Prime
Kiryabwire’s 37-year-old Benz
This was one of the first cars that Spear Motors imported and it has another active 15 years.
photos by Edgar R Batte
What you need to know:
July 25 was the vintage and classic auto show day. On this day, a number of people brought out their cars that brought back memories of more than two or more decades. Among the exhibitors was Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire. He spoke to Edgar R Batte about his Mercedes Benz 200, W123, 1978.
There were a number of classic and vintage cars at the auto show. However, not all cars at the show had been kept and driven through the years.
The exhibitors get some of the cars from rural plantations and dedicate time and resources to rebuild their body parts and surfaces. And part of the reasons that motivated some of the motorists are the memories these cars hold as one of the car exhibitors, Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire explains.
“My car is a Mercedes Benz 200. Its actual model is W123, 1978. It has been on the road for 37 years.
It is one of the first cars to have been imported by Spear Motors when Gordon Wavamunno started dealing in cars. It belonged to my late father, Dr. Jovan Kiryabwire of Mulago Hospital. When he died, the Benz went into a lot of disrepair. I scrapped it down and rebuilt it and started bringing it here for the auto show,” he explains. He did not keep any receipts when restoring the car but recalls that he spent in excess of a few million shillings to go through the rebuilding process. He had to redo the engine and body.
A photograph of the Benz before it was restored is one of an empty car shell with a rusty interior, with no seats but rubbish. It could have been a home for cockroaches and rats.
So naturally, maintaining or rebuilding vintage cars is not for the faint-hearted and one has to have a good motivation to sink money into a car whose spare parts are not readily available or one which he will only occasionally drive around.
In fact, many of the motorists showcasing cars are hard-pressed to put a figure on how much money they put into restoring or maintaining the cars.
Special attachment
Justice Kiryabwire has a special, an almost sentimental attachment to the Benz. It is the car his father drove when taking him to school. That is in addition to it being an elegant and strong car.
More years to go
“It needs little to get it to move. I took it for evaluation at Spear Motors recently and I was told it will be good for another 10 to 15 years,” he adds.
He drives the car on slow, light-traffic days like Sundays or on public holidays when he doesn’t have to compete with taxis and boda boda riders.
He is careful because it is not easy to get spare parts for the car should it be knocked or damaged.
He does servicing once a year. It hardly hits 100 kilometres a year. For most of the year, he cruises his Toyota Fortuner.
“When I drive the Fortuner, no one looks at me but when I drive this car, everybody looks at me,” the court of appeal judge adds, in a light-hearted manner.
