Be it in the launch of new cars, in the sighting of a super car, in the opening of an automobile showroom, in rising demand for car accessories, in the field of car modifications, in the lists of car dealerships, the city is a frontrunner. Kochi rates high in the glamorous world of automobiles. Despite such affinity with the world of wheels, the city has over the years seen a decline in its bevy of vintage cars it once possessed. The KL registration show stoppers have become a rarity. “It was not so; there were many families and passionate car owners who possessed these beauties in considerable numbers,” says Suresh Krishnan who three years ago started Flamingo Motors, an interesting garage-cum-workshop in Kumbalam that restores vintage cars, apart from car modifications and detailing.
This one-of-its-kind, exclusive workshop for old clunkers and bikes came about when Suresh, a mechanical engineer and a car buff, and found to his surprise a market for restoration of old cars. “Though we do car detailing and modifications we have made a niche for ourselves in vintage car restoration,” he says.
Kerala once boasted possessing some rare beauties, especially in the stables of the royal families and discerning automobile lovers, but the lack of a specialised workshop, garage or persons to restore and maintain them led to the vehicles being sold to keen collectors from North India. As a result the State has only a few such cars left with the devoted. Being a collector of these beauties Suresh is emotionally attached to the world of these graceful machines. He inherited this passion from his father P. Krishnan Nair who worked with Tata Motors. “He was an authority on Mercedes Benz. He is my guru,” he says.
Learning the trade from his father, he recalls one of the first tasks assigned to him, of reassembling the Fiat Millicento 1955 after his father had dismantled the machine bit by bit and painted it. He was just a young man out of school then and possibly it was at the time when the dream to begin such a venture took shape.
For him vintage car restoration is an expert art. Assisted in the job by nine technical assistants the toughest aspect is procuring the original parts of the machine. The challenge lies also in updating some machines, like the Fiat Topolino with a highly underpowered 500 CC engine. Like all pre-1952 cars with side valve engines and no water pump, such machines are highly unusable for hotter climes like ours. “Hence, restoration here means adding a water pump,” he says. With advancing car mechanics he has to meet the challenges of phased out techniques like the placement of a gear shift lever on the dashboard as in his Renault R4 or a Citroen, but these are the things that make any automobile enthusiast tick. Being a job that requires a sensitive approach Suresh discusses step-by-step restoration with his clients, most of who are die-hard fans of the machine and understand the intricacies involved. Some customers insist on the original replacement of parts, which means importing them. “It is an expensive and time-consuming affair,” he says. His obsession finds him working on these rare machines himself, late into night, after the day is done. The first thing he does to begin with is to acquire the catalogue, the owner’s manual and the workshop manual. Many are in different languages, and so he painstakingly translates and studies them to understand the mechanics perfectly.
“My main aim is to encourage people to preserve these cars and we are ready with all technical and social know how required to nurture them.”
For this purpose he, along with a few city-based enthusiasts, began the Cochin Vintage Club in 2014 to great response, something that surprised him. His own collection of rare cars like Fiat Millicento 1955, Herald 1968, Fiat Topolino 500C, 1954, Fiat Topolino 500A 1947; Austin Type 65, 1942 and bikes like Enfield Fantabulus 1966, BSA C10L 1954, Matchless 1954, Rajdoot ‘Bobby’ and the Suvega, to name a few, is a show piece worth a view.
Another of his dreams is to open a vintage car museum where the Buicks, Cadillacs, Impalas…those rare head turners that have ridden the roads of history will be cherished to carry on their journey onward, forward.
