This Ganesha is a crowd puller

As the city gears up to celebrate Ganesha festival, an idol of the deity, made by car designer K Sudhakar from automobile parts, is being touted as a major attraction.

Sudhakar has put together gears, rings, chains, clutch plates, petrol tank, shock absorbers, headlights, wheels, silencer pipe and bearings to erect the six-and-a-half foot tall idol.

Mounted on a mechanised mouse, the idol’s head is made of headlamps, wheel and gears, while Sudhakar has used bearings for the eyes and bolts for tusks. The trunk is made of a silencer pipe, while the midriff is the petrol tank of a motor cycle. The hands are made of silencer pipes and springs and the legs of shock absorbers, while the garland is a motorcycle chain.  

The idol has been put on display at the Sudha Cars Museum, the first and only handmade “Wacky Car” museum in the world, near the Nehru Zoological Park here. The initiative is a brainchild of Sudhakar, who had entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the maker of the world’s largest tri-cycle.

Sudhakar has designed about 150 cars, like “Go Karts,” “Dune Buggies,” “Wacky Cars,” “Brinjal Car,” “Camera Car,” “Cricket Ball Car,” “Shivling Car,” “Cup & Saucer Car,” “Helmet Car,” “Computer Car,” “Double Bed Car,” “Football Car,” and the list goes on.
He has recreated cars and bus models popular in the early 20th century, besides 30 different models of cycles, including the smallest bicycle in India, around six inches high.

Sudhakar has also done his bit to promote awareness on AIDS by making a motor cycle in the shape of a condom. He also made a “Cricket Ball Car” to cheer the Indian cricket team for the 2003 World Cup and a “Football Car” to commemorate the 2006 Football World Cup, held at Germany.

His creations are mostly made out of scrap. Sudhakar has given live demonstration of these vehicles to mark the traffic safety week at Tank Bund and Necklace Road in the city, for five consecutive years.

At present, he is designing an animal park, which would have life-size mechanised walking animals. Prototypes of an elephant and a wild boar has already been developed.