40 Years Under the Bonnet: A Singapore Mechanic's Life Built Around Cars

At 60, Eric looks back on nearly 40 years of racing, repairing and living around cars and the life he built with his wife Alicia.

SINGAPORE, WOODLANDS, SINGAPORE, November 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 40 Years Under the Bonnet: The Story of Eric and Conqueror Engineering

At 60, Eric looks back on nearly 40 years of racing, repairing and living around cars, and the life he built alongside his wife Alicia.

SINGAPORE: There was a time when fixing a car meant listening.

Not plugging in a computer. Not reading a fault code.

Listening.

To the rhythm of an engine. A knock that shouldn't be there. A vibration through the steering wheel. Sometimes, simply listening to a customer trying to describe a sound they couldn't explain.

Eric remembers those days.

He is 60 now, and for nearly four decades, cars have been part of his life.

When I first got to know Eric, I saw a mechanic and workshop owner. Then I started hearing the stories and realised there was much more to the man.

THE COLOUR BEHIND THE BLACK AND WHITE

There are old photographs of Eric. Some are faded. Some belong to another Singapore.

Marina South. Nights out. Friends. Cars. Music. A Singapore that looked very different from today.

Sometimes old photographs are black and white.

But the lives inside them weren't.

They were filled with colour, noise, speed, exhaust fumes, friendships, dreams and probably a few decisions that seemed like good ideas at the time.

Long before the 60-year-old workshop owner standing in front of me, there was a younger Eric.

And that Eric wanted to go fast.

BEFORE THE WORKSHOP OWNER, THERE WAS THE RACER

There were Subarus. STIs. Track cars. Sepang.

Days when lap times mattered. It was about driving, learning, pushing and going faster.

Eric didn't spend nearly forty years around cars simply because he found a job in the automotive industry.

He loved them.

Driving them. Understanding them. Improving them. Racing them. Fixing them.

Cars became part of who he was.

AND BESIDE HIM WAS ALICIA

Eric's wife, Alicia, belongs in this story too.

Because businesses and lives aren't built when someone registers a company. They're built through thousands of ordinary days nobody photographs.

Eric and Alicia built theirs together.

When they were younger, they would go to pubs with friends like everyone else.

Except Eric apparently had difficulty switching off when a car needed attention.

Imagine it.

It's midnight. Music is playing. Friends are drinking and laughing.

And Eric is outside in the car park servicing someone's car.

At midnight.

Outside a pub.

When I first heard that story, I laughed.

Then I realised it probably tells you more about Eric than any corporate biography ever could.

While everybody was playing, Eric was working.

WHAT DOES FORTY YEARS REALLY MEAN?

We say "40 years of experience" so often that it almost stops meaning anything.

Forty years is approximately 14,600 days.

Thousands of vehicles. Thousands of problems. Thousands of lessons.

The cars Eric encountered as a young mechanic were far more mechanical. Diagnosis often began with listening, feeling, smelling and looking.

Then came electronics, computerised engine management, sophisticated diagnostics, turbocharging, hybrids, electric vehicles and increasingly software-driven cars.

The tools changed.

The cars changed.

Singapore changed.

Eric changed with them.

A modern diagnostic computer can produce a fault code.

But it still takes someone to understand what caused it.

THIS IS A WORKSHOP

Today, much of Eric's life around cars can be found inside Conqueror Engineering, an automotive workshop in Singapore.

There are tools, engines, parts, vehicles on lifts and mechanics trying to understand why something that shouldn't be making a noise is making one.

Hands get dirty here.

It smells like a workshop. It sounds like a workshop. It looks like a workshop.

Because it is a workshop.

Sometimes a customer arrives convinced something needs replacing.

Eric inspects it.

Sometimes the answer is simply, no.

Not yet.

Fix what's broken. Maintain what needs maintaining. Watch what needs watching. Leave the rest alone.

The question isn't, "How much can we replace?"

It's, "What's actually wrong with the car?"

WE WERE BOTH BUILDING

I came into Eric's world from somewhere very different.

My career revolved around business, technology, marketing, brands, strategy, growth and global markets.

But standing in the workshop, I recognised something familiar.

We were both building.

Just with different tools.

I built businesses.

Eric built cars.

I looked at numbers.

He listened to engines.

I thought about IPOs and markets.

He thought about machines.

But underneath it was the same obsession.

That inability to leave something alone because you believe it can be better.

Another problem to solve. Another thing to build. Another mountain somewhere in the distance.

ERIC AT 60

And then one day, you're 60.

The STIs get older. Track days become photographs. Cars once considered modern become classics. Singapore changes around you.

But Eric is still here.

Still walking through the workshop.

Still looking. Still listening. Still thinking.

This isn't a retirement story.

Technology will keep changing. Cars will become smarter, more connected and more software-driven. Conqueror Engineering will evolve with them.

But some things shouldn't change.

Curiosity.

Craftsmanship.

Integrity.

The willingness to get your hands dirty and the determination to understand what's actually wrong before deciding how to fix it.

Tomorrow, another car will arrive.

Another bonnet will open.

Another problem will need solving.

One engine. One race. One customer. One mistake. One repair. One lesson at a time.

For almost forty years.

At 60, Eric isn't finished.

He's simply looking for the next thing to build.

ABOUT CONQUEROR ENGINEERING

Conqueror Engineering is an automotive workshop in Singapore providing vehicle diagnostics, maintenance and repair services for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and 4x4s, combining decades of hands-on experience with modern diagnostic capabilities.

Contact Conqueror Engineering, Look for Andrew 97726193

ANDREW YANG
Conqueror Engineering
+65 83228210
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