A love for vintage cars and bikes runs in K Naveen’s blood. He fondly recalls how he grew up watching his father and grandfather get their hands on these beauties. “My father had a 1933 Austin 7 while my grandfather had the 1952 BSA Banthom bike. Slowly, my love for these machines just grew and I also got into the automobile line,” says the businessman.
Today, he owns a number of beautiful vintage cars like 1947 Ford V8 Super Deluxe and 1936 Morris Twodoor apart from the Austin that he cherishes in his late father’s memory. “It belonged to the Maharaja of Mysore, who gifted it to his family doctor on Govindappa Road near Basavanagudi and my father got it from him,” he recalls. The dark green beauty shines resplendantly till date.
Coming to the Ford V8 Mercury, the red machine is sure to catch everyone’s attention. It was the first vintage car that Naveen added to the collection a few years back.
The Morris Twodoor has a sunroof like many vehicles of today. “However, unlike the sunroof on the cars of these days which can be operated electrically, this has to be opened and closed manually,” he explains.
Over the years, Naveen has had many other cars in the collection. “I had a Fiat Elegant, Herald and Standard 10 but sold all of these,” he informs. In addition, he also has a 1935 Ford Tourer, which is an open top vehicle and 1957 Bedford among many others.
His passion for bikes is no less as he has many Jawas, Road Kings and even scooters like 1960 Enfield Fantabulous and 1980 RD Runabout.
Just like the vintage cars, he waited patiently for many years to get some of the bikes too. “I was crazy about the 1947 CZ and followed it up for almost ten years. In fact, an old person used to own it and whenever I would go near his house, he would
tell me to go away and not come near it as he wasn’t planning on selling it,” he laughs.
Getting the RD 350 wasn’t easy either. “It belonged to a man named Fernandez, who I met at a signal accidentally. I took down his number and kept calling him. He used to get irritated and tell me, ‘You can take the car after my death from my wife!’ But one day, he just called me and asked me to take it as he wasn’t using it anymore,” he says.
Ask him how he manages to maintain many of these and he says, “It’s a really difficult hobby. One has to have a lotof time and patience as you have to keep changing the
batteries.”
Space can also be a constraint at times. “Parking is a problem but somehow I have managed to store them so far,” he says. Though he loves taking them out for a drive whenever possible, there is always the possibility of them breaking down. “But my advice to all vintage car owners in such a scenario is to not panic. We all know 20-30 per cent of the mechanics anyway,” he says.
Despite the challenges, there is something about these cars and bikes that keeps attracting Naveen to them. “I don’t know what it is about them. I just keep collecting them,” he quips. Even his family — wife Rekha and children Gaurav and Vainavi — cherish his collection. “Though my son is too young to be involved in collecting the cars, he always advises me. Many a time when I am planning to sell a particular car, he is the first one to advice me against it,” he signs off.