Two Keralites scorch European tracks with a pro racing driver

Ashique Thahir, the young Keralite businessman who has hogged headlines for his love for luxury cars, is just steering his way into the hearts of the European audience of a prominent OTT platform. He has in his company a UK-based Malayali and a professional racing driver.

Thahir, along with his friend Deepak Narendran, is featured in ‘Car and Country Rush’, a popular auto/travel show on Amazon Prime UK.

The latest episode of the show features their riveting rush through the alleys of Scotland. They are accompanied by Freddie Hunt, a professional racing driver, and son of legendary James Hunt who is the 1976 F1 World Champion. The show has been rocking the OTT platform for the past one and half months.

The youngsters have covered the bylanes of England, France and Scotland.

Thahir, a businessman from Kozhikode, owns a fleet of sports cars including Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari.

“We not only drive into the inner alleys but have a feel of charming European rural communities, cultures and cuisine from the window of our supercars. That spread is now before the viewers through the OTT platform,” Thahir said, excited to be part of the elite league of ‘Car and Country Rush’.

He said the show is informative, adventurous and entertaining and their stunning journey has been captured by DN Exotics & Tracc Films, London, who present the show on Amazon Prime UK.

“From a travel show, we have now changed gear into adventure travel with Freddie Hunt throwing his passion and speed into the ring,” Thahir said. The new format was launched at a glittering function at The Soho Hotel, London, on October 21, and received a massive positive response from the word go. “The latest episode has seen the UK viewership shooting up four-fold, which shows that the European crowd well accepts it as an entertaining programme,” said Thahir.

Deepak, a native of Muvattupuzha who is now settled in the UK, launched the show in 2014 and Thahir teamed up with him in the later episodes. It emerged from the pangs of the pandemic after a two-year break last month.

“The shoot of the latest episode was challenging. We had to sleep in tents on snowy mountains. We had to do wild river rafting in adverse climate conditions and do off-roading with the car,” Thahir recollected.

The Car and Country team has taken over a production company in the UK, to show that they are serious about the business. “We are sure it will unfold many more new opportunities,” Thahir said.

In its first edition, Car and Country was aired on Fox International and the sponsors of the show were Emirates, Star TV, National Geographic and Star Health. Realising the potential of the show on the online platform, the duo moved the show to Amazon Prime UK for the later episodes.

TV and radio presenter and model Danni Menzies and British actor and TV presenter Lucia Coward were part of the first season, which was telecast over four episodes exploring the charming English countryside in four iconic supercars, McLaren MP4, Mercedes SLS AMG, Lamborghini Aventador LP640 and the Ferrari Italia.

The French leg, sponsored by French Tourism, covered the French Riviera and Alsace. It also zoomed in on an automobile museum with a classic collection of Bugatti cars from across the world at Mulhouse. The vintage cars that propelled this round were 1959 Chevrolet C1, 1989 Ferrari Mondial, 1956 Porsche Speedster and MGA Roadster.