BENGALURU: Dr Ravi Prakash possesses cars that date back to 1800s. Including the first car invented. He possesses some of the few originals left in the world.Located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, lies an automotive heritage owned by Dr Ravi Prakash. The car-enthusiast was a former cardiothoracic surgeon who has turned his collection of cars into a lifelong passion project.
His passion to restore vintage cars has led to the preservation and restoration of these cars in his farm that spans 14- and-a-half acres, it contains five garages within it. These cars date back to the 1800s and have been collected by him over a period of 40 years.Dr Ravi Prakash is a three-time national and racing champion between 1981-1984. He has been able to carry forth his passion to this extent with a lot of support from his family members that consists of his wife and two daughters. Here is an excerpt from the conversation we had with his daughter Rupali.
How do you maintain the cars? How often do you drive them?
We have a team of mechanics, carpenters and painters who help restore and maintain them. We drive them for a lot of rallies, we drive them out of station- we have even driven them to Mysore, Goa, Mangalore, Coonoor, we practically drive them everywhere.
Do you or your father have any favourites?
I don’t think we have any favourites but there are a lot of iconic cars that my father has collected. One is the 1915’s Model Chief Ford, then he has Motilal Nehru’s 1928 Lanchester and he also has some of the few originals left in the world which includes the first gasoline-powered vehicle; Benz Patent Motor Car 1886, which is basically the first car. There are also a lot of Maharaja owned cars in his possession.
Do you have any fond memories associated with any cars?
We’ve grown up with the cars. We have been taking around the cars for rallies everywhere and we live in a farm where the cars are restored so we get to spend a lot of time restoring the cars.
We have travelled a lot outside as well. We have taken them to California, driven them around Paris for the Paris car rallies. So there are a lot of memories because we have all been in this together and have all been very supportive of it. Now we also give traffic car experiences, the main aim of it is to get more people to be aware of it so that we can help preserve and protect in the future.
We also give traffic car experiences where let people ride around in these cars on special occasions.
(Text by Tania Thomas)
Pics: Vinod Kumar T