S M Ong: No, Gurmit Singh wasn’t driving his Lambo when he was caught speeding

Well, in the Get Your Shot, Steady Pom Pi Pi video, he did say "faster go and vaccinate".

But perhaps not 131kmh fast.

Yes, that was the speed Gurmit Singh was caught driving at on that fateful April 12 night along Woodlands Avenue 12.

Fastest in Singapore and JB, and some say Batam?

He was fined $800 last week and banned from driving for three months.

Singh apologised on Instagram for what he did and said: "I hope to do better."

If he was speeding, he must have been driving his Lamborghini, right?

After all, if the man who plays Phua Chu Kang is famous for anything else besides playing Phua Chu Kang, it is owning a Lambo.

It is like Ann Kok and that iconic see-through top she wore at the 1996 Star Awards. People still talk about it. The Lambo is Singh's see-through top.

It all kind of started in July 2011 when The New Paper reported: "After a local magazine published in May a picture of his Lamborghini Gallardo that he bought last December, he has been called 'arrogant', even by a friend."

Singh told TNP: "I was very saddened by that remark… I don't like to be seen as pushing it in your face like, 'Oh, look at how successful I am.'"

He later explained to another publication: "Once I got (the car), I started sharing with a few friends and by the time I shared with my sixth or seventh friend, one person said, 'So show-off.'

"I went, 'No, I'm just sharing happy news, I want you to be happy for me that this guy from a poor Punjabi family who slept on the floor for all his life now drives a Lamborghini.'"

HEAR THAT ROAR

In 2017, a CNA reporter interviewed Singh and wrote: "This is when I decide to discuss the Lamborghini, a car he owned a few years ago when Mediacorp was still at Caldecott Hill.

"My newsroom used to be close to the open-air carpark and the roar of the engine signalling his comings and goings would penetrate the walls. Publicly, he was called a show-off."

Singh told the reporter: "I know you guys in the compound could hear the Lamborghini. I didn't do it on purpose. It's just how the engine is. I wasn't trying to show off. I wasn't pressing the accelerator."

More recently in 2019, during the Not Again Podcast with Gary Tan , Singh raved about the Italian supercar to the interviewer: "It was great having a Lamborghini for two years. I drove it every day. It's my favourite car of all time."

He reminisced about how he first fell in lust with the vehicle: "When I was a little boy, I watched Tom Selleck in Magnum PI. And he would drive a Ferrari. I said, 'What a great car!'

"So fast forward, when I was able to rent a Ferrari for the weekend, I drove it. I was so happy… I couldn't afford one yet. So I thought I'd rent it."

Then he spotted a Lambo.

"Oh, there's a Lamborghini as well. So I went to rent a Lamborghini. I tell you, when I sat in a Lamborghini, without even turning the engine on first, I already felt it was way better than Ferrari. It felt like a jet. I felt like Batman.

"And when I turned on the engine and sat that low, and I drove it with that low throttle sound - my goodness, my hair all stood up. Hair that I didn't know I had all came up and said, 'Hello! Hello!' Hallelujah."

He may have just described what is called a cargasm.

Also in 2019, he told 8 Days: "Till this day, I'm still missing my Lamborghini!"

But he can no longer afford one after an "epic reduction in salary" when he ended his full-time contract with Mediacorp in 2014 after 20 years.

So if Singh was not driving his Lambo, what car was he caught speeding in?

According to The Straits Times, he was "believed to be" driving an Audi A8 L.

Sure, apart from the "flapping sound" Singh claimed the car made, the Audi luxury sedan is okay.

But it is no Batmobile like the Lambo.

Who knows? If he makes many more of those Covid-19 videos for our Government as the pandemic drags on, he may be able to afford the Bull again.

Hallelujah.