Allan Almeida

Following a passion can go a long way. A mechanical engineer and off-roader, Allan Almeida won awards for all four cars he showcased at Cartier — Drive With Style at Rambagh Palace, Jaipur. The suave master craftsman has been restoring cars for long and vintage cars undergo a phenomenal transformation under his care. An insightful conversation with him as he returns to Mumbai, triumphant.

A master craftsman and an offroader, Allan Almeida aka Allan of Sara 4×4, has recently completed a very difficult project of restoring a vintage car, a 1936 Cord 810 Westchester, from nothing but scrap. Allan has been restoring cars for a long time now and has also won various awards like at the prestigious Cartier show and other such exhibitions.

Mumbai-based Allan Almeida, who hails from Carmona in South Goa has been restoring vintage and classic cars, and modifying 4x4s for a decade now! Though there are times he needs to work for more than 12 hours a day, he takes pride in some of the finest restorations that leaves his workshop to reach their owners, and eventually go on to win awards at several shows. In fact, the 1962 Mercedes 220SE and 1961 Ford Thunderbird that he’s restored has recently been awarded at Cartier Concours de Elegance vintage car show.

He works closely with vintage and classic car collector Viveck Goenka. Allan was the craftsman behind all the eight Goenka cars displayed at the venue. “It’s always good to come home and let people see the restorations we do, because we feel restorations in Goa still have a long way to go and hopefully, this will inspire people,” he says. There was a perfectly restored 1934 Packard, 1949 Cardillac Series 62 and a 1951 Chevrolet Truck among others. “The 1936 Cord has a very futuristic design and art décor for its time. These cars are regularly driven by the owner, unlike many people who treat it as an asset and don’t use it,” he says.

He works on 12-16 cars a year and most of his ground-up restorations are the only one in India. “So there isn’t a question of copying. There’s a lot of research that goes into building each car, which includes seeing pictures or travelling abroad to see the car and interacting with the owners of similar cars so that we can do a perfect job with it here. This is additional work that goes into it apart from building it. Most of the parts aren’t available in the country, so they either have to be sourced from abroad or made in-house,” he says.