Four decades of a deep strong relationship.
Sounds either abnormal or weird.
No logic can possibly come in the way of justifying my passion for this half a century old contraption. Affectionately called Ambassador.
Old in every which way. Old in design. Old in handling. Old in power. The look is really old! But this is where I think it carries its charm and carries it really well amidst an ocean of modern designs. Please remember that I’m only discussing the Ambassador from the period of Mark I to Mark III. Post this, everything in the Ambassador has gone down the drain like the company HM itself.
The only exception or saving grace was the introduction of 1.8 ISZ engine.
One can travel back in time when it was a seller’s market and not buyer’s.
There was a minimum level of respect and the customer used to get the value for his money. Every critical component was imported. The reason was simple enough cause we did not have those manufacturing facilities those days. As a result, an Ambassador bought 30 years back (well maintained) was running way better than one from the 80s.
We had two cars in our family. One was my father’s office car, bought in 1964 and mine, which is still with me. I bought this car from my father’s friend way back in 1984. He was building his house and ran short of cash and not to mention that he’d already graduated to a Maruti 800. I helped him by downloading my four years of savings to clear his garage. The damage, was 20,000/- to be precise.
It’s a 1959 (December) model. It should have been a Mark I by default. But it was Mark II. Why? Because HM those days were thinking a little ahead. There were quite a few changes from the original Mark I offerings. This was one of their test cars. Car came with Over Head Valve (OHV) engine 1500cc (1489) with a compression ratio of 7.2:1 from Side Head Valve. The SU semi-down draught carburetor from Birmingham was designed to give a good FE. Instruments cluster consisted of an analogue watch, speedometer with odometer and trip meter indicating 90MPH (!!!!!???) with ignition and high beam jewel lights, one console with amp meter, oil pressure gauge and direction indicator light. All three were connected with a potentiometer to increase/decrease the meter lights. A thoughtful and useful device which faded out in time. Made in England, the brand called ‘Smith’ gave me faultless service for twenty years. Self-starter motor, wiper motor, dynamo, electric fuel pump motor and foot assisted high/low beam switch were from LUCAS England. Surprisingly my wheel jack was also from England and it was so smooth to operate that it managed to draw everybody’s attention. Soon enough, I found it missing from my luggage boot.
Interior appointment was pretty simple to accommodate 4 +1. Bench seats comfort was enhanced by ‘Dunlopillo’ foam. Till date, (one may disagree) an Ambassador’s rear seat is the best in terms of comfort.
The car came with child-proof lock. It was really surprising for me to see a whole lot of manufacturers starting to boast about this as a feature during early 90s.
Mechanical are simple. No changes in the design for the last three decades. A simple wishbone suspension and lower arm assembly for the front. Leaf springs with shock absorber mounted on axle at the back. The original differential was extremely touchy and any lack of maintenance (checking oil level on a regular basis) would result in massive hum. 1489cc engine was a smooth one (heavily tuning depended) and took it’s own time to reach 50km speed. The maximum speed I’ve done with this engine was 60mph (96kmph) with SU carburetor and 70mph (112kmph) with SOLEX M32PBIC carburetor. SOLEX carburetor was an introduction sometime during the 80s. One had the choice of various jet sizes to get a little more juice out of that 55bhp mill.
15inch cross ply tires were in 155/165 width. Choice of standard black wall or white side wall. Cross ply it may be but it used to take all the road impurities aplomb. Simple suspension helped but regular rubber bush changing was a chore.
I’ve done enough number of cross-country trips with this set up. Frankly, there was time when I could venture out of town without a single farthing in my pocket. Just fill in petrol and drive.
1991 January, I landed in Bangalore. My car landed after a month. According to me that was the time my Ambassador started a different chapter in life. In 1992 I met a cute guy who owns a workshop. I took a great amount of time and energy to explain to him what I was looking at. He took double the time to digest that. The plan was simple enough for anybody to understand but not to execute. Let’s go through the plan….
Engine had to be changed from the existing 1.5 one to 1.8 ISZ.
Front suspension had to be modified to accommodate disk brake.
Pre-historic dynamo should go and alternator should come.
Reinforce the chassis/sub frame to house the Isuzu 5 speed gearbox.
Reinforce the middle floor area to mount the two piece prop shaft joint.
Replace the rear axle/differential housing to an Isuzu one.
To accommodate that extra 6 inches length of rear axle/differential, tap the body out.
Change the location of clutch/brake/accelerator pedal. Instead of mushrooming out from the floor they should be suspended from the top.
Work out a linkage to position the gear lever close to the driving position.
Change the entire dashboard assembly.
Make bucket seats (During that time it was not available in the market as option).
More lumbar support on all the seats.
Put vacuum booster to supercharge the brakes.
Make enough room for stereo system controls.
Bring the hand brake lever in between the front seat (this was one big let down for overall Ambassador design).
Change the wheels to 13inches from 15inches.
Tap the bonnet’s sharp curve to a rounded smooth one.
Re-position the rear number plate down and have plate lights from Maruti 800. (When SUMO can use it blatantly then why not me?)
Put anti-roll bar in front.
Add tachometer. Simple one though.
