In the next instalment of our look at the growing number of Ferrari owners who use their Prancing Horses as daily drivers, we speak to Shabir Nawab, founder of a UK accountancy firm and 296 GTB owner
Shabir Nawab is a lucky man. And he knows it. His speech is endearingly peppered with frequent self-reminders of his own good fortune. In conversation he seems an unlikely Accountant. Warm, selfdeprecating, he is avuncular, with a ready laugh as he explains his enthusiasm for driving his cars every day.
“Every time I start up my Ferrari in the morning, I tell myself ‘Shabir, what a lucky man you are!’”, he says, with some emotion. “I thank God that I have been so successful, that he let me have this car.” His medium-sized Birmingham-based Accountancy firm has an international clientele specialising in Healthcare. “I’ve always liked cars,” he says. His first Ferrari was a Portofino that immediately became an ‘every day drive’. Then came a Roma, which covered some 18,000 miles in its first year, before being reluctantly sold to make way for his current 296 GTB, in which he is seen daily threading through the streets of England’s second city.
Shabir says: "Well, the way I look at it is, if you order a Ferrari, what's the point of just looking at it in your garage and only taking it out at weekends?"
He drives it every day to commute to the office near the Edgbaston Cricket ground. “I go to the supermarket in it, and do the school run. I have no qualms about using it,” he enthuses. The car seating is now personalised with the name of his six-year-old son, Ameer. “He calls it ‘the Ameer car’. Now, he’ll never let me sell it,” says Nawab, laughing uproariously.
The 296 GTB – “2,000 miles in two months” – now vies for city-driving attention with a recently-acquired SF90 Stradale, whilst, he says, “The spaciousness of the 812 GTS is great for when I’m going down the motorway to London.” “Giving back” is a cardinal rule. A ‘Brummie’ for 37 years, Nawab’s origins are in India, by way of Malawi, and his Hafsa Foundation funds orphanages in Bangladesh, schools in India, and food programmes in Madagascar. “You know, I’m guided by what my mother said to me when I became successful: ‘Shabir’, she said, ‘remember, you can’t take it with you’.”
Shabir Nawab's coveted 296 GTB looks resplendent parked outside the Bell Cross pub in Worcestershire, UK. The Accountancy firm founder uses the car as much as he can
But when the local Imam invited him to bring one of his cars to Friday prayers at the mosque he was initially nervous. “I asked if the car would be alright, you know. The Imam said not to worry. He was right.
"I parked it alongside the mosque, there were three hundred people there, they were great. I let them take pictures and we chatted about the car. Later the Imam thanked me. He said ‘Shabir, you are an inspiration for these kids, to show them that they too can achieve things in life. That they can be successful, like you’.”
Nawab commutes every day in his 296 GTB, which has covered 2,000 miles in two months
The mosque visit convinced him that such occasions are all about sharing. “Well, the way I look at it is, if you order a Ferrari what’s the point of just looking at it in your garage and taking it out only at weekends?”
What are the three words that come to mind when he starts her up in the morning? He pauses, tilts his head back and looks up at the ceiling, then responds: “Thank God! That’s only two words, I know, but it’s enough! Thank God.”
This story was taken from Issue 59 of The Official Ferrari Magazine