The Hindu Business Line : Romancing cars

Professional photographer, committed environmentalist, marketing expert, nature lover... .. Puneiite Farah Vakil is a woman of many dimensions who juggles the different hats she wears with a rare grace. But ask her what gives her the greatest pleasure and the answer is an unequivocal, "I love getting behind the wheel of my car and taking off into the lap of nature with my dog for company. Nothing else sends the adrenalin surging through my veins than controlling a car and taking off into the great outdoors", she says.

Farah's love for speed and wheels is not surprising if you consider that she is the daughter of former motorcycle racer Zaheer Vakil who is now one of the country's best-known collectors and restorer of vintage and classic cars.

Farah points out that the love for cars goes back much earlier in her family and is firmly entrenched in her genes. "My grandmother had a passion for cars and all things mechanical. In those days when it was unthinkable for a woman to be seen doing anything so scandalous as driving on her own, she would be seen in boots and hat, astride a motorcycle that was equipped with an external handbrake and kerosene lamp!"

Today the granddaughter is convinced that when she discovered her passion for cars and set out on her journey to become one of the best known names in the country's racing circuits, her grandmother, now all of 96 was very pleased since this was a pleasure she was denied when she was young.

So how did it begin, this passionate affair with cars that had the lady conquering every hurdle that came in her way and chartering unknown and hostile terrains in the Himalayas? Simple, says Farah.

"I grew up watching my father tinkering with his collection of cars and spent hours at his side while he took things apart in some of the world's best cars and put them back together to give them a new life. Father's collection of cars at that point included a 1928 two-seater Ford Model A and a 1923 Bentley Le Mans 3-litre convertible. My first vintage car event was in 1974 at Mumbai, when at the age of nine I accompanied my father, who was at the wheel of a Bentley, on a rally in the streets of Mumbai. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine as a child that just two decades later that event would become part of an annual exercise in my life and something that I would look forward to with as much excitement and longing that my father did".

The Vakils, however, never expected that the daughter would follow in the steps of her racing enthusiast father and make a professional career out of it. The lady's tryst with rallying was unplanned and actually began with her father bringing her an advertisement announcing the Goodyear Women's Car rally and egging her on to join, just for a lark.

With a Maruti 800 that her father helped her modify, Farah took part in the Mumbai-Panchgani run and came in fourth despite making a number of mistakes. That was just the beginning and it was not long before her name was a regular in all the races in the Juhu Circuit events that had till then only acknowledged names like Nisha Sutaria and Navaz Bathena. As motor sport became popular in the country the players slowly became well-known figures but the high-point in her career was in December 1989 when she entered the prestigious Rally d' Endurance and drove away with the honour of becoming a member of the first all-woman team that won the open event.

That opened the floodgates of opportunity for the woman who had by then come into her own as a rallyist-racing expert. Now she began setting her eyes on bigger targets.

"Rallying in India is a difficult job because there is not too much money if you want to make it your career, sponsorships are hard to come by and there are not too many rallies. But I always played the game on my terms and roughed it out in what is essentially a man's world".

Walking away with the honours in the 1990 Himalayan Rally was one of her wildest dreams come true.

Accompanied by navigator Renuka Lalwani, also the daughter of a former rallyist, the duo braved the strenuous route on unchartered territory, which is a nightmare even for experienced rallyists, to win the Coupe des Dames award for the best all-woman crew. But for this they had to go through experiences like being pelted with stones by villagers at a remote village in the Himalayas, who probably did not like the idea of women getting behind the wheels of a car and driving around unescorted!

In addition, the two women had to cope with a host of problems including transmission and fuel pump trouble and failure of navigational equipment.

Farah hung up her racing and rallyist boots after seven years, but says there are times she still hungers for the wide open spaces, the upsurge in adrenalin as she steps on the accelerator and feels the car come alive under her feet.

A combination of factors, largely dominated by the fact that her family was a very anxious lot every time she went off on one of her races, led her to give up. But she says the years she spent on the tracks taught her almost every thing there is to learn about cars. "When you are in the business, it pays to know everything about it and I spent days at my father's workshop and with my mechanics learning about all aspects of cars and what makes them tick''.

She may have said adieu to the racing circuit but when the speed bug bites her, she still gets behind the wheel and with her friends and her pet dog for company, heads out into the wilderness, camping in tents in the forest and enjoying being with nature. Farah regularly drives to Goa and South India and makes weekend trips to the majestic hills of Mahabaleshwar with family in tow.

The family today owns a veritable treasure of vintage cars including a 1939 Roadmaster four-door convertible, a 1924 Dodge Brothers four door convertible, a Jaguar, a Chevy Camaro, an Austin Healey and a lovely red and black Alfa Romeo Spyder. But while she can have the pick of her father's collection, this car lover respects the fact that these vehicles are her father's prized possessions.

For her personal use, she owns "two of the best cars that India has today"... a Maruti Gypsy (the Himalayan rally was won behind the wheel of a Gypsy), which she calls "a good lifestyle vehicle", and a Honda City which she finds "a genteel and affordable luxury car" which gives her excellent performance both for use within the city and outside.

"I am still the designated official driver when my friends want to take off on a holiday and I must confess that I really enjoy it", smiles the woman whose love affair with all things automotive continues.

Picture by Sushama Bhute

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