Passed on for generations

Vintage pride

As an eight-year-old boy, he would often imagine driving a car. He would make his siblings rotate the wheels of the car while he moved the steering wheel. Today, a passionate collector of antique automobiles, Prithvi Ganapathy is a retired agricultural business manager who has had the pride of owning many vintage and classic cars. An adorer of machines, he currently owns the vintage and classic cars — Plymouth PB 7 Passenger Sedan and Dodge Kingsway respectively.

“My grandfather Subbaiah was one of the first people to buy a car in the Coorg district. He had a 1925 Dodge back then. This had to be sold during the Great Depression of the 1930s. But he always had a great passion for cars and I grew up to inherit that passion,” says Prithvi Ganapathy.
 His first classic car was a 1955 Studebaker, a large American car that he acquired while working in a tea estate. This car was mostly driven by his wife Kavery in Coorg.

“My father was known as the husband of the lady who drove a Studebaker,” says Subbaiah, son of Prithvi, smilingly. After this royal machine came Citroen, Morris and Austins.
Prithvi regularly changes and upgrades his antique beauties. “If I had the money and space, I would have definitely kept all of them. But since that’s not the case, I prefer to own a few good cars.

Every time there is a better car, I wish to buy it after selling one from my collection,” says Prithvi. Subbaiah simultaneously adds, “When you are a passionate collector, you look at the nuances of the car and see the hierarchy and body styles. There is nothing wrong in selling a car to get a better one.”

The classic beast of the 1952, the Dodge Kingsway was a car owned by his ex-boss that Prithvi found in 2011. A convertible coupe, it stands bright in blue with the steering on the left side. A gas guzzler, this royal machine was restored after all its parts were imported from the USA. Sripathi, a family friend who is also an expert of vintage machines, helped him restore the car.

The Plymouth on the other hand is the rarest of the vintage automobiles as it is one of the only three existing models of 1932. “This is the only right hand driving 7 seater Plymouth of the 1932 model. There are two more of the same model in New York but both are left hand drives,” says Prithvi. A legendary car, this has a hydraulic brake, a pilot ray light (that turns along the wheels), the original United Province of British India number retained in the front number plate and an open grilled carrier at its rear. A seven seater, this used to be a family car in the olden days.

“We are the second owners of this car. This was earlier owned by one of the liquor barrens of Ballari. We were fortunate to get hold of this in 2009,” says Subbaiah.  This car was untouched for over 30 years. But the dry weather of Ballari helped it stay without rusting and it was restored to its original beauty.

   A tough hobby to maintain, Prithvi says, “One should know the ‘whims and fancies’ of these cars! They have their own ‘eccentricities’.”

    One of the founder members and former president of the Karnataka Vintage and Classic Car Club, he has taken part in various rallies. “We go for rallies and take the cars out usually early in the morning as attention is a bit of a problem,” he says.

Owning two of the rarest beauties, he says he would still look forward to upgrading these cars with the other vintage cars, which have higher antique value. “I have many dream cars that I want to own but the goddess has to shower the money for them,” he jokes as he wraps up.