[ashis89]

I used to own a 1st gen Pulsar dtsi and I have filled 19.5L of petrol after running about 30 kms in reserve. I almost panicked that the tank had a leak when the bike kept gulping petrol even after 15L mark which was the maximum I had expected.

Pulsar also had a bent kick lever design though I am not sure if TVS had already implemented the same in Apache 150.

[karpusv]

Originally Posted by GTO

• The Toyota Qualis was such a market favourite that it recorded its highest sales in the same month that its demise was announced. For the longest time, between a Qualis & Innova of similar vintage, it's the former that commanded higher resale value. I know of some Qualis owners who got fed up of people following them home with offers.

I know of a case in 2012. My colleague's uncle sold his Mint-Condition Qualis in Bangalore and was extremely pleased.

Purchased price: ~ 7.25L (2004)
Sold price: 7.25L (2012)

He settled for a Vx Grade Innova.

Talk about a sweet deal.

[voyageur]

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

yes..but if I remember correctly, the disc on CBZ was optional.It was available with a 130 mm drum up-front too,with a lower price tag and there was a considerable demand for this variant too. I think it was the pulsar that made front disc brakes standard on mainstream 150cc + bikes in India. Please Correct me if I am wrong.

Yes..that is correct.The first gen pulsars (both the classic and 1st Gen DTSi) had 18 litre fuel tanks. Even the Bullet didn't have such tank capacity. I own a 1st gen DTSi with such a massive tank. I have never done a tank full in these entire 11 years of owning it. 10 litre is the maximum that I have ever filled.

With the first upgrade of the DTSi series, Bajaj downsized both the tank and the rim size.



yes..that was a major design flaw on an otherwise superb bike.Used to be so annoying to fold the right-foot peg everytime before kick-starting the bike.
And Electric start was not a standard feature then.

But I remember,the same issue was tackled in a very simple and clever manner by TVS, by just giving an angular bend to the kick-lever.
I think it was on Apache or 1st gen RTR- can't remember the exact model and year.

When I used to stay in Mumbai a friend of mine owned a blue CBZ having disc brakes. That's how I thought it was standard. Thanks for correcting me. So its Bajaj which brought disc as a standard.

The kicker lever problem was tackled even better by the Bajaj R&D team, I guess everything about looks in Pulsar was imprinted straight in my heart. Sadly not the quality of the bike though.

My brother still owns a 1st generation pulsar 150cc, which still does OK.

Thanks for the correction

Cheers

[quote=Sheel;3415982]

Originally Posted by voyageur

Right. CBZ had an option of disc/drum & Electric start.

Spot on. Was launched on 15th Oct 2003 (how time flies) & I got one on 4th Nov '03.


In Apache as well you had to bend the footpeg to kick-start? The Apache 150 I think.

My friend owns an RTR 150 and it has an angular kicker. I don't remember him use kicker but I remember him saying that it didn't need the foot peg bend as in CBZ.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Nitrous Power

Small correction here: It was Kawasaki Eliminator that came with electric starter. Eliminator was launched before Pulsar for sure.

I think Eliminator was first motorcycle to come with 130 section rear tyre in India.

Both Eliminator and Pulsar was launched in 2001. Eliminator was launched in the month of July and Pulsar was in Oct-Nov iirc. You are spot on that Eliminator was the first bike to sport an Electric starter. Again my friend in the building I used to live owned an Eliminator. Thanks for the heads up.

Cheers

Also the first bike I know to sport a analog tachometer was CBZ. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[Nitrous Power]

Originally Posted by _raVan_

Both were launched almost in the same timeframe. But as far as I remember, Pulsar was launched before Eliminator.



Eliminator was launched on Jul, 2001. Source

We are going OT here, but if you go through article, it clearly mentioned that Eliminator was launched in January where as Pulsar was supposed to launch in October.
From the article:

"he said, adding about 300 eliminator's had been sold in mumbai, pune and bangalore since its launch in january this year. ravichandran said .......
........"this october, we are launching another 175cc bike 'pulsar'," ravichandran added. "

Again, I am sure that Eliminator was launched before Pulsar cause I was one of the first one to buy Eliminator. My bike's engine/ chassis number was in 2 digits since it was from the first lot.

I remember, it was launched in phased manner and It was not launched in Gujarat but I got it from Bombay dealer that too much before pulsar was launched.

[mail4ajo]

Not sure if you guys remember, there was a phase where we used to have Diesel Enfield's.

