more on things that matter. A few hours with this trio is enough to understand why most of the older cars end up getting auctioned for multiples of what they cost. 

More than just the car, it is the experience. For purists like us, it is immensely gratifying seeing, cleaning, keeping and running cars like these, which makes it is absolutely heartening to know that enthusiasts like Mr. Reddy exist and keep machines like these up and greased with all the respect that they deserve. People like him are widely known but often underappreciated because beneath all the show and glam of buying cars like his, there goes on some immense time, money and energy to keep them shining inside out. And in a country like India, given the combination of our infrastructure and tax structure, it is extremely difficult to get hold of the right parts at the right time with the right people to fix them. While most think that cutting that fat cheque is what it takes to run cars, in reality that is just the beginning. 

Signing off with tipping the proverbial hat to Mr. Reddy for setting an example, living his passion and inspiring the younger lot in his own ways. Plain gratifying seeing his cars gleam and smell brand new.
 

A big thanks to Bren Garage for being ever so gracious and letting us shoot his shiny metal! And a big shout to 5anket for these wonderful photos. Cannot trust anyone else more than him to help us bring the whole story to life!