[Miyer]

Dear Mike,
Hi Niel,

Nice to see another well-maintained Contessa. Which model is your car? Ours were both 1988 cars, although we bought them from two different owners, a few years apart.
Thanks for the compliment and appreciate it.Mine is a 1989 model. Both your cars looked great and would have picked them up had i known you were selling them off...somehow I am a petrol freak like you have mentioned and diesel on the conti is ..gulp...

We had converted both engines to the HM-ISUZU 2.0 DSL (diesel) engines as we needed the cars as daily commutes and running them on petrol was criminal at least as far as the cost was concerned. But the smoothness of the petrol was excellent!
Sure sometimes being practical is good ..in this case its like the beauty and the beast.

But I was almost in tears to change the engine of my car to diesel because it had an excellent Japanese ISUZU engine and gearbox being one of the early Classic cars. Being sparingly used too, the car was in good shape when I bought her. After that however, I gave her a completely new paint job at HM's dealership here in Mysore and then a 3M detailing job. She used to shine like a new car and turn many heads on the road. The same for my brother's Contessa Classic too. My car was always parked in the shade and kept covered with a cloth dust cover even at my office.
U just said it ..petrol is great and in idle you dont even realise that a big engine is running.
We had to give up our cars because suspension and other spares were getting difficult to come by, production of the cars being stopped for quite some time. Although the car shared engine and many other parts with new-gen. Ambassadors, we thought it wise to sell off both cars. Clyde sold his first and we had every intention of hanging on to my Contessa, but then we thought the better of it and sold mine too - we already had two TATA Indigos and an Indica. Incidentally, my Indica has received special recognition by TATA Motors and their dealers in Mysore, M/s. Urs Kar Service Centre Pvt. Ltd., for the excellent maintenance. I hope you saw the pics in my web-album.
Spares are still not a problem and I have created a network across for new and old spares.. i have already helped 3 other conti owners source lot of parts and ship them.Parts including Power steering kits and cosmetics like bumpers ect.I am all out to revive this dying car.The diesel car shares its engine parts with the Tavera.. and petol quite a bot of inventory is still available.
Like my Contessa, my Indica is maintained with a lot of love and care and almost six years down the line (21/Oct), she looks better than new. That's because we have painted her bumpers, door handles and mirror in Mica Black (as against the pale grey OE fitment) and added many tasteful extras, including 3M detailing.
The indicas are lovely too..very well maintained..looks like you never drive them...just kidding.

Sadly, both the new owners of the cars have not maintained them like we did - we do see them occasionally in our city. The guy who bought my car, has stripped off the bumpers, affixed rally stripes and to add insult to injury, has painted these words on the dicky lid 'This Is My Coffin'. I wonder how these guys brains work, or if they have any at all.
Sad.. these guys must have bought it for the economy and run it like a truck..i know a couple of guys who use diesel contis in kolar and tumkur for transporting rice,water cans and other groceries...they wreck the car and scrap it 3 years.
All the best with your car. I have a small suggestion - two chrome accents on the rear plate between the rear lights would give it a nice touch. The chrome accents will go well with the chrome rings on your wheel rims.
I have them ...but havent put them up and small works here and there are pending..thanks again for the eye for detail and hope to see you sometime in mysore/bangalore.
I can also be contacted on my mail maheshiyers@gmail.com
Thanks again Neil and keep in touch.

Bye
Mike

Best wishes,
Neil.

[cinclaturbo]

@ neiltopaz,
That's one amazing collection you have. I have query, that Rothmans Porsche 956 you have, where did you pick it up and what brand/make is it? I have been trying to get my hands on one of these for ages now.
So far have'nt found any in south India.

Are all your models bought in India or do you buy them from abroad as well?

[neiltopaz]

Originally Posted by Miyer

Dear Mike,
Hi Niel,

Nice to see another well-maintained Contessa. Which model is your car? Ours were both 1988 cars, although we bought them from two different owners, a few years apart.
Thanks for the compliment and appreciate it.Mine is a 1989 model. Both your cars looked great and would have picked them up had i known you were selling them off...somehow I am a petrol freak like you have mentioned and diesel on the conti is ..gulp...

We had converted both engines to the HM-ISUZU 2.0 DSL (diesel) engines as we needed the cars as daily commutes and running them on petrol was criminal at least as far as the cost was concerned. But the smoothness of the petrol was excellent!
Sure sometimes being practical is good ..in this case its like the beauty and the beast.

But I was almost in tears to change the engine of my car to diesel because it had an excellent Japanese ISUZU engine and gearbox being one of the early Classic cars. Being sparingly used too, the car was in good shape when I bought her. After that however, I gave her a completely new paint job at HM's dealership here in Mysore and then a 3M detailing job. She used to shine like a new car and turn many heads on the road. The same for my brother's Contessa Classic too. My car was always parked in the shade and kept covered with a cloth dust cover even at my office.
U just said it ..petrol is great and in idle you dont even realise that a big engine is running.
We had to give up our cars because suspension and other spares were getting difficult to come by, production of the cars being stopped for quite some time. Although the car shared engine and many other parts with new-gen. Ambassadors, we thought it wise to sell off both cars. Clyde sold his first and we had every intention of hanging on to my Contessa, but then we thought the better of it and sold mine too - we already had two TATA Indigos and an Indica. Incidentally, my Indica has received special recognition by TATA Motors and their dealers in Mysore, M/s. Urs Kar Service Centre Pvt. Ltd., for the excellent maintenance. I hope you saw the pics in my web-album.
Spares are still not a problem and I have created a network across for new and old spares.. i have already helped 3 other conti owners source lot of parts and ship them.Parts including Power steering kits and cosmetics like bumpers ect.I am all out to revive this dying car.The diesel car shares its engine parts with the Tavera.. and petol quite a bot of inventory is still available.
Like my Contessa, my Indica is maintained with a lot of love and care and almost six years down the line (21/Oct), she looks better than new. That's because we have painted her bumpers, door handles and mirror in Mica Black (as against the pale grey OE fitment) and added many tasteful extras, including 3M detailing.
The indicas are lovely too..very well maintained..looks like you never drive them...just kidding.

