Lumu drives his Datsun Violet SSS 1600 when stressed

John Burrows Lumu does not hide his love for the Datsun Violet SSS 1600 he has owned for the last three years. As a matter of fact, he holds a verbal agreement with his wife, that should they ever run broke and the decision to remain financially afloat is to sell their cars, the Datsun Violet SSS 1600 would be sold last.

“I spent close to two years persuading the owner (a one Mawejje) who had driven the car for more than 30 years. He had parked it for five years and it was visibly rotting away and in a bad shape near my workshop,” Lumu recalls.

Restoring the 1975 model that runs on a 1600cc engine at his garage, Fast Lane Auto Garage at Mulago to give it its current look cost Lumu Shs15m. This involved overhauling the engine and the gearbox. He also changed its colour from olive to green. Giving the interior a new look also cost Lumu an arm and leg. He also replaced all the suspension bushes, bearings, tyres and batteries.

Having owned the car for the last three years, he nicknamed it Kisse busungu, a Luganda phrase to mean killing anger the nickname was informed by the surroundings under which Lumu operates on a daily basis.

“When something or someone annoys or stresses me, I drive the car and the anger or stress automatically goes. The cheers I get from people who admire the car are enough to kill the anger or stress,” Lumu explains.

Unique features

Classic cars are not like the new models. First, from a mechanical perspective, the Datsun Violet SSS 1600 model does not run on a steering pump. This means it never breaks down because of a broken steering pump.

“When it breaks down, it will still move. It once got a misfiring at Njeru in Jinja but I managed to drive it up to Kampala for repair without getting stuck on the road,” Lumu says.

It still carries the purely hard metal body with which it was manufactured. Owing to this, lumu worries less about reckless motorcyclists who inflict damage and dents on motorists’ cars daily.

Much as it is an old car, Lumu says it is surprisingly quiet even when driving on a murrum road. One feature that makes it unique from most cars on the road is that it has two different keys, one for opening the door and another for starting the engine.

Besides the old shape, the vehicle number plate originally registered as UWU 856, is the catchy feature about the car. When he was registering and transferring the logbook into his names, authorities asked Lumu to change the number plate from the six digit to the seven digit series, something he objected.

“Imagine such a classic car with the latest number plate series! It would lose its respect and history. It is something to which he objected that compelled me and other members from the Classic Cars Uganda group to petition the Commissioner General of Uganda Revenue Authority in the presence of the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Tourism on museum day about preserving history and the permanent secretary was supportive of the idea,” Lumu recalls. 

The Datsun Violet has a maximum speed limit of 180km/hour. However, it is not as fast because old cars are built for reliability rather than speed.

 It also has circular high beam lights. If the bulb blows, the only alternative is to buy a new light, not merely replacing the inbuilt bulb.

Old versus oldies

The car is about 46 years old. The only way Lumu matches with its age is by playing old music and dressing appropriately. 

“I specifically play oldies music of more than 20 years when driving the car and nothing of the latest songs regardless of how popular the song is. I wear special outfits such as newsboy caps when going for classic car drives with other classic fanatics,” he says.

Many car enthusiasts would love to own Lumu’s car and have made inquiries through direct messages on his social media accounts, but have still failed to name their price.

Some inquiries have come from as far as Columbia, Malaysia, Kenya and Tanzania while a number of enthusiasts from London have stopped at nothing but liking. 

“The lowest price I can accept is $10,000 (Shs37m). If you can import a brand new car in dollars, why not buy a classic one in dollars as well? If you cannot give me the offer I want, I will remain with my car,” Lumu clears the air.

Service and maintenance

Lumu drives his classic for two weeks every month. However, dearly you may hold your classic, he advises that it is important to drive it even after restoration to keep its parts functional, besides keeping it clean 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

With maintenance, Lumu sources for most spare parts from Nairobi. It shares some of the spare parts such as the engine, double differential and gearbox and a number of others with the Nissan Sahara Pick-up.

Being a mechanic himself makes service of the Datsun Violet SSS easy.

Apart from Njeru, Lumu says he has driven the car to Luweero and Mbarara. He intends to drive it to Nairobi to visit a friend who drives a classic Volkswagen Kombi. In terms of fuel consumption, it uses approximately Shs100,000 from Kampala to Jinja. It consumes like any other low consumption car.