It first started with Sooraj pumps engines conversion (I think so) and later the company developed its own 325cc Taurus. They discontinued due to Pollution norms. Most gave 70+kms/litre. I have ridden both the versions and the Sooraj ones literally unscrewed every bone in your body.

[tsk1979]

Another titbit
Some Volkswagon cars are named after winds
Golf means Gulf in German
Passat means - Trade wind
Jetta means - Jet Stream
Scirocco - Hurricane in Sahara
http://why.vw.com/stories#/stories/show/id/18381

[noopster]

Man this was a riot to read. I predict this will become one of the forum's hottest threads of all time!

Originally Posted by GTO

• For car owners in the eighties & nineties, it was a ritual to apply anti-rust coating on the bumpers of their Padminis & Ambassadors. When the rain Gods arrived, cars on our roads magically ended up with golden bumpers.

Haha. Oh yes! We did that religiously to the ole Padmini every year. Man, you brought back memories of a tankful of fuel with a 500 rupee 'Gandhiji'. This was way back in 1993 when I started driving- petrol cost about 17/- a litre then (almost 5 times that now)!

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

We once had a M800 sized hatchback sold in India, which was rear wheel drive.

Which one? The Sipani Dolphin, which was essentially the British Reliant Kitten.

Yup- I was wondering how GTO's opening post didn't mention the Dolphin. It was a rage in Bangalore where we spent our summer holidays- funnily enough you couldn't find one in Bombay if you tried! When the original Maruti came out I remember thinking the Dolphin was so much better looking!

Originally Posted by devansn

I have heard a story about Mr. Sumant Moolgaonkar: He had come for a job interview at Mr. JRD Tata's office. When the interview was midway, Mr. Tata had to go out for some time for an urgent meeting. The meeting went on for quite some time and the scene what Mr. Tata saw when he came back is: Mr. Sumant is comfortably sleeping on his chair with his legs on the table! Mr. Tata was angry and asked for an explanation. The reply from Mr. Sumant was enough for his immediate placement in the Tata's: "I felt at home", he said.

Wow that was one incredible story- thanks for sharing! It must have taken a great deal of courage to say that (and not sound insincere) to the great man himself.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Another titbit
Some Volkswagon cars are named after winds
Golf means Gulf in German
Passat means - Trade wind
Jetta means - Jet Stream
Scirocco - Hurricane in Sahara
http://why.vw.com/stories#/stories/show/id/18381

Aren't they all? Vento means wind in Portuguese and Italian.

Thanks Rush for this lovely thread. Will rack my brain trying to add more tidbits to it. One thing I can remember that the current generation probably has no idea about is the steering column mounted "hand gears" that were used in the Padminis and Ambys till about the mid-90s. Strictly four-speed (forward and up for 1st, forward and down for 2nd, back and up for 3rd, back and down for 4th; reverse was a complicated full back and down, to be confirmed by that horrible "clack" sound).

Ah...good times!

[saket77]

Originally Posted by noopster

Thanks Rush for this lovely thread. Will rack my brain trying to add more tidbits to it. One thing I can remember that the current generation probably has no idea about is the steering column mounted "hand gears" that were used in the Padminis and Ambys till about the mid-90s. Strictly four-speed (forward and up for 1st, forward and down for 2nd, back and up for 3rd, back and down for 4th; reverse was a complicated full back and down, to be confirmed by that horrible "clack" sound).

Ah...good times!

+1. Engaging the reverse gear in the FIAT/Premier and the Amby was like an exercise!

Another one!
We have a thread that depicts real life experiences of the TBHP guys w.r.t. their wives. The fairer sex surely does not have any interest in the hobbies of the petrolheads.

Or is it? A startling fact is that windshield wipers were invented by...hold your breath guys...by Mary Anderson, a woman!
Though, not related to Indian car scene, but I was tempted to post this.

[aaggoswami]

Not sure if its mentioned here or not, but Bajaj Caliber was first in its segment to have headlight adjustment screw which was easily accessible. It was on side of headlamp assembly. IIRC, even Dilip Bam had this point highlighted.
Also, Caliber had a 45W dual filament bulb, where even today, majority are using 35W dual filament bulb.
Caliber initially ( till around 2000 ) managed to give nightmares to Hero Honda Splendor.

Caliber 115 was 111.6 CC bike, just like the original Caliber, but it was just mentioned 115.

Wind 125 probably had the smoothest small bike engine ever to have launched. That sort of smoothness is still not available in modern bikes.

