When you’re reared to be an avid car enthusiast, and you get to spend some surprise time around the car of your fantasies, it’s like winning the lottery and having a dream come true all in one.
That’s exactly how young Wade Syme must have felt when, on his sixth birthday, he got to ride in a Lamborghini Huracan.
Imagine the build-up. You’re a kid, with a dad who is a player on the car scene. So you’ve been to hook-ups, events and been reared in all things to do with cabbies. You’ve also gotten some of the Lambo vibe from your X-Box. Now you get to touch and experience the real thing.
Wade’s dad, Granville “Gboy” Syme, of Atlantis, tells Bobby Nitro: “Wade has an X-Box. In fact, he’s a fanatic, and has been saying that the Huracan is his dream car, and that when he’s big and finished school that’s the car he’s going to get.
“Sure, as his father there have been some definite influences on him. After all, I take him everywhere, to hook-ups, park-offs, and even the racing at Killarney. He loves it all. And he loves the thrill and adrenalin of the off-road stuff we do.”
THRILL: Wade Syme's in sy knoppies. Picture: TPDZ
Granville is one of the drivers who regularly takes people out to the Atlantis dunes for off-road experiences.
He continues: “Wade is curious, always asking me for the names of cars we pass on the road, you could say that a love for vehicles is well and truly in his blood.”
So Granville got an idea, and he contacted the NPO called SPIN (Supporting People in Need), to see if he could get some traction. SPIN is known for hosting outreach projects, as well as for getting involved in one-off activations that, simply put, make someone’s day.
So the ball was rolling, and SPIN contacted Ashraf Karriem and his son, Ameen, of Thornton, to set it all up.
The Lamborghini Huracan, by the way, arrived in 2003 as a replacement for the Gallardo. Sporting an impressive 5.2-litre V10 mid-mounted naturally aspirated powerplant that drives all four wheels, the Lamborghini supplies about 450kW to the road through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. A car like this can do the quarter-mile in just over 10 seconds.
Granville says: “We planned this shoot for a month. What was really interesting, though, was when we set out on the day Wade actually said to me, ‘dad, today we must go in a Lamborghini’.”
The kid had no idea of what was to come, but so powerful is his connection with the marque that he just knew.
Granville continues: “We went for a drive and breakfast, which is something we do as a family regularly on the weekend. Then we drove out to Thornton and straight up to the Karriem family garage. As we arrived and Wade saw the Huracan, he could hardly believe what he was seeing. The look on his face was priceless.”
Picture: TPDZ
So Wade got to admire his dream car up close, and to add to the thrill, he got to go for a spin in it, as Ameen took him for a lekker drive.
Wade will be telling his grandchildren about this day.
Granville says: “A big thank you to the Karriem family and Outsourcing Solutions for their participation, as well as to SPIN, for this amazing unforgettable experience for my son.”