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| Moroosha Govender, mascot of the Cruise Control club, was one of a sprinkling of female spectators at the 2012 Cars in the Park in Pietermaritzburg over the weekend. |
SPECTATORS at the annual Cars in the Park often wonder why the
fanatics put in so much effort to restore old rust buckets to their shiny glory.
The answer is that the effort is not about the car. As the Facebook option for
describing relationships states: “It’s complicated”.
For the McCullough clan with their hand-built caravans, it is both
about creating an excuse as well as a means to travel. Dad Wayne (49) told The Witness the family has been down to Cape Town and up to the
Kruger National Park with the old caravans. Wherever they set up camp with their
1958-model MG A coupé towing a tiny 1946 “modernistic” caravan, inquisitive
visitors arrive within minutes.
“Retro is definitely back,” said Wayne, and his teenage son, David
(13), agreed.
Wayne is also restoring a double-decker bus that last year added
festive Christmas cheer to the Cascades shopping centre in Pietermaritzburg.
People don’t believe him when he tells them the old red bus still drives.
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| A 958-model MG A coupé towing a tiny 1946 “modernistic” caravan |
For Shilton Mathullal (20) it is about keeping busy and having fun.
He told The Witness that his Austin Mini Mk III took two years to
restore and should he ever decide to sell it, he hopes to fetch the same record
price that was reported in the paper for one of the first minis.
Another mini fan and former front-pager in SA’s oldest paper,
Mergan Naidoo (27), is still turning heads with his beautifully pimped-out
Austin. He has lost count of the prizes the mini has won, but is philosophical
about it. As the body paint states: “Where money flows, the puzzler goes”.
For Collien Sucks, it’s about taking the family out in style and
Cody (4) certainly enjoyed a candy apple in Dad’s 1971 Pontiac Firebird.
For the Kistensamy clan, who are members of the Cruise Control club
from Mountain Rise, the effort to restore veteran cars boils down to the
three-letter word “fun”, which consists of friends, humour and good food — as
the city’s mayor experienced when he shared an informal lunch with the
club.
But it is not about showing off at the expense of others, as a
veteran car driver who dared to spin up a little cloud off dust quickly found
out.
“Our next convoy of some 40 cars will be driving to Chatsworth on
June 10. All members welcome,” said the Kistensamys.
