Kolkata :
This nondescript automobile repair workshop on a narrow lane off the Hazra Bridge over the Adi Ganga wouldn’t be hard to miss… had it not been for a few unusual cars parked in and outside it.
Cars with scraped bumpers and dented bodies, but with many extra gadgets, special seats, reinforced interiors and, once you open the hood and look carefully, even modified and fortified engines.
Calcutta Motors, this 52-year-old workshop, is where car rallyists from all over Bengal send their automobiles for renovations, repairs, reinforcements and all other works.
And on most days, this is also where they drop in for a chat with the amiable and helpful Joydeb Ghosh, whose father Soumen had started this business in 1963.
Joydeb, 39, is an avid rallyist himself and winner of many awards in this adventure sport. And Calcutta Motors happens to be the most well-known name in Eastern India for converting ordinary vehicles into ones fit for all sorts of rallies across the country.
Converting an ordinary automobile into a “rally-worthy” vehicle is no easy or inexpensive task (see box).
“The first step is to fit a ‘sump guard’ (chamber guard) in the undercarriage of the vehicle and a fuel tank guard for added protection,” oydeb says. Special suspensions need to be installed and the suspensions’ lower arms and apron need to be strengthened. The entire body of the vehicle has to be reinforced through ‘tik’ (cold) welding. “‘Tik’ welding is a special and time-consuming process where all the joints need to be re-welded,” he adds.
Then comes the major task of ‘blue-printing’ the vehicle’s engine. “Engine components of a vehicle of the same make differ, and that affects their performance. We get the manufacturer’s blueprint with the exact specifications of all engine components and replace all the components that do not meet the specifications.
The purpose is to ensure optimum performance of the engine. We make all these new components ourselves,” Joydeb explains. Joydeb, who has participated in over 250 car rallies over the past 10 years, says that in order to save costs for rallyists, he does a lot of “jugaad”. “I and my mechanics go all over the country and observe how rally cars elsewhere are retrofitted and apply the same techniques at much lower costs here,” he says. This is because many automobile enthusiasts from Kolkata and Bengal are good rallyists, but hail from middle-class families and don’t have the very deep pockets required for upgrading their cars to the ‘rally-worthy’ category.
Special seats and seatbelts need to be installed, as well as probes for odometers, trip meters and sophisticated GPS equipment. And finally, a ‘roll cage’ needs to be installed inside the vehicle for protecting the driver and navigator. Joydeb, his team of mechanics and the drivers and navigators of the 20-odd automobiles — Maruti Gypsies, Esteems, Cedias, SX-4, and Maruti 800 — that have been retrofitted and undergo regular overhaul and servicing at Calcutta Motors, all form a large and happy family. Their passion for automobiles and participating in rallies is the bond that binds them together in a strong brotherhood. They call themselves the ‘CM Rally’ team.
Calcutta Motors also sends its service team, comprising its best mechanics, to rallies the ‘CM Rally’ team members participate in. “We go wherever our customers go as rallyists and give the best services to them,” said Sarbeshwar Dolui, a senior mechanic at the workshop.
Calcutta Motors’ service team has been awarded many trophies in various rallies across the country. Joydeb’s dream is to ensure that the ‘CM Rally’ team members win in every rally they participate in. And he’ll do all he can to make that happen.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Jaideep Mazumdar, TNN / February 21st, 2015