I Spy With My Lil Eye - An Indicoupe!!!

[Steeroid]

Found this very interesting creation parked outside the Taj yesterday (okay, the day before now) for the Safari Dicor lodge. Its a Tata Indica converted into a coupe !!!

The work was of such good quality that I spent time sifting through the crowd at the venue looking for the owner/creator. Turned out to be the owner of a Tata Motors authorized service centre in Cochin, who seems to have quite a flair for modifying cars. He has done other cars as well, but the pictures to follows will be of this lovely coupe.

Also got introduced to a friend of his who runs a one-home resort on a private island on the backwaters, called "Philipkutty's Farm". Its a hideout thats very popular with western tourists, and I suspect he only takes $$$$$$...anyway, it turns out that he is another petrolhead who believes that its a crime to drive a stock car.

In the little time that we had I gave them a brief intro to this forum and also took them to the site on my iMate. I hope they will join us soon, because that is one interesting pair.

Photos follow in subsequent posts. As is apparent, he has chopped the Indica from the end of the A Pillar to the C Pillar quarterglass. While this may seem mundane, the end result is quite a stunner. I'm having second thoughts on whether it makes sense to bring the Smartie down if I can drive one of these. Approx cost of modifying a 2nd hand Petrol Indica was Rs.140,000/-, a figure which should drop if he does this on a regular basis instead of creating one-offs like this one...

[Steeroid]

First (test) post of images:

[turbo_lover]

whoa !
do put up the pics fast ...was the car up for show purposes or was it just parked?

[Steeroid]

DISCLAIMER: These pics were transferred from Suresh's (the creator) camera. I saw the car at night, so couldnt click good snaps in the unlit parking lot...

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by turbo_lover

whoa !
do put up the pics fast ...was the car up for show purposes or was it just parked?

Neither: its his daily drive. He's now trying to get information on how to regularize this mod at the RTO...any help / information forthcoming will be highly appreciated. He is also looking to tie up with people who can work on the engine.

Yes, he will do one for you on request...

Comments:

1. The two-tone paint job is obviously smart-inspired. He had tried to buy a second hand Smart from Delhi, but the asking price of 9.5 lakhs was too high for him and so he made his own version.

2. He should've left the quarterglass on the frame and not on the door.

3. Those ugly window shields (or whatever they are called) could've been dispensed with.

4. Nice treatment for the spare tyre, but a slightly raised suspension would've helped matters much more.

[turbo_lover]

hmm .. i like what they have done to it..admire the effort and the quality of work done on transforming the indica into a coupe..
the car looks disproportionate ..rear loooking too heavy and the hood too long ...

[veyron1]

what in the name of ayyappa...??? how the hell did this happen...??? how would the bloody li'l kwacker handle speeds with SUCH A SHORT WHEELBASE....??? or is it my eyes, and he hasn't chopped off the floorpan, the integral part of ANY monocoque chassis..??

with that sort of wheelbase, i'm guessing the car's dynamic abilities have been drastically reduced...although the steering response might have become quicker while driving in city traffic, due to the wheelbase...

but it looks great, though....kinda like the fiat's redesigned palio, which was supposed to hit our showrooms (designed by giugiaro')....but why the corolla headlamps....?? and that sunscreen (or whatever in god's name it's called) on the door frames is an overkill, IMHO...it distracts your eyes from an otherwise uncluttered design...

but full marks for a neatly executed design....the bombay guys couldn't have done it any better....maybe a certain DC can take some pointers from my hometown (kerala) dudes...

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by veyron1

how the hell did this happen...??? how would the bloody li'l kwacker handle speeds with SUCH A SHORT WHEELBASE....??? or is it my eyes, and he hasn't chopped off the floorpan, the integral part of ANY monocoque chassis..??

I'll find out when I drive it this Sunday. It must be safe, because he drove in with his two kids in that thing...I wouldnt take a chance with MY kid if I werent sure.

As for headlights, doors, etc - he's entirely flexible. He will put anything you want to put on your special edition, as long as it is possible to do so...for an old Indica, this sure had less weld slop showing than those that came out of Tata Motors factory at that time. In fact I couldnt find any at all.

As for the chassis, he runs a Tata Authorized Service Centre where they also straighten out quite a few bent Indicas. He should know what he's doing, or at least I hope so.

Now for the laughs: one of the Tata dealers actually thought (and went about saying) that it was a Reva...FIRE HIM!

[veyron1]

hmmm... a closer look at the interiors reveal indigo trims, steering wheel, and white-faced dials, which means that this is a petrol...so, any mods on the engine...???

It must be safe,

i definitely wouldn't bet on that; as the floorpan has been chopped off, the integrity of the frame, alongwith the overall dynamics, would be extremely low on this baby...unless he fitted a custom-made space-frame and reinforced the shortened floorpan, and integrated a roll cage into the body- which i don't think he has done....

nevertheless, like i said, full marks for effort.....but i wouldn't risk ripping her, though....looks too brittle...

p.s- what's that last pic..?? the pic of a pic of a mazda (???)....

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by veyron1

...so, any mods on the engine...???

See post #5 (posted 2302 hrs)

Originally Posted by veyron1

i definitely wouldn't bet on that; as the floorpan has been chopped off, the integrity of the frame, alongwith the overall dynamics, would be extremely low on this baby...

I'm not betting...I'm more of the guessing type.

Originally Posted by veyron1

p.s- what's that last pic..?? the pic of a pic of a mazda (???)....

Dunno. His camera was full of cars he'd done and cars he'd seen, so I cant make out which is which. Will know for good when I visit his garage.

[veyron1]

See post #5 (posted 2302 hrs)

well, i was thinking he might be having some basic stuff like a K&N, headers, iridiums, etc....i thought you meant he was looking for some serious modders....

I'm not betting...I'm more of the guessing type.

he..he...

[X-Machine]

Very neat looking car.Does it have a raised front suspension???
This car would look really sporty with bright color scheme.Nevertheless,its an fantastic effort.

X

[Mpower]

Last pic looks like a 1st generation Hyundai Tiburon.....at least the headlights.
If he knows what he's doing, then it should be pretty safe. Limos are made by chopping existing monocoques and lengthning them. Going shorter is safer.
Nice execution. DC had made a similar concept by chopping a Matiz...was called LiL.
Hey this could be the answer to Ratan Tata's prayers...the infamous 1 lakh car..take an Indica and divide by 2.

[Stratos]

Sadly, the hood is too long compared to the wholebody. Rear is kind of OK but the front look is just so boring.

Anylink with the 2008 1lac rupee car???

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Stratos

Sadly, the hood is too long compared to the wholebody. Rear is kind of OK but the front look is just so boring.

Anylink with the 2008 1lac rupee car???

The car looks much better in the flesh than in these pics, because the slightly rounded sides of the Indica look slab-sided on a 2 dimensional pic (profile pics).

This is a one-off effort by an individual - the Tatas have nothing to do with it but hey, why not? Change the body panels to fiberglass, reduce weight drastically and plonk in a version of the Ace mini-truck engine that is not detuned for fuel efficiency...

Jokes apart I did speak with many of the Tata dealers and they are all of the opinion that the Ace truck is probably the platform for the 1-lakh car just as the Tatamobile was for their original car project. Question is, WHAT do they take off to reduce costs because the Ace costs Rs.2.35 lakhs on the road, though they would obviously doing much bigger volumes on a 1-lakh car than what they are doing with the Ace.



PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT FROM MY 2ND POST:

Originally Posted by Steeroid

He's now trying to get information on how to regularize this mod at the RTO...any help / information forthcoming will be highly appreciated. He is also looking to tie up with people who can work on the engine.