When Balvir Singh, an Indian worker in Dubai renewed the ID of his mobile number, little did he know that he would receive rich rewards. This re-registration was in line with the UAE Registration Policy that invited customers of expired ID registration to renew their numbers prior to 31st January 2019 so as to avoid services being cut off.
The customers who did this were automatically entitled to a lucky draw, with the McLaren 570S Spyder as a top prize. Thousands of people automatically participated in this lucky draw, of which Singh was declared as the winner.
Balvir Singh, 31, a native of the state1 of Punjab in India, has been working in a solid surface manufacturing company in Ras Al Khaimah for the past 10 years. He was declared the lucky winner of the contest and did not believe the call announcing his win. He thought it was a prank call. But when they assured him it was not a prank call, he was elated when he learnt that it was true and that he had received a sports car which carried a price tag of Rs.1.5 crores.
However, Balvir is a simple man. He works as a carpenter and obviously struggles to make ends meet. What use would he have for such an expensive sports car? The cost of ownership and maintenance of such a prime model would clearly cost Balvir more than his monthly earnings. Hence, he did the obvious. Shortly after receiving the McLaren 570S Spyder, he sold it off and plans to invest the money in a business back home. He also has other plans of what to do with the rest of the money.
McLaren 570S Spyder is priced at around $211,300 (Rs. 1.47 cr). This cost would double if brought to India. It gets its power via a 3.8 liter twin turbo V8 engine which offers 562 bhp power and 600 Nm torque. It commands a dry weight of 1,359 kgs, can effortlessly accelerate from 0 to 100 kmph in 3.2 seconds and reach a top speed of 328 kmph.
Singh who earns Dh 1,900 (Rs 36k) per month, does not even have a driver’s license. He had not heard of the McLaren 570S Spyder and had to google what the car was. Hence he has sold the car and has sent home an amount of Dh600,000 (Rs 1.13 cr) and plans to buy a ‘nice’ car when he gets back to his home in Bishan Kot, a village in the state of Punjab.
This post was last modified on April 23, 2019 3:01 pm