GREY POWER

Reborn to wild, that’s this superb Mahindra FJ from Retro Restorations

- Kartik Ware

Now, there’s a good thing that came out of the lockdown. It’s a once-familiar sight for me, and easily the best-looking one of its kind yet. For those who literally came in late, that’s a 1996 Mahindra FJ 460, a version of the commercial vehicle that was sold in India from 1965 to 1999. It began as the original underlicense Jeep FC 150 and changed its name to FJ when the license expired. ‘FC’ stands for ‘Forward Control’ which means that the cabin is mounted on top of the engine. That leaves its occupants to function as involuntary heat sinks for the engine that sits between them under a metal cover. Also, ‘FJ’ doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular, so I’ll just call it ‘Fake Jeep’.

Anyway, this particular FJ is a resto-mod job carried out by Retro Restorations based in Chikmagalur, Karnataka. It’s run by Ashad Pasha and Karan Lokhande, and this FJ owned by Mayur Karanth is their first build, having started the outfit in May 2020 during the lockdown. I suppose they were more bored than the rest of us. However, you wouldn’t guess it’s their first attempt at reviving an ageing workhorse. That probably explains why after photos of this one made it onto Instagram, five more FJs have found their way into the RR workshop to be restored/modded. And they say a couple of them are going to be way madder than this one. But that’s another story.