Imagine a condom you can ride. Now get your minds out of the gutter and picture a car, shaped exactly like a condom that you can actually sit in and drive down the streets of your city. K. Sudhakar from Hyderabad goes well beyond picturing the intricacies and nuances of what such a car might look like, and goes straight into how it would be conceptualised, engineered, and designed until it’s a bonafide reality. And no, it doesn’t end with condom outfitted cars, he’s got plenty more where that four-wheeled creativity came from and we’re fairly certain his ‘Wacky Car Museum’ will be at the top of your Hyderabadi bucket list by the time you’re through reading this article.
For over 30 years, his life’s work stands as testament to the fact art doesn’t have to be confined to a sheet of paper. From a very young age, K. Sudhakar had been fascinated by the workings of a car and would spend hours at roadside mechanics learning the nuances of engineering a car. Since he didn’t have enough money to buy the parts, he decided to visit the local junkyard to collect scrap material from the cars lying there and set to work himself. The teenaged obsession saw him designing his first vehicle as early as 14 years old, while most of his other friends were (presumably) partaking in more common activities. Motivated by what he could accomplish, he pushed ahead to continue what he started and a year later, he had his first “Easy Rider Motorbike,” right in front of him.
From small objects and vintage cars, it wasn’t long before he upped his game and began designing single and double-decker buses for the purpose of private and public tourism but it was only in 1991, during a promotional car event, that the idea of quirky cars first came to him. Ever since, he’s been drawing inspiration from almost anything and everything, allowing him to manufacture over 500 outlandish vehicle designs right from 500 types of cars to 50 kinds of bicycles and 12 types of motorcycles. He is a holder of a Guinness World Record (for making the largest tricycle in the world) and received a mention in the Limca Book of Records (for creating the smallest double-decker bus in the world) and, of course, Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Finally, presumably because he didn’t have any more garage space to store his hobby-turned-profession, he set up a museum in order to showcase his artwork. And thus, the Sudha Car Museum located in Hyderabad, was born.
The world’s first and only hand-made wacky car museum that allows its visitors to see some of the most innovative vehicles they’re likely to ever see right from the ‘Shivalinga’ car, a snooker table car, a brinjal car, and the three-wheel motorcycles. Currently, he is planning to channel his eccentricities into creating an Animal Park, where he can create life-sized, mechanised animals that move about on their own. Considering how much controversy there has been around modern day zoos and their cruelty to animals, we’re definitely encouraging this crazy dream.
Back to Sudhakar and his wacky cars, however. It’s interesting to note that this was and will always be purely a passion project for him, which is why even though it costs around £1,000 to £1,500 to make a single car, he refuses to sell any of them. Designing and manufacturing its physical manifestation can take from 20 days up to three years, depending on the detailing of the particular model. Now, if all this doesn’t sound wacky to you, try this bit of information on for size--every single one of his designs is road legal. Now picture us driving away in a loo. Yes, he’s made one of those too.
[If you’re ever in Hyderabad, make it a point to visit this one-of-a-kind museum at 19-5-15/1/D, Bahadurpura X-Road, Near Zoo Park, Hyderabad - 64, Andhra Pradesh. And If traveling to the South is not possible for you at the moment, all you need to do is make a trip to Essel World where one of his double-decker buses have been showcased.]