It is a relatively lazy Sunday morning. I have already had my fill of adrenaline for the day with a Sunday morning drive out with the boys in possibly something new, quick and shiny, or maybe one of my older cars – frankly, I do not even remember. Lazing on the sofa after my second breakfast of the day, my phone buzzes. A message icon pops up saying Bob Rupani has sent me a message. Bob Rupani, for those who don't know (or those too young to bother), is one of the godfathers of Indian automotive journalism, and in my opinion, one of the greatest storytellers I have had the fortune of knowing. He is also someone I am lucky to call a mentor of sorts. So when he messages or calls, Cyrus checks or answers!
‘Good morning Cyrus. Are you interested in this?’, reads the message. An attached picture takes a few seconds to load and when it does, a singular picture of what appears to be a very early, second generation Maruti 800 (SB308).
“Cyrus Baba!” goes Bob, in his usual jolly voice, “I think you should buy this car!” I explain to him how I don't really need another SB308 in my life, having already owned #ProjectGrandpa since 1989 (and having left it to disrepair for the last few years, but that is a story for another day), but something he says intrigues me. “This is the best preserved Maruti 800 I have ever seen in my life,” he says, “and I have driven them new!”
He goes on to explain the car belongs to a gentleman, a friend of his, who prefers to remain anonymous and does not live in India anymore. The car was parked in a garage in the suburbs in the year 2000 and then left under covers since the family had no real use of the car anymore and had no intention of selling it either. In fact, when the gentleman did decide it was time to part, he thought at first of scrapping the car but out of sheer curiosity, he decided to call Bob and ask for his advice.
Being someone who loves the Maruti 800 for all the memories it brings me and for frankly being a great little classic car to drive around, I (reluctantly) agreed to go have a look at the car. In my head, although the story sounded really interesting and the car looked half decent in the pictures, my mind kept saying, ‘YOU DO NOT NEED ANOTHER ONE’!
October 15, 2025. I decide to go check out the car in the lunch hour at work instead of inhaling yet another pile of unhealthy food. Off on the little scooter towards a part of Mumbai I have never been to (ashamedly, since it is very pretty), and after a combination of good old-fashioned direction asking and Google Maps, I find the building and the garage. Even the doors on the garage look like they are steeped in a time where everything was slower paced and frankly better. And when they opened, there it was. MFC 4240, a 1986 Maruti 800. Specifically, a September 1986 Maruti 800, making it one of the earliest SBs around considering the fact that the launch of the SB was in late August 1986.
Frankly, it looked like any other very well-kept SB till you got closer. Bob wasn’t wrong – this thing indeed was incredibly original – the headlights were Koito units, the tail lamps were Tokai Denso, so were the number plate lights. These are the kind of parts Maruti 800 enthusiasts salivate over. It even had period-correct grilles added on to the tail lamp and the indicators because people would steal them otherwise.
The tyres were flat but they were cross treads, possibly the original ones that came on the car. The trim is all intact, including the super fragile roof trim, and it even still has the original driver-side mirror – obviously the original one. But everything, EVERYTHING felt pale till I opened the door and poked my head inside. The car had an incredible 10,389 kms ONLY! In any other car, I would have never believed the figure, but in this, the tell-tale signs all existed. The steering wheel was perfect, although the badge had fallen off once and the owner mentioned how by mistake it was stuck upside down. The pedals had barely any wear on them. Even the gear knob, that usually wears out, was immaculate. This was indeed a true time capsule.
And it got better. The original seats, on which the owners had put a set of period-correct tie-down cotton seat covers, peeled back to reveal the original rexine seats. These seats never, ever stand the test of time, but in this, they are perfect. The owner also mentioned another incredible fact – the rear seats had never ever been sat on. In fact, he mentioned how no one in the world apart from him (not even his brother or sister) had ever driven the car. The dashboard was perfect too – completely unmolested and as expected, this being a Standard or STD (no, not that) variant, it did not have air conditioning or a factory-fitted audio setup.
It was all too much to take in. Gingerly, I put my best Ed Bolian face on and went into a shrewd negotiation mode. The owner said he had been offered Rs 13,000 by scrap dealers (which is accurate pricing due to metal value by weight). He wanted slightly more. Of course, the insatiable instinct to negotiate and get a better deal kicked in and an offer was made. All while in my head, the other, more passionate side of my conscience is screaming, shouting and calling me things that will get me immediately expelled if I print them here.
I remembered something my father always said when it came to buying a used car. If the car is really worth the asking price, and you truly want it, do not negotiate. Buy it. So while the owner was in the middle of explaining to me how he thought his price was fair, I interrupted and agreed. Luckily, I was carrying a set of transfer papers, so once I paid him his due (thank God for the ATM next door) and paperwork was signed, I needed to pinch myself and frankly ask myself the burning question – how the hell did I get so lucky!
I wanted it to be a secret till I took it away and there was only one person who I could call to help make that happen, the man we now call ‘The Maruti Whisperer’, Nikhil Wagle. Nikhil is one of the most passionate young guys I have ever met and has been instrumental in carrying the Classic Maruti Enthusiast Club on his back from a once small club with a few members to a formidable owners’ club with well over 200 members. He also has developed an uncanny knack for tuning Marutis – especially carburetted ones. But this wasn’t a one-man job. The car hadn’t moved in 25 years and was jammed solid and needed the best hands it could – enter Ravi Shirodkar and Jeetendra Jaiswal, two absolute legends and veteran mechanics in the Maruti (and frankly classic car) world in Mumbai.
As expected, the wheels were jammed solid. No amount of cajoling, moving around or adjusting the rear brake drums seemed to help. Reluctantly, we dismantled the whole inner brake assembly one by one until finally, both the rear brakes were free. The fronts surprisingly were not jammed up. So once we inflated the 39-year-old tyres, the car finally, after 25 long years, sprung free of its cosy tomb. Free to once again enthral the world and its new owner (me) for the foreseeable future.
While in the midst of all this, we made even more discoveries. The original black number plates, even older than the ENPAK (a Maruti dealer from the 80s) plates, were in the boot. The floor cardboard in the boot was intact (something I have never seen and I have owned a fair few of these), and the spare wheel and tyre have never, ever been used! When I mean this is the most original Maruti 800 SB308 that I have ever seen, I mean it.
I had hit the absolute jackpot, but it wasn’t over. While combing through the garage, I found a bunch of papers (that looked old) in a pile on the side next to the three car covers that had kept the car warm for 25 years. While usually I would have ignored the pile, the colouration on them made me curious. That pile contained the following – the original service book and manual of the car, the original receipt for the first service, the original receipt of the second service, the original receipt of the third service and even the original bills of all the battery services, including a new battery bought in 1994.
For anyone who loves classic cars and the hobby of buying, restoring and chasing them, these documents are sometimes more, if not as important as, the car itself – and this was truly a goldmine.
So what next? Well, for now, it has gone back into storage in my basement, in the midst of my other vintage and classic cars and some not-so-classic ones. Sometime next year, when OEMs decide they don’t want to kill us with launches and drives every alternate day, I will drain all the fluids, service the original Mikuni carburettor, give it a new battery and say a prayer before turning it over for the first time in 26 years. But it is a Maruti, and from what experience tells me, this should be on the road VERY soon. Maybe then we do another story on it and another video too. Until then, I hope you like this month’s ‘Storyteller’. What’s next? An homage to another red car. A legendary piggy. Get the hint?
