A convoy of vintage cars and bikes hit the streets of Bengaluru on January for a polio awareness campaign, ahead of National Immunisation Day on January 31.
Jointly organised by Rotary District 3190 and Karnataka Vintage and Classic Cars Club, the rally had 44 vintage cars, and seven vintage bikes.
Balachandra Yadalam, secretary of the Karnataka Vintage and Classic Car Club, took out two of his cars for the rally – a 1949 Buick and a 1952 Chevy. The cars have been in the family for over seven decades.
The Buick came back to life about 15 years ago and is now one of the few totally original Buicks in India.
“You have to sometimes import the spares and getting them is a challenge. It is expensive to maintain these cars, but they are prized possessions and we wouldn’t trade them for anything,” says Yadalam.
Another such rare car, said to be the only one in the country, is the 1932 Cadillac V8 Town Sedan owned by Vasanth Kumar.
He imported from the USA, and restored it to full functionality in India. He has taken his car out for rallies in support of various causes.
“We had to do test runs for almost a month in advance before the polio awareness rally as sure-handed mechanics for my model are only available in Mumbai and Delhi. Sometimes we send the car there for maintenance and repair,” he says.
Anupama is another car aficionado from Bengaluru. She owns two vintage cars: a 1951 Morris Minor and a 1947 Chevy Fleetmaster.
Her cars have participated in the Dasara procession in Mysuru and she has won the second position in a vintage car race. But all the glory from those vintage wheels comes at a
cost.
The cars call for regular maintenance, and mechanics are not easy to come by. The biggest challenge is to find spares, since these cars have long gone out of production.