Love for vintage cars made Ranjit realise his life’s dream

Tucked away from the busy streets of Kotturpuram is a beautiful property owned by Ranjit Pratap, an entrepreneur. Well-known for his love for vintage cars, Ranjit has 10,000 square feet of garage space housing 40 classic cars. His vehicles won maximum awards at the recently concluded Chennai Heritage Auto Show this year. In a candid chat with DTNext, the avid collector opens up about his love for classic cars and how he became so passionate about restoring antique models.

His grandfather, MR Rajagopal Naidu, was an automobile dealer between 1920-40 and ran a business of importing cars for the local market. “He used to bring many fancy cars home and it fascinated me. I was  exposed to vintage rides very early in life. I inherited my love for cars from my grandfather,” Ranjit starts the conversation and takes us around his sprawling garage that houses  a Ford Mustang, an Austin Cambridge, 1967 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II, 1968 Mercedes Benz 250 SE and an MG TD. All his cars teach us a thing or two about technology from the 1930s to 1980s. It’s not just the history of these vehicles that attracted Ranjit, but they also defined his childhood and youth. “It reminds me of my childhood days — going to school and college in fancy vintage cars, offering rides to my friends, sharing stories about cars, etc. Those were the best of times,” he sighs.

Talking about how he developed the passion for car collection, Ranjit says, “My business commitments kept me busy for many years. In 2003, my friend invited me to check out his garage. He has a huge collection of vintage cars and I was bitten by the collector’s bug after seeing them. From then on, I started collecting as many classic cars as I could — I was on a buying spree and it took me six years to completely set up my garage!”

If one is passionate about something, then he/she is more than willing to take risks and that’s what Ranjit also did. He started researching about how to preserve and restore vintage cars. “You should understand the art and craft of vehicle restoration. Thanks to the Internet and like-minded vintage car enthusiasts across the world, I’ve gained ample knowledge about the cars and the wide network made the process of restoration easy. We all depend on each other because old cars need regular maintenance. I do a complete restoration of antique cars at the two workshops that I’ve built near the garage,” explains Ranjit.

Restoration of an out-of-production car is a difficult task and most of the time, sourcing materials is like a treasure hunt, says Ranjit. “It’s definitely a time-consuming process and you need to have bucket-loads of patience. Daily, I inspect the cars that are in the workshops for restoration and give instructions to the mechanics (thankfully, I’ve got dedicated mechanics and drivers who take care of these four-wheelers on a daily basis). It took around four years to restore a rundown 1968 Mercedes Benz 250 SE because I had to source majority of the spares from overseas. It’s a challenge to repair and upkeep them, considering most of the parts are out of production.”

“Every car is precious to me, but Ford Model T would remain my favourite. The technique of driving a Model T has almost become a lost art,” he smiles.  Ranjit spends an hour with the cars daily before heading out to work. “I even take them for a spin on ECR on all Sundays; it’s a great stress-buster.  I have plans to build a car museum in the future,” he sums up.