Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
MAN AND MACHINE
A car for a bearing
PRINCE FREDERICK
|
Looking for a bearing for a ball-mill, K.S. Subramaniam discovered a 1956 Fiat Elegant
|
GIFTS FROM SERENDIP There is a pattern to how K. S. Subramaniam (with his grandson Akshay) gets his cars. They come his way when he is not looking for them
In a strange case of serendipity, K.S. Subramaniam stumbled upon a run-down six-cylinder Erskine (a 1920s product from Studebaker) while visiting a temple at Tirunelveli in 1985. The owner was only too happy to get rid of the car for Rs. 500. Subrama
niam restored the Erskine, but did not hold on to it for long. “Vinoo Mammen lost all respect for me when I told him I had sold an Erskine. He thinks it is the most mindless thing anyone can do. I agree with him – totally!”
Grabbing a 1956 Elegant (one of the variants of the Fiat 1100) found under almost similar circumstances can’t really make up for that mindless act, but it has helped Subramaniam get over it. Last year, he chanced upon this Elegant in Tirunelveli while hunting for a bearing for a ball-mill. He bought the 1100cc Fiat for Rs. 18,000 and brought it up to snuff by spending Rs. 23,000 more. A big chunk of the expenditure went towards strengthening the suspension and painting the car.
He located Elegant’s unique speedometer set — a band travelling over a marked strip to indicate speed — at a used automobile spares market in Tirunelveli. He procured the yellow light that is in the centre of the grille at the same market.
After restoring the Elegant, a Millicento came came. Picked up in Bangalore six months ago, this car is now parked next to the Elegant in Subramaniam’s Kotturpuram residence. As the two cars share the same platform, he has named them Angavai and Sangavai.
No, he was not inspired by the scene in ‘Sivaji: The Boss’ where Solomon Papaya plays father to two girls with the names Angavai and Sangavai. “I had Parivallal’s (well-known historical figure and philanthrophist) daughters Angavai and Sangavai in mind.”
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
