Located in the bustling Bahadurpura neighborhood in Hyderabad is a place that is home to the quirkiest hand-made cars. Colourful walls, sprawling campus, smell of rubber and gas, excited visitors and wacky cars all around define the landscape. If you see a sofa flinging across the lawn or a handbag being wheeled by a human, you know you are at the right place.
Unlike your traditional, sophisticated museums with cars arranged in a set pattern, secured inside barricades or glass showcases, Sudha Cars Museum exudes a very homely vibe. But do not mistake it for anything ordinary, for it exhibits the most unordinary lot of cars ever made. It even houses some builds that have carved a place in the Guinness Book of World Records (GBWR).
What are these wacky, quirky cars like? Let’s put an end to your curiosity.
Imagine a huge hamburger moving around on wheels. Repeat the exercise with a brinjal, a camera, a shoe, a suitcase, a western commode and a computer. Now, take a deep breath, and release.
These are all for real – at the Sudha Cars Museum.
One wacky display at a time
Sudha Cars is the brainchild of K. Sudhakar Yadav, a man in his early 60s, who has converted almost every imaginable everyday object into its wheeled replica. The museum is not your typical collectors’ heaven but a treasure trove of the most outlandish vehicles under one roof – all built in-house. The place displays 57 wacky vehicles – cars, motorbikes and bicycles – the largest such collection in a museum. There are some vintage cars too, including four belonging to the owner’s grandfather, and vintage buses.
As one enters the museum, the first display is a car-seat swing – made out of the rear seats of a small car. A huge green slide sits in the middle of the hall, surrounded by some amusing displays. The museum is intended to be a recreational experience for visitors, especially kids. “Children from about 3,000 schools visit the museum and enjoy the experience. We often give them free rides and demonstrate the vehicle building process to pamper their inquisitive minds,” Sudhakar says.
He even gets suggestions and ideas for his new builds from his petite consultants. “Sometimes they put things in my mind that I may not think of – like a vehicle in the shape of pencil, sharpener, rubber and chocolate.” Some by-products of this creative exchange include bikes in the shape of Christmas tree and fountain pen.
Creation of one man’s passion
Sudhakar’s journey started quite early-on. When other kids his age channeled their inner Gage Green by bringing home cars from the Hot Wheels range, Sudhakar created a bicycle all by himself at 14. The used cheap parts sourced from local junkyards for his creations became his most valued investment. “For most people, their childhood passion fades away gradually but, in my case, it is still going on and I thoroughly enjoy doing it,” a smirky Sudhakar says.
While passion has been his biggest driver, he modestly credits his mentor Babu Khan for fueling his creativity. “He taught me the art of visualizing and designing vehicles in the simplest way. Things like how much power is needed, how the wheels would be placed, how much space is required for occupants,” Sudhakar explains. His parents let him shell out on automobile scrap and junkyard owners acknowledged him as their most revered customer.
After perfecting his cycle and motorbike builds, the ardent man started building vintage cars and buses. “The reason I made plenty of vintage cars is because I love how artistic and detailed they are,” he says. His creative itch didn’t end there; it rather got intense over time. In the 1990s, when a young Sudhakar visited the US, he conceived a game-changing idea on seeing a skating board shaped car. He thought, “Let’s give this a try.”
Cut to three decades later, he has nearly 60 crazy vehicular creations under his belt, and a place to showcase them. But he never planned on opening a museum. One fine day in the 2000, when his creative builds inundated the limited space at his home, he decided to act on a friendly suggestion – a museum to showcase his talent. “I was lucky enough to have land to convert it into one,” he says.
Before the museum came into being, Sudhakar entertained people by rallying his creations on the road, in collaboration with traffic police. A huge lipstick moving on wheels might baffle you at first sight. And this is what happened when people first witnessed his roadshows. They became so popular that thousands of people would assemble to watch these everyday objects dancing on wheels – leading to 18 successful roadshows to date.
Most distinct of the lot
Each vehicle in the museum has a story of its own – unique and moving. An illustrative placard accompanies each displayed vehicle, revealing the time it took to build it and the maximum speed it can attain. But is there one such creation that stands out from the rest? “It’s like asking a mother to choose a favourite between her children!” Sudhakar chuckles. “I’ve worked hard on each of these models and enjoyed creating each one of them.”
Well, the mother of the prodigies won’t tell, but we will.
A 41.7-feet-tall tricycle is one such creation and it holds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records (GBWR) since 1 July 2005 for being the largest in the world. But it wasn’t a cakewalk at all. After tasting failure over 55 times in a period of three years, Sudhakar eventually nailed it. “As interesting as it is, there were a lot of failures in this… (but) the Guinness record kept me going,” the proud record holder says.
One can also find the world’s smallest double decker bus with a maximum capacity of just 10 people and the world’s largest stationary car in the museum – these are yet to get certified though.
Wacky cars for special occasions
Sudhakar’s dream project knows no boundations. From making cars for sheer passion to making cars for social causes – it has come a long way. One such car that gained a lot of fame is the Corona car – a six-wheeled machine shaped like coronavirus. The single-seater car with a 100cc engine has a fiberglass body. It was created in 10 days to spread awareness about the life-engulfing virus.
The trailblazer engineered a cage-shaped car to spread a word against caging birds and a condom-shaped bike to create awareness about AIDS. His helmet shaped car is often borrowed by local traffic police to spread the message of road safety.
A cigarette-shaped bike saw the light of the day in 2009 and was broken into half by the creator in front of the public on ‘No Smoking Day’. The idea was to spread awareness about the hazards of smoking.
Sudhakar also has a Women’s Day cars series consisting of vehicles shaped as stiletto, handbag, lipstick, bride and jewelry – all parked at the museum.
Not a money-making project
Each of these creations takes its own sweet time to take full shape, spanning from a few months to a year or more. “To get the right parts, it sometimes takes even a year. Detailing work takes about five to six months,” Sudhakar says. And yet, his creative passion has never encountered the devil of money-making. “I never planned anything commercially. I’ve never sold any of my creations. The money I make from entrance fees is utilized in maintenance of the museum,” he says. To make a living, he runs a printing business.
Most cars he builds are powered by petrol engines because they are cheap and easily available at junkyards. Some of these slow-speed vehicles even use a 50cc moped engine. Driving them won’t make your heart go racing but they’ll surely leave you awestruck. The engineering maestro hopes to make electric cars too, someday. “It will take some time for EVs to reach junkyards,” he laughingly says.
One with no end in sight
At 60, Sudhakar delves into his passion like there’s no end. “One has to be mad to think about all these things. By the time one project ends, I’ve already started working on two new wacky cars. It is madness and passion,” he remarks in a fiery voice. Expect a pizza-shaped, a house-shaped and a chocolate-shaped car to adorn the halls of his museum pretty soon. What more? He dreams of opening another branch of Sudha Cars Museum in Pune. And in his world, dreams do come true.