Add rear wiper.
Add windshield washer. Front and back.
Remove that ugly fuel cap. Hide it inside. Give me a flick lever next to my seat.
Have air conditioner. After all this, you need one.
After explaining all this (over a couple of lousy whiskies in some shady bar) to my Mallu Christian friend, I came back home with very high hopes.
Not knowing that I’m not going to see him for next few weeks. The guy absconded.
He got back from his native (that’s how they describe their hometown here), rejuvenated after two and a half-week with a brilliant proposal. ‘Let’s buy a car (Contessa) and strip it’. We’ll get all the necessary parts and the remaining corpse can sold very easily in the market. Apart from my initial 20000/- for the car, I paid another 60000/- to get a Contessa.
The deal looked ok to me. Work started and almost never ended. Every day after my usual work shenanigans, I was there in the workshop. Endless cups of lousy tea (instead of my favorite) and lots of ifs and buts, the day used to end as lemon.
It may sound pessimistic but that exactly was the situation. We had no point of reference to check or judge our progress. Car got ready (read road worthy) after two and a half months. External jobs such as making a new grill to house the A/C coil fan, painting eight coats of paint (cut off at least two coats to get that smooth mirror finish) took another month.
One mild breezy January evening the car was ready to hit the road after her long hibernation.
The car did move and how! It could be a perception or a reality or a mix of both. After graduating from 1500cc push rod to 1800ISZ, car felt different. Only natural, as I guessed a few teething problems started showing up. Front left side brake was biting more then the right one. Handbook says advance position of 6 degree TDC with 600rpm. No, doesn’t work for me. Since this carburetor doesn’t come with low idle vacuum switch for A/C, 10 degree and 900rpm (no heating up) position suits me fine. A small leakage problem from brake booster played havoc… car would start and run for sometime and suddenly engine cuts off with a violent shake. Problem got sorted out by putting a new booster unit. Engine, as it came from that Contessa, had ran over a lakh km. Later, I got it replaced with another one. Since this engine has no demand, you get by dime a dozen. Only factor is the reliability. Till date I’ve changed six engines and the current one is a gem.
Current engine is 16000km old, porting job done by my friend Sajay Agarwal and waiting for my dear friend Psycho to take the challenge to design a free flow.
The car behaves little better than a regular Ambassador. A little more composed, little less roll, sure footed braking and with incredible torque. Gearing is as tall as Empire State building. Third produces the best result if you’re above 50km. Normal cruising on highway is comfortable at 110/120km speed. After that one may push it further but huge monolithic anti aero dynamic design will prove the law of physics once again.
Constant speedometer error (compared with my other slightly more modern car) of 10km.
This is due to 13inch wheel and speedometer designed for 15inch. Small wheels allow me to feel all the small ups and downs on the road. Seldom I get a chance to visit a massage parlour, so I’ve decided to live with it. No seatbelts cause retractable type is not available in the market. IF ANYBODY CAN HELP ME IN THIS AREA, I’LL BE GRATEFUL.
Audio system consists of Pioneer player, Pioneer EQ, Pioneer baby amplifier (2nos), Sony ‘Xplod’ 200watts amplifier and Pioneer 12CD changer. Two pairs of speakers on rear shelf.. 6988 and 6995. Pioneer tweeters in front. Sounds ok for my kind of music.
Ambassador has an inherent problem of noise and rattle. This cannot be stopped and at the same time one cannot possibly blame a 50 years old design being the reason. The only way to avoid this problem is by looking after it. A little more than necessary I suppose. If one is using good components and parts, trust me it’ll give much better service.
For instance, clutch plate (in case of 1.8ISZ) should be DIAKEN. Indian options are available at half the cost and have half the life. All my light bulbs excluding headlamp and front HELLA are PHILIPS and they’re three years old now. Headlamp bulbs (100/130watts) are FLOSSER from Germany. All wheel bearings were scavenged from my father’s old stock (SKF) of imported lot. They’re eight years old and no sign of wear and tear. Wiper blades are two years old BOSCH. I have K&N filter (for 118NE) and it’s helping. This list may go on but nobody’s interested in Ambassador anymore so I should stop.
I’ve done more than 350000 km in this car. Of course with previous and current set up put together. Done a great part of rough road driving for my photography assignments. Used the roof to support my tripod and to gain height. At times it was virtually my second home, especially on the hills where I couldn’t take up a hotel room for having a thin wallet. Never I repeat, never the car let me down. It’s with me from my mid college days. Through good times, and through bad times. People ask me questions at traffic signals. People are all around the car at any parking lot. In Coimbatore somebody offered me a princely sum so that he could plug in a diesel engine without much botheration. One more ready car for his taxi fleet I guess. I did turn back to look at my baby and told him sorry.
Through TBHP I met lot of people. I go little out of my to do that because I believe It’s important for me. Even more so when I’m in the business of communication.
Forum helped me to bump into mad characters like PSYCHO (how appropriate) and his even more mad mechanic VASU. Any holiday is a workshop day for them. Continuously working on their Contessa and Esteem. Both of them know my future agenda and I’m waiting for their time.
Psycho, are you listening?