Kanyaboyina Sudhakar

The Mini car Designer

All of us played with tiny toy cars in childhood and rode in small models too. But Mr. Sudhakar of Hyderabad is a little different, as his love for small cars continued well past his adolescence. Sudhakar wanted to transform his love into practice and took up the challenge of making miniature models of cars. 

He also has to his credit a Mini-car museum -A museum of mini-cars and two-wheelers. Sudhakar, has put on display the mini-cars and miniature two-wheelers made by him at a museum .The car museum is an extension of the garage-cum-workshop owned by Sudhakar. Sudhacars Museum is on the Hyderabad-Bangalore highway about 10 kms from the city just before the Zoo Park. It has on display over 90 models of cars and two-wheelers, designed and assembled by him. This has been his hobby since the last 22 years. 

Reckoned to be a specialist in making miniature replicas of vintage, quaint and fascinating models of cars and bicycles, Sudhakar is credited with making mini-cars, which include the 'camera car' shaped like a Nikon F3 camera, vintage models of Rolls Royce series, the shoe car, the brinjal car, the helmet car, the burger car, and the cup-saucer car.  Among the various vintage imitations, its the miniature copy of a 1911 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, which is just seven feet long, that is the most impressive. There are a total of 28 hand-crafted miniature cars on display. Most of the cars are fitted with two-wheeler engines. These single-seater, three-or-four-wheelers are capable of cruising at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour.  He has also designed the world's smallest double-decker as well as one of the smallest trains: a metallic train powered by a 170-cc engine. The 20-inch-high and 19-feet-long miniature train, 'Chanu Express', can carry nine children.  He also wants to create the world's smallest motorcycle. Already, he has made a six-inch-tall motor cycle fitted with a 3.5-cc engine. The smallest motorbike, four inches tall, however, exists in Britain.  Each of the mini-vehicles costs between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000. -MK   June' 2001 More Newsmakers...