Visiting a Diecast Car Museum in Ooty

Diecast car/bike collection is a big time hobby, even in a country like India where words “kitne de ti ya” (whats the mileage) decides buying decision… Passion for cars and bikes is in highest levels! Many diecast collectors including me start very early… what starts as a toy collection grow to be an addiction for diecast models. Being an addict of some sort is always goo in my view! Why? You will put your heart and soul into that and end up developing focusing skills and the effect depends on what sort of habit you get addicted to.

Ok ok I am coming back to the point… I was enjoying a family vacation in Ooty (South India) last weekend. We were visiting all sort of places like other conventional tourist, I even got along a couple of bike models(BMW S1000R and Ducati Desmosedici 2008) to take some nice pics along the hilly range… Its day two we were on our way to Thottapetta and stopped for some breakfast in a place called Glanton Manor, once our stomachs are full headed back to our car, when reversing saw a rather small board carrying a name tag “Auto World Mini Car Museum – Second Floor”. Mini Car struck a bong in my head so stopped my car there and headed my way through the stairs to second floor with my father and my younger sister.

When we entered the place I am really exited because the entry ticket was a wooping Rs.50 (because yesterday I just paid Rs.20 for Botanical Garder) So my hopes are hight because for the premium they should have something that could kindle any motorhead’s inner soul. The Museum assistant explained about the first car and sleekly moved away with the assurance that he is available around if we have some help.

My spoiled (by my addiction) father and sister viewing the cases one by one and reading the notes aside.. I was very much into photographing them and the Assistant informed for photography an additional charge of Rs.20/- which I don’t mind… Coming back to the museum it is a mid sized place hall with model of many scale are arranged on both side covered by glass cabinets..

I being a modern car collector was very much interested in modern cars which are in plenty but the real attraction here are those huge classics, which looks very unique – late got a confirmation from the owner too as this is a custom made and imported from Dubai.

I was a little fast taking pics and reading through as my fokes are a bit disturbed! By now I am almost done and then came this guy Janardhan who own this collection and took all the effort in putting up this place too. We had a brief chat on stuff that he and I do, then we shared stuff like our favourite car brands (his is Mercedes Benz) numbers of models in collection, first model to enter the collection etc. I suggested some ideas and He gave out his big future plan and stuffs that we can expect like a bigger place lcd screens etc…

He also have plans to collect all the car from a edition “100 Cars 100 Years” which will include not just models but also relevant information to back them. This place apart from scale model car also houses magazines/book from very famous publication, posters, stamps, logos and even a small shopping section.

By this time my family members started etching and I have to goo!! I took his card and abbid good bye only after taking few pics with this legendary collection. Hope you enjoyed the pics and this post… If you want to get in touch with this guy add him as your facebook friend or visit his website at www.autoworld.org.in.

And a picture is worth a thousand word! but a video is sort of worth more than a million words or thousand pictures so I am put in a small video so that you can get a feel of what I went through. If you are visiting Ooty make a point to give this place a shot and you will not get disappointed at all…