"I do to cars what the fairy godmother did to Cinderella before she went to the ball. Only none of my vehicles will turn ugly by midnight," said the maverick Nizamuddin Awlia Leepu- known for transforming rusted junk cars into super cars within the shortest period of time one can comprehend. It all started when he went to see a car show in Saudi Arabia and the free spirit instantly fell in love with a Ferrari which he could not buy for lack of money. He grew up to learn the fine arts of automobile designing by himself and has been working on them since 1988.
After spending seven years in California as a car mechanic, he came back to Bangladesh and spent most of his time making new cars out of old ones. In 1989 he built the Lee-mobile, his version of a Lamborghini Countach, the car of his dreams. The most interesting aspect of his designing is the fact that he does not use any computer or any advanced tools. His mind is the blank slate where he imagines the designs that he wants to implement on the broken rusted car that is in front of him. This unconventional and unrealistic ways caught the eyes of Intersection Magazine and he received international attention. He was later invited to work on a Dhaka City Exhibition in the UK, where he transformed a battered Ford Capri spectacularly into a RMX-1. Later on Discovery Channel documented his adventures of car transformation in his specially converted garage in Dhaka that functioned with just four workers. Along with mechanical engineer Bernie Fineman, he was asked to build two cars within 8 weeks. With only a few tools at his disposal both of them remodelled the jalopies into two beautiful race cars, contrived with his own imagination. The most fascinating part was that he finished the commendable job within 7 weeks. One of the car was named M26 after the Independence Day of Bangladesh, March 26 which has a chassis of a 1984 Toyota Sprinter with a facade of a beautiful white Limo look alike. He was featured on the Discovery show called 'Bangla Bangers' on September 2006.
The 'Bangla Bangers' was followed by one sequel series called 'Chop Shop: London Garage'. The show was held in the back alleys and grimy railway arches of London's Bethnal Green, where oily taxi repair garages and a greasy spoon cafe produce a bizarrely appealing old factory experience of onions, engine oil and rusting metal. With Leepu's enthusiasm and animated ways of designing, where his imagination embodies the bodywork itself, and Bernie Fineman's mechanic entrepreneurial intelligence, the show was a hit. The main object was to design cars on a low budget and meeting the client's requirements. One of the cars that they designed is called a Green Mambo, an "eco car" which is a recycled Mitsubishi Pajero that runs on waste cooking oil.
Right now Leepu stars in a show featured in the History Channel called Leepu and Pitbull. Pitbull is a fast talking master mechanic who has built his own business from the ground up. While the concept remains the same, it is the first time in American automobile history that something as odd as making a muscle car out of a junker is aired. These highs and lows and the hype it creates, as if to live up to the expectations of the customer, is what the show is all about.
Bengal Banger Leepu has his life encircled around the world of automobiles and his relentless effort to flourish in it poses him as a prodigy to many. The extravagant muscle cars are the fruits of his vivid imagination and, believe it or not, without the aid of any sketch. The superior blend of his passion, strength and confidence escalated Leepu to the pinnacle of his sphere. Have you discovered your superior blend yet?
The writer is a second year student of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at North South University (NSU), nwr_chisty.live@hotmail.com
From rust to riches: Story of Leepu
Nawar Chisty | Published: September 03, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
Nizamuddin Awlia Leepu
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