To most of you, this may smack of twisted thinking, but let me tell you that I find the sight of old junk cars absolutely heart-warming.
Here are the reasons. There are two possible acts of defiance against Father Time. One, looking well-preserved. Two, looking rundown, but keeping alive the promise of restoration. This applies as much to cars as to people.
Even an antique car that is as mobile as a mountain, tends to symbolise hope if it ‘just stays on’. There is the possibility that a restorer’s touch would make it whole again, someday. Sometimes, the expected restorer never turns up, but there is hope still. For, an old car can become art and transcend time forever.
Balraj Vasudevan, collector of antique cars and president of Madras Heritage Motoring Club, recalls an encounter he had a few years ago with two non-running cars, one vintage and the other classic. He had chanced upon these machines at a shipping warehouse close to the Chennai Port. Weather-beaten and rust-ridden, they however looked captivating. When Balraj checked with the owners if he could buy these cars, they refused point-blank and shut the door decisively on the possibility of negotiations in the future.
The funniest part of it: the owners had no intention of restoring the cars. Nor did they have any intention of ever selling it. The cars would stay on at the warehouse, as curios. In various parts of the world, there have been cases of such cars being used as showpieces. Shells of these cars make for an arresting display in gardens. Balraj has a friend in the United States who has turned a shell of an old Rolls Royce into a bar.
Here in Chennai, C.S. Ananth, collector and restorer of antique cars, has met people who have expressed an interest in having such shells displayed at their homes and offices. However, the shells of these cars can be prohibitively priced and Ananth is yet to come across a person who actually carried intention through to action. A cost-effective alternative would be using smaller and relatively less expensive parts of veteran cars. Such automotive parts define the décor at Ananth’s office. The display includes a Morris Minor engine that has been painted in blue, a wooden spoke wheel, a steering wheel, a horn bar, a tail-light housing and a hubcap. While I enjoy such exhibitions of vintage metal, the ones I have enjoyed the most have almost always had minimum human involvement. I am not alone.
Part of the charm of Old Car City, a sprawling classic cars junkyard in the United States, is about what nature can do to unattended old cars. Visitors flock to the junkyard to see cars that have been left to themselves for decades. Recently, the Associated Press put out some stunning images from Old Car City, which included trees growing right through cars, sometimes lifting them off the ground They looked nice, in a twisted way.
