An Indian driver called Samir and his nagging copilot made for one of the most amusing videos of 2013. Lines like "concentrate Samir, please!, and "Samir, you're going to wreck the car" will forever be etched into common car culture.
Have you ever wondered whatever happened to good old Samir? I did, and decided to do a bit of investigating. Turns out he's not the worst driver in the world, far from it in fact.
The guy's full name is Samir Thapar and he's not a rookie. His Indian Rally Championship debut was way back in 1992, so well over two decades ago. Last year, he already had 6 victories to his credit and in 2013 he came 3rd overall in the INRC.
A physical injury and time taken for work meant Samir couldn't do what he loved any more. 2013 was actually the year he made his return in that red Evo X, which is probably why he was so rusty.
We've gathered a few videos of Samir in action from last summer. The guy isn't an Indian Colin McRae, but his bag of talent is full enough for quite a few rally victories in 2014.
So, care to guess what kept Sammy away from the track? According to Wikipedia, he's the successor of a very large company called Thapar Group. Apparently, he even runs a pro football club.
The original video was fake
And get this, in August 2013, a man named Yohan Chetna was arrested by the Indian police. Allegedly, Samir had posted a 40 minute long video on Youtube, which was edited with "malicious intent."
The career of copilot Vivek Ponnusamy, who had 22 years of experience, was damaged in the process, as he lost a major contract to participate in an international event held in Australia.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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