[1100D]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Some nice period pics from Harit.



I wonder what that interesting looking Jeep in the back is. An early Toyota perhaps?

Why is this car squatting on its rear wheels? Doesn't look like it was a post-rally picture.

[Hell Kuul]

Originally Posted by sudev

@Hell Kuul : You would know better but as I said some may differ ;-)

The problems with Amby's vis Padmini's was that the suspensions in former were first to go - more like disintegrate - and while there may be outright leads but never a win. AFAIK

Ill have to call you "Ranjan" soon Sudev.The problem with the Ambi was never the suspension, it was firstly the axels, but that was improved, but at the latter part of the years when the Fiat V/S Ambi raged, it was always the gearbox that failed, 35 years ago i ran my rally ambi with 8 shocks , gas ones made by "Sachs", in india, much like what the gypsie boys do today, (which is a compleately wrong set up for a gypsie but that is another story) The Fiat was a better handling car, but the ambassador in rally trim was like a Vijayanta tank, you could bash it through the rough stuff flat chat, and nothing would happen to it, the high compression engines we would run made them more than competitive than the fiats in the rarified air of the rotang pass , and the mountain roads in the himalayan, even in south india we ran headlight to headlight with the best rally prepaired fiats in the best hands. Gearbox failure was the main problem.
Have a look at the humble ambi, torsion bar at the front, as fitted to current model Pajeros, and many a sports car, leaf springs at the back, as fitted to the mighty escort. all you needed was a padmini stabiliser bars fitted to the front and rear, and a panhard rod, and would had a pretty good handling car. I would go to the extent to say, give me a 2ltr ambi, and i will prepair it, and win the Raid, without a doubt, dosnt matter who the opposition..

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

I remember that a green Ambassador used to be entered by two Sardars. They used to enter in group "S" and they would coolly plug on and just finish. They would always walk away with the second prize as there was no much competition in group S.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[sudev]

If I remember that would have been Kishie and Sunny. Trust them to come up with these acronyms. Kishies is a well respected journalist now settled in Chandigarh and Sunny Jind is in Gurgaon. Sunny was involved with recces of Desert Storm last year but I understand has been a bit under the weather lately.

There were always enough Amby's to make a class in Himalayan, even if it meant that one or two of them would just take a start and go back home.

[onkar]

Hi guys

Great memories. My dad (Dali Kalsi) competed in the first Himalayan rally in 1980. He was co driving for Ramesh Khoda in a Group 1 Datsun 120Y which they brought to 9th overall after differential problems.

They also finished the safari that year as tail-end-charlies. A great effort for first timers for a disorganised team. My dad was supposed to partner Ramesh in 1981 in a fully works prepared Subaru 1.8 4WD, but due to some complications he couldnt make it.

I will get Ramesh and Dad to write some things here, does anyone have any pics of them. Apparently their picture was on the front page of a local newspaper.

Please put up some pics.

Onkar

[Ina]

Hello Onkar,
we found some Reports about the first rally Himalaya.We search because we have bought the Original Works Toyota Celica which was 2nd Overall 1980 with Mariane Höpfner /Oda Denker Andersen. Maybe your dad can remember and have some Infos for us?
Maybe you found somethin...all reports and Pictures are here

Picasa-Webalben - Ina - Werks Celica

Best regards from Germany
Ina Beck

Werks Rallye Celica TA40 | …do it sideways

[onkar]

Hi Ina

I will ask him when I next see him. We have some pictures somewhere, I will look for them when i am home next. He definitely remembers the celica driven by 2 women and boy could they fly!! Those were his words! Did you not hit a cow somewhere along the route, he remembers you hitting a cow.

[Ina]

Hello Onkar, any News ?
They hitting a cow ? I don´t reallye know but i can ask W.H. Inhester, he as the secons Driver from A.Warmbold in Gr. 4 Celica. He is a good friend from us.
Hope you get some Pics or any Infos...
regards Ina

[onkar]

Hi Ina

Maybe it was the other Celica, all these years on maybe he has his facts a bit crossed up! You guys should think of entering the East African Safari Classic. My Dad is on the organising comittee for that. It would be great for you to see many of the othe Kenyan drivers from the Himalyan. Some of them like Jayant Shah are still competing. Email me on okalsi@gmail.com for more info. I am not going to be home until July so I will look for pics when I am back home.

[headers]

wonderful history. Makes you appreciate what "rallying" was. Would love to hear more from you gentlemen.

Thanks

[rm_arjuna]

wow.. good reading and fantastic write up by Mr.Behram

[tuchha]

After watching the Rally cars go past us in late 1970s at Indore,MP ,remember the LONDON-SYDNY CAR RALLY !! we got motivated & participated in Himalayan Car Rallies in 1981 & 1982.

It was a great experience and later we participated in MIddle east
too.

Uday

[sudev]

Lovely pictures - which year?

[tuchha]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

OK guys, I did some typing last night at home, so I am copying and pasting here now (this is company time, you know) !

