THE first time Mr Kolanthavelu Sivasurian, 47, sat behind the wheels of a Maserati about 20 years ago, he broke into a sweat.

"I couldn't move the car because I couldn't find the gear," he recalls. "And the owner was standing right in front of me."

His ordeal went on for five minutes before a supervisor was summoned. The gear shifts, it turned out, were located behind the steering wheel and not in the usual gearbox on the left of the driver's seat.

His own car then was a Nissan Pulsar and boasted none of this complicated gadgetry, he adds. Since then, he's moved on from Maseratis to Ferraris and Lamborghinis. "You name it, I've driven it," he says proudly.

The friendly managing director of Damu Valet Services is widely regarded as the 'godfather' of car valets in Singapore.

Since 1991 when he founded the company, he has trained hundreds of valets, many of whom have since started their own valet business. In fact, almost all the players currently in the market trace their valeting roots back to Damu and Mr Sivasurian.

Mr Sivasurian himself got his break when he was a valet with the Grand Hyatt hotel in his 20s. Then a custodial officer with the prisons service, he was working part-time for a car valet service company.

In 1991, when the company closed down, the hotel management asked him if he would set up his own business and take over the job. He seized the opportunity and set up Damu.

In 1997, business picked up when another company, Worthy Workers, began losing contracts and eventually closed after a valet was involved in a crash at Goodwood Park Hotel, where a Porsche collided with a taxi.

The business went to Damu, which became the sole player in the market. Today, it still services the Grand Hyatt, alongside other hotels like the Hilton and Royal Plaza on Scotts.

Over the years, Mr Sivasurian has seen some 'funny things'. When he was a valet for a nightspot, a customer accused him of stealing some lingerie from her car. Determined to solve the mystery, he went to her house, searched the car and found the piece of clothing below the car seat.

The father of two - his daughter is a law student and son a national serviceman - doesn't see himself retiring soon.

He still helps out with the parking. "I can still park 100 cars if I have to," he says.