Bajaj Spirit ( 2-speed AT ) and Saffire had different sort of automatic transmissions, not CVT. It was a segment first ( and to the best of my knowledge, nothing of that sort is available in the market ). At moderate speeds ( for Spirit/Saffire ), it felt like right hand was connected to rear wheel, just like in bikes. No lags.

The great Sachin Tendulkar once did ad for Sunny Zip. Attached image is sourced from google image search.

[Warwithwheels]

Am not sure if it is covered elsewhere on this thread. This is about the interesting naming convention followed by M&M.

All of Mahindra's model names whether it's the SUVs like Bolero, Scorpio, Xylo, or even the XUV 5OO, pronounced as five double oh, or the company's two-wheelers Duro, Rodeo, Stallio and Pantero have the same ending.

[TheTeacher]

Anybody remember the old petrol pumps?

There used to be Esso (Standard Oil of the US, now Exxon worldwide), Burmah Shell, Caltex, etc. There was a family bias towards Esso. They were the most numerous, and reputedly had the best / cleanest fuel. Some of these got nationalized at some point of time. Esso became Hindustan Petroleum; Burmah Shell became Bharat Petroleum.

As has been pointed out, there were not many trains; air travel was prohibitively expensive and had few options. If you had a car, this was the best / cheapest / fastest way to travel.

Going back to the farthest corners of my memory, I remember petrol at Rs. 2.nn a litre. Even at the purchasing power of the rupee in those days, this was cheap as heck.

Yes, I'm that old!

[slicvic]

Originally Posted by GTO

This list is only a start.

• The Fiat Uno's booking record remains unbeaten.

It was quite a car for its price.
The car came with a single wiper like the Mercs of those days, and a massive 1.9L diesel engine like the Skoda Octavia
There was some quirk with the door lock too. Don't remember what exactly it was.

Originally Posted by saket77

Also, FIAT was unhappy with IDeA, the organization which designed the Indica with inputs from Tata Engineers because it shared a partially similar design (particularly the rear doors & windows) to another FIAT car which was also being designed at IDeA.

The Palio and the Indica rear quarters were similar, both being done by the same design house Italdesign. Was there a third similar car by the same designers? Don't remember correctly.

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

Yes..that is correct.The first gen pulsars (both the classic and 1st Gen DTSi) had 18 litre fuel tanks. Even the Bullet didn't have such tank capacity. I own a 1st gen DTSi with such a massive tank. I have never done a tank full in these entire 11 years of owning it. 10 litre is the maximum that I have ever filled.

I guess you never went to Goa on your bike.

[tilt]

Talking about waiting periods, I remember when there was an 18-year waiting period for a Bajaj Chetak scooter! People used to beg army-types to buy it for them from the canteen, or buy it in the black-market, much like Maruti allotment papers!

That's why my father bought a Bajaj Super instead - that only had a 10-month waiting period or something like that.

Cheers

[ksmrsm]

On the point of two wheelers, does anyone remember the Fury and the Explorer? I think they were both from the house of Enfield. The fury was probably the first faired sports bike with 175 cc and the Explorer a 75 cc one.

Do apologize in advance if my facts are wrong.

[Sutripta]

Some odds and ends:
Tempo Viking 3 Cyl 2 stroke petrol FWD.

Fuel dispensers: The clock type, and the double glass bottle type.

Mandatory spares for a long drive in an Ambassador:- gear lever, and rear axle halfshaft. (The Ambassador front seat backrest also used to break off, but rather than carrying a spare front seat, you sturdily welded it the day after taking delivery of your brand new car!)

Some BEST buses had a Wilson preselector GB.

None of the older cars had synchros on the first gear.

Can someone confirm whether the original GB for the Safari had synchros on the reverse gear?

The 800 5spd was withdrawn because it was perceived to be taking sales away from the Alto. Similar for the Alto VX - Zen. And the reason why the (no brainer) Zen 1.3 was never launched.

In the Premier, when the dies wore out, and the front glass would not fit properly, the glass size was changed, rather than rectifying the die.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Another titbit
Some Volkswagon cars are named after winds
Golf means Gulf in German
Passat means - Trade wind
Jetta means - Jet Stream
Scirocco - Hurricane in Sahara
http://why.vw.com/stories#/stories/show/id/18381

And Maserati has the Bora and Ghibli.
In any case, always thought the Golf was named after the game (like Polo).
And Sirocco: wonder which aspect VAG found appropiate: the hot dry wind of the Saharas, or the cool rain bearing one of Europe.

Regards
Sutripta