Many of you wanted to know about the Himalayan Rally, so here goes. Today, I am giving brief introductions about the first 3 events. Tell me how you like them. I will give information about all the subsequent events soon.

Just to whet your appetite further - the second London Sydney Rally came to Mumbai on 24 August 1977 and left Mumbai on 25 August 1977. I was in VJTI. I will tell you something about Mumbai on those 2 days. Hold on !

The first Himalayan Rally was held in 1980 (28th October 1980 start). The last rally was held in 1990.

1980:
The first rally was flagged off from Mumbai. The total distance as per the road book was 5333.3 kms. to be covered in around 7 days. The route was Mumbai to Aurangabad to Agra to Chandigarh to Delhi. There were cars from Kenya besides other countries. Gujarati guys from Kenya (Shekhar Mehta in an Opel Ascona / Ramesh Khoda) and the "Flying Sikh" (Joginder Singh in a Mercedes 450 SLC) were there. There was an old Jeep Station Wagon as well. A Morris Minor belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, flown down from England was also there. I was a spectator.

1981:
The rally started from the race course in Mumbai. Ramesh Khoda in a Datsun 160J was the favourite. The first transport sector was Mumbai to Delhi (1475 kms). A particular mention. Car no 2 was my teacher Mr.Adi Malgham's brown coloured Volvo, with co-driver my very good friend Sunil Shanbag. They reached Delhi first and had to remove the transmission there to replace the flywheel bush. I was a spectator at the race course because I could not get leave.

1982:
This was the first time that the rally started from Delhi. I was very lucky. I was a team member in one of the DCOC's cars. There were 5 DCOCs (Deputy clerk of the course). The DCOCs were Justice Sam Variava, Homi Commisariat, Jagdish Thackersey, Aspi Dalal, Ravi Jalan and Vasant Patki. 5 FIATS (MMD6300 - Vasant / MRC7979 - Aspi / MMB141 - Homi / MRJ9863 - Jagdish / Justice Sam Variava was in MMF4478, a CL500D Mahindra vehicle with one of the first Peugeot XDP4.90 engines). The FIATS were painted in yellow colour with "Charminar Challenge" logos on them. This was done in Mr.Nazir Hoosein's garage behind Liberty cinema in Mumbai. I travelled from Mumbai to Delhi, did the complete backup and came back to Mumbai in MMD6300, prepared by Sunil Shanbag. We had a ham operator in our car. Our call sign was VU9HRYmobile5 (India is VU2 but for some reason we had VU9). This car was equipped with a twin carburettor setup and I remember that we used to set the mixture strength by putting a tapered air restrictor on top of the carburettor cover. The car gave us absolutely no problem at all. During our return trip it rained continuously from Udaipur to Mumbai. We had to hold an umbrella over the filler port to fill petrol. We were also told at one of the Dhabas that there was a bhoot on this road and we should not venture further. I can still hear the music of Jayant Shah's Nissan 240RS. We would be standing at a control and we would all keep quiet so that we could make out the gearchanges, hear the melody and see bright lights snaking through the wintry sky in the middle of the night before the car would hurtle down on us at the control (it would take around 15 minutes from the time we heard it to the time it came to the control). Believe me guys - none of your so-called "SUBS" or whatever can ever match that music.

How did you like that ? Let me know. There's much more to come. THAT'S MOTORSPORTS !

Behram Dhabhar

Dear Behram,

After 29 long years today I just tried to find out about the Himalayan Car RAlly of 1981 and found your notes which are really nice memories for me too.

My brother SAntosh & I participated in that Rally of 1981 in a HONDA CIVIC, car # 7 and were flagged off from MAhalaxmi RAce Course on that ealy morning of Oct or Nov.

After coming up on the WEstern Express Highway we moved towards Ahmedabad and onwards to Jaipur via Udaipur,I recall.Next morning while driving on the highway from JAipur to Delhi we had a close SHAVE when our car was hit by a large stone which smashed our windshield and we just about managed to stop the car on that BEND on the road.This STONE throwing incident was due to the political agitation by some group saying that the RAllY participants were spending valuable FOREIGN EXCHANGE to buy the High Octane fuel for the Rally cars etc.

We were helped with an emergency windshiled given to us by Atul Kirloskar who was in a Mercedese car fitted with Kirlosker RET4 engine.
Once we PARKFIRMED at Morya Shereton Hotel at New Delhi for the night ,we were give npermission to fix the windshield.We just managed to fit a Plastic sheet in lue of the windshield and started our adventure .After coming thru mud & slush on the LOHA GAHT loop we managed to reach Mussouri .TheWINDSHIELD by now was all scrached and difficult to see thru.

Next morning we started for ROHTANG Pass but our RALLY was cut short once the SNOW FALL started and the plastic shield caved in on us bringing us to retire from the rally that year.

The memories will remain with us and we will remember the ADVENTURE.
We did try again next year in a AUDI QUATRO but that is another story..

regards,

Uday Naik

[headers]

This thread is really nice and one doesnt mind to read it all over again!. Guys, Please post pictures!