Hello all
As requested im gonna post pictures and stories of Indian Motorsport in the era, that i Had the pleasure of being involved . Those of you who have Grey hair and probably wear glasses will remember the years that Ambassadors and Fiat1100D'S fought horrific battles on the forrests and Ghats ,across. India.. I always carried a camera, and took pics with the hope of one day writing stories... That day has arrived, and i thank all those who dreamed up this website , and gave us like minded petrolheads, a venue to meet .
The pics will be in Random order and when ever i have the time and whenever a memory is Jogged i will put it on the page....I am a two finger typist, and i think much faster than i type... so to those intelectuals who read and go "OH OH another typo error or spelling error" ... forgive me.... I drve much faster than i Type... but have fun looking at the pics and yes go ahead pass comments i love reading them.. and so does everyone elce...
Il kick it off with this pic of one of the many Ambi's I drove ..this one is taken at the Rally-d-Endurance... leading outright... now i can see all the old Fiat drivers phoo phooing... but its true... we came undone when we had to climb the dreaded "Segur Ghats" and we stripped the gearox.. and were left without any drive... i think lunch was at the 'Bamboo grove' at the bottom of SEGUR, and then a long drive home


This pic was probably taken by Deepak Jouhhari.. and thats flat chat in 4th gear..

Sweet, this sure is gonna be an interesting thread !!! The golden era of Rallying !!

Why dont you just create an online album and give a link here .... instead of teasing us with one pic at a time .

When ever i arrived at a competitive i would run into the stage to try and get a pic of a car on stage... this is at the Charminar Challenge Organised by the APMSC... the cars at the control...mmm i think thats Rajiv rai in the Dolphin... and thats Dilip Desai and Atul Killoskar.. in the Audi quattro Fiat 1100D .. only the hard core rallyists, will recognise the colours he used on his car were taken from the works quattro... also the inside of the car was a brilliant to say the least .. with all the trimmings of a works car... pity that they blew their engine bearings,,,,,tsk tsk

Just thought nid chuck this one in for fun this is at the Perth motor show taken yesterday at the Merc stand

hehehehehehe .... doesnt look like a rally car to me !!! But NICE one ...

Niaz, are you seriously telling me people used to rally in a Dolphin????? Would have loved to see that!

...and how, the dolphins were extremly nimble, they would harry and hound the works drivers in the himalayan events.

hey niaz, deepak jouhari is still driving in the local events, just thought you might like to know.

Hey Niaz, great pics. We need more, more..

The Dolphin was the first New car our generation ever saw... and when all you had to look at were ambi's and Fiats, and Heralds.. this new car looked great, and in the hands of Kiran mody or Vicky chandok... simply devastating....they were really good in the ghat roads...and Vicky the mongrel had a full factory backing, for the first time in my life i would watch as the Sipani motors, crew changed complete, diffs springs gearboxes... the whole kit-anf -kaboodle, and us ambi drivers just topped up the water and oil... but having said that we still put up a fight...but it was 11/10ths in an ambi... I know lots of you guys are going "LOL" "LOL"...ambi"lol".. but these ambis were not your Taxi variety... all my mounts ran fully lightened and blue printed motors , with high compresion pistons (thanks to the landmaster) Rocker ratios, the big brembo brakes out of the trecker.. front and rear stabilisers bars out of the fiat.. and Gas shokkies which had just come out then... we had 2 shoks on each wheel... the car was like a tank... you just flogged it through any thing....Now for todays picture... this is not from the golden era... but it funny.. this is Gaurav gill... is this the same Gill we have on the site????.. Look at his car... I took this at the FIRST service point at the himalayan raid.. my car is at the back beeing serviced and Gaurav lands up in the Taliban crusher... hahahaha.. look at it.. there is not a straight panel in the car... and you know what he says to Vicky .... can you change the wind screen and ill continue....Really.... its so nice to drive someone elces car... jeeez if that was my Ambi that would be the end of my rally days....

This is classic !!!

Here is another Ambi I campained.. this particular car ..to the best of my Knowledge is the one and only Factory built and supported" Rally Ambi".. even when i look at it now it still looks awesome.. We had it especially built By Hindustan motors.... as a "Rally special".. it came from the factory with the new High compression pistons...Made because HM were gonna fit A/c's to their new cars....Factory Fitted Trekker brakes... and wait for it... factory fitted wider trekker rims......now look carefully at the grill... the cars had no thermostats then ...and all i knew was that if we wanted performance, we needed to get some heat into the engine... so we made the flaps... and we could put half of it down or both sides down depending if we were in the snow or not... (sorry this is at the Himalayan Rally)...
the Jokers in the Premier are none other than Uday eswaran, and Doc. Ravi Prakash.. who at their best were a formidable duo.. look at their lights ..geez... on a Dynamo...they crashed on the first night stage......ooopppsss_. .. Thats Mitil Chakravarty who rallied with me that year, along with C.K.Singhi

Great pics and an even greater drive down memory lane.

Many thanks mate and keep em coming

Niaz, Just go on man .... these are really CLASSIC !!! And thank god this forum started .... or else we wud probably never have gotten to see any of these .

Cheers

What year was the Rally Special ambi built in?

@niaz Do u think it wud b a good idea to have proper classic rallies in india? wit d old fiats, ambis, dolphins, hearalds etc.. real stages,none of the sissy classic parades that happens all the time...