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I had clicked a picture of a trophy won by someone. It had a PAL logo on the trophy. Any idea which year was this trophy given:

I remember him saying it as 84 or 86...We must ask him next time we meet.

I'm curious here...were there any Dolphins participating in the Himalayan at any point of time??

not that i remember.. but here is one in the hands of Kiran Mody,

is that an 800???wow amazing..cool find hell kull

I remeber watching the flag off of this rally from Kanteevara Stadium.

The Mayura broke down before leavig the stadium leaving a cheesed off Uday. The Lancer showed off too much damaging the track. It later crashed up somewhere if I recollect. I think Kari fielded a Srilankankan registered Escort.
A lot of cars got bogged down in the mud, the Dolphin - it was too light to get bogged down, and when it did, they just lifted and shifted it !!!1

Im quite sure thats a Dolphin. Am I right?

Wow.. Awesome find Mr. Niaz.


I can imagine how much fun a rally-prepped Dolphin might have been in the dirt. People who havent driven a Dolphin sideways on the dirt are missing something in their lives for sure...I did just five laps around the local Lalitha Mahal track in Mysore (all the oldies here know this track I'm sure) careful not to damage the car & I was grinning from ear to ear for several hours!!!

But wasn't there other options to drive on dirt sideways at that time?! Or was it that the Dolphins eclipsed them?

Cyrus, the front tyre picture and the car positioning with respect to the road, should tell you that this is not a front wheel drive!

There was the Amby, the Fiat (most popular) & the Herald. Later the 118NE and Contessa. All of these (save for the Herald maybe) lacked the suspension finesse and low weight of the Dolphin. The stock suspension is so well-tuned that even an inexperienced driver can hold a slide through the turn easily.

With a little more power (typically twice the original lol:) its an ideal drift car.

yea sory.did not notice that

amazing memory - to remember the reg numbers as well. i guess gone are the olden days of motor sports. :( the rally sounded like an amazing load of fun.

This is just asking, not questioning the capabilities of the Dolphin. What are the Rally achievements of the Dolphin and what did it beat?

Offtopic but I see a Dolphin in your Garage, doesn't it require justice to be meted out to it? Anyway its probably starting to make a point to me that my Dad once said, if he ever "buys" a car that will be a Dolphin! Too bad that he said he was dissapointed with the Montana (although it had 4 doors).

I dont know much about the rally achievements, but I do know that in Sholavaram it was much faster than the Fiats & even the 800s. I remember my mentor telling me that most Group N Dolphins were quicker than the A1A Fiat that he ran. And remember, in Group N only a muffler change and suspension tuning was allowed. Whereas in A1A you could do whatever you wanted but using Indian parts only.

I also remember reading in an old Indian Auto magazine a report of a late 80s K1000 rally. In that rally the Group A2 Gypsy's dominated of course, but most of the special stages were won by Vicky Chandhok in his Dolphin until he DNF'ed with connecting rod failure. It is not unreasonable to assume that the Gypsy's were putting out some serious hp because Group A2 is unlimited modifications class.

I think the Dolphin was let down by poor factory support and simply, not enough people racing them.


I'm not sure what you mean by that?

Video's of tail hanging out etc!