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Labor of love: Indonesia's talented 'artisans' rebuild vintage cars
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Vintage replica: Founder Pudji Handoko of replica car specialist Tuksedo Studio in Gianyar, Bali, and his team built this red Porsche 356 A Coupe using the model's original blueprint. (Courtesy of Pudji Handoko) (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Pudji Handoko)
I
em>Indonesian "artisans" are recreating vintage cars as a labor of love, making it possible for classic car enthusiasts to own one.
Can you guess how much a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing might cost today? It would fetch between US$500,000 and $2 million. The vintage model is highly coveted among car collectors while supply is limited, as the 1956 Gullwing is no longer in production.
For automobile enthusiasts eager to own classic models without breaking the bank, recreated vintage cars are a viable alternative. This trend has grown in Indonesia in recent years, and recreated cars are slowly being seen as something resembling an art form, as most everything is made and assembled by hand.
“There are people who have mistaken recreated cars as modifications. In order to recreate a car, we build almost everything from scratch,” said Pudji Handoko, the founder of recreated car specialist Tuksedo Studio in Gianyar, Bali.
Thirty years ago, when Pudji first recreated his first car, he never thought that his hobby would grow into a thriving business.
“People are into recreated cars because the original vintage cars are no longer in production. Even people who have a lot of money cannot easily get their hands on an original vintage car,” said Eko Widjaja, a car enthusiast in Bali who has been following the recreated car hobby for the last two years. Though he doesn’t own one yet, he dreams of owning a recreated BMW 507.
