Actors Madhavan and Dushara ride a Benz 1 during the trailer launch of G.D.N in Coimbatore’s Kari Motor Speedway
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Kari Motor Speedway, a permanent motorsports circuit in the outskirts of Coimbatore, wore a different kind of vibe last weekend. The Formula 3-standard race track that usually reverberates with the high-octane whoosh of speeding cards, saw vintage cars from the city’s GeDee Car Museum sashaying in style. The occasion? The trailer launch of G.D.N, a biopic on Coimbatore’s inventor and industrialist GD Naidu, played by actor R Madhavan. Madhavan and Dushara Vijayan, the lead actors, arrived on a vintage Benz 1, a three-wheeled vehicle, regarded as the world’s first practical automobile. The rest of the cast, including actors Sathyaraj, Priyamani, Thambi Ramaiah, Jayaram, Kaniha, and Aditi Balan, also arrived in vintage cars such as Benz 2, Dodge, Oldsmobile, and the Rover, not to mention a blue Coimbatore-Udumalpet-Palani bus form the 1940s. The latter, a popular attraction at the museum, was modified by GD Naidu. He worked on the bus’s petrol engine to suit hybrid fuel since there was a shortage of petrol and diesel across the world after World War II.
