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Sundaram Karivaradhan Naidu or Kari (20 June 1954 – 24 August 1995) was an Indian formula racing driver, designer and a business executive. He was one of the pioneers of
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n motorsports. He designed the
Formula Maruti Formula Maruti is a single-seater, open-wheel class in motorsport made and raced in India. Many of the top teams in Indian motorsports have run in the series, including Team Lakshmi Mills Superspeeds, Team JK, Team MRF, Gabriel Racing, WSRF Ra ...
open wheeled race car and supported Indian racers, notably
Narain Karthikeyan Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (born 14 January 1977) is an Indian racing driver. He was the first Indian driver to compete in Formula One. He has previously competed in A1GP, and the Le Mans Series. He has won multiple races in A1GP, British F ...
,
Karun Chandhok Karun Chandhok (born 19 January 1984) is an Indian racing driver and television presenter who last competed in Formula E for Mahindra Racing. Previously, Chandhok has competed for Hispania Racing in Formula One in . Before this, he drove in t ...
, and Armaan Ebrahim, in their entry into motorsports. He was later killed in an air crash, aged 41.


Early days

Sundaram Karivaradhan was born on 20 June 1954 in Coimbatore to G.K.Sundaram Naidu of the
Lakshmi Mills Lakshmi Mills Company is a major textile yarn and cloth manufacturer in Coimbatore, India. The company was established by G.Kuppuswamy Naidu in 1910. It has two composite textile units in Coimbatore: Avinashi Road and Palladam and one in Kovi ...
textile family.


Motor racing

He attended the Jim Russell racing school. Later, he returned to India and started participating in the races held at
Sholavaram Cholavaram, also spelled Sholavaram, is a suburb north of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is popular as Sholavaram and is also known for the Cholavaram lake. Adjoining the lake, there was an defunct Air Force Airfield which was used as a moto ...
,
Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
and Barrackpore,
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
. His first race was 1973
Sholavaram Cholavaram, also spelled Sholavaram, is a suburb north of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is popular as Sholavaram and is also known for the Cholavaram lake. Adjoining the lake, there was an defunct Air Force Airfield which was used as a moto ...
Grand Prix meet. Cars he raced ranged from
Premier Padmini The Premier Padmini was a four-seat saloon manufactured in India from 1964 to 2001 by Premier Automobiles Limited, a division of the Walchand Group, under license from Fiat and marketed initially as the ''Fiat 1100 Delight'' — and from 197 ...
,
Datsun 510 The Datsun 510 was a series of the Datsun Bluebird sold from 1968 to 1973, and offered outside the U.S. and Canada as the Datsun 1600. The 510's engineering was inspired by contemporary European sedans, particularly the 1966 BMW 1600-2 &mdash ...
,
Sipani Sipani Automobiles Ltd. (known as SAIL unrise Automotive Industries Ltd.until 1978) was an Indian car manufacturer established in 1973, located in Bangalore. They mainly manufactured subcompact cars with fibreglass bodies. They also took over A ...
Dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
,
Formula Atlantic Formula Atlantic is a specification of open-wheel racing car developed in the 1970s. It was used in professional racing through the IMSA Atlantic Championship until 2009 and is currently primarily used in amateur racing through Sports Car Club o ...
, several cars of his own design and in the final years Formula 3 cars. His last race was in a
Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...
in Chennai's MMSC track. One of his early complete in-house designs was the Formula Monoposto based on the
Formula Atlantic Formula Atlantic is a specification of open-wheel racing car developed in the 1970s. It was used in professional racing through the IMSA Atlantic Championship until 2009 and is currently primarily used in amateur racing through Sports Car Club o ...
Chevron B40. During the early 1990s he purchased rights from a British based kit car manufacturer to build replica models of the Ford GT40, using a
Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
Cosworth,
Lotus 7 The Lotus Seven is a small, simple, lightweight, two-seater, open-top, open-wheel, sports car produced by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars (initially called Lotus Engineering) between 1957 and 1972. It was designed by Lotus founder Colin Cha ...
, and
AC Cobra The AC Cobra, sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra and AC Shelby Cobra, is a sports car manufactured by British company AC Cars, with a Ford V8 engine. It was produced intermittently in both the United Kingdom and later the Unite ...
. In an effort to make racing more affordable in India and improve grassroots level racing he designed and tested a small single seater, dubbed as India's Formula Ford, with a Maruti 800 engine, and adapting easily available parts, sometimes made in-house. His second design was a two seater car named McDowell 1000 using a
Maruti Gypsy The Maruti Suzuki Gypsy is a four-wheel-drive vehicle based on the long wheelbase Suzuki Jimny SJ40/410 series. It was being built at the Maruti Suzuki's Gurgaon,India plant since 1985. It was primarily built as an off-road vehicle and a ...
1.0 liter engine. FISSME (Formula India Single Seater Maruti Engine) widely known as
formula Maruti Formula Maruti is a single-seater, open-wheel class in motorsport made and raced in India. Many of the top teams in Indian motorsports have run in the series, including Team Lakshmi Mills Superspeeds, Team JK, Team MRF, Gabriel Racing, WSRF Ra ...
was launched in 1988. The class was discontinued from the mainstream championship in 2006. Kari entered in a few rallies. He later launched the JK Rally team in 1992. Kari's racing team was known as Super Speeds, and the main sponsor was
Lakshmi Mills Lakshmi Mills Company is a major textile yarn and cloth manufacturer in Coimbatore, India. The company was established by G.Kuppuswamy Naidu in 1910. It has two composite textile units in Coimbatore: Avinashi Road and Palladam and one in Kovi ...
. The early cars had a white and blue body shell which was later switched to black and gold. The company that built his cars was P&B Engineering. Kari was interested in many areas of mechanics, and that included his interest in aviation as his family owned a Cessna airplane. In 1989 he started a small manufacturing plant near Coimbatore to manufacture Power Gliders using a Yezdi 250cc motorcycle engine, later a Rotax engine. He would often test his gliders flying to the Ooty Mountains, Dindigul, Kovilpatti, or Kayattar near Tirunelveli. The small airstrip in Coimbatore later became the Kari Motor Speedway.


Death

He died on 24 August 1995 while flying a Puspak trainer aircraft while trying to log additional flying time as required to retain his flying license.


Popular culture

The race track in Coimbatore is named after Karivaradhan (
Kari Motor Speedway Kari Motor Speedway is a purpose-built Formula 3 auto racing circuit or race track, located in Chettipalayam, Coimbatore, India. The long track was inaugurated in 2003. The circuit is named after S. Karivardhan. History Part of the existing ...
).


References


Sources and links


Revisiting Kari, Overdrive Magazine and Forbes India Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karivaradhan 1954 births 1995 deaths Indian racing drivers Indian rally drivers Tamil sportspeople