Sadly, both the new owners of the cars have not maintained them like we did - we do see them occasionally in our city. The guy who bought my car, has stripped off the bumpers, affixed rally stripes and to add insult to injury, has painted these words on the dicky lid 'This Is My Coffin'. I wonder how these guys brains work, or if they have any at all.
Sad.. these guys must have bought it for the economy and run it like a truck..i know a couple of guys who use diesel contis in kolar and tumkur for transporting rice,water cans and other groceries...they wreck the car and scrap it 3 years.
All the best with your car. I have a small suggestion - two chrome accents on the rear plate between the rear lights would give it a nice touch. The chrome accents will go well with the chrome rings on your wheel rims.
I have them ...but havent put them up and small works here and there are pending..thanks again for the eye for detail and hope to see you sometime in mysore/bangalore.
I can also be contacted on my mail maheshiyers@gmail.com
Thanks again Neil and keep in touch.

Bye
Mike

Best wishes,
Neil.

Hi Mike!

Thanks for your responses and your appreciation. The Contessa was my dream car ever since it was launched. I remember, the first ad. they released - I was in the 9th standard then - I just couldn't take my eyes off the car.

Many years later after we shifted residence from Bombay to Mysore, I was about to buy myself a car, was looking out for an Ambassador and then suddenly came upon my Contessa which was with a friend. They had four cars then and were not using the Contessa much. I remember the first drive I took, it was heavenly. I immediately abandoned all plans to buy an Ambassador and bought this car instead. I had to keep the car with my friend for over a month because we were then in a rented house and had only one garage which was occupied with my brother's Ambassador.

I remember going there every few days to start the car, take it to office and park it back, regretting the day was over. It was like going out on a date with the girl of your dreams!

I do hope we can meet soon. I will call you next time I plan a long visit to Bangalore.

Best regards,
Neil.

[Miyer]

hey sure neil...will be happy to meet you.
let me know when you will be in bangalore or I will be in Mysore.
bye
Mike

Originally Posted by neiltopaz

Hi Mike!

Thanks for your responses and your appreciation. The Contessa was my dream car ever since it was launched. I remember, the first ad. they released - I was in the 9th standard then - I just couldn't take my eyes off the car.

----

I do hope we can meet soon. I will call you next time I plan a long visit to Bangalore.

Best regards,
Neil.

[SamuraiJack]

You guys are featured on Times!!! here's a link Miniature cars with memories-Bangalore Times-Cities-The Times of India

I don't know what to say.. Crazy!! Passionate it would be great to see your collection, its very inspiring.

[neiltopaz]

We have been featured by a number of magazines, private news-bulletins and periodicals. Some of them are:

Autocar India
Overdrive
The Times of India
The Economic Times
Deccan Herald
Bangalore Times
Mysore Plus (a supplement of the Times of India, Mysore Edition)
Spectrum
Rotary Mysore's bulletin - CHAMUNDI
Many regional newspapers & magazines in Karnataka
ETV (at the launch of their channel)

[SamuraiJack]

I was so inspired by seeing the collections on team bhp ove the last week that I went out and got some for myself- I just could'nt wait for the weekend to arrive. I visited almost all the toy shops in Bangalore to check the scale models out. Come Saturday- me and my girl went straight to Model Art in Forum. I was specifically looking for a grey/black lamborghini murcielago to my dissapointment the only colours available in the 1:18 scales were Orange/Purple.. after much hunting I happened to find a black dark grey gallardo I visited so many shops I can't remember where I found this one. Its a burago but the finish is a tad dissapointing.

Auto art models are the best and they are pretty costly as well- 1750 for a 1:24 scale but the finish is outstanding. Signature is good too but they hardly have a collection seem to be more focused on the older models.

Model Art is the best place to go- just that you need to have a budget of atleast 2K to get a decent scale- He has a skyline and Buggati priced at around 4K... man these are awesome- I will own them soon. A Lambo at around 20K is available as well.

I visited the shops again on Sunday and picked up a 1:24 Shelby Cobra- it's a beauty from Maisto.

The stuff I picked up were all around 500 bucks. Picked up a pull back Dodge Viper as well . They all sitting pretty in my swift. Plan to get a shelf soon to get these beauties hooked up. It's a trip just looking at them again and again.

[Americans58-65]

Originally Posted by neiltopaz

We have been featured by a number of magazines, private news-bulletins and periodicals. Some of them are:
=================
Many regional newspapers & magazines in Karnataka
ETV (at the launch of their channel)

Hi Neil, I sent you an email saying I am coming to Mysore tomorrow,and would love to see your collection .Would appreciate a reply,if it's not too much trouble. Cheers

[manishalive]

hey Neil,

I have herad of your collection, saw it on the web album, appreciated it like any thing, I too am a small collector (50 cars and bikes) but what u have done is awesome, and its not only the cars its the accompanying details that have moved me, my wife is now thinking on the same lines.

I would die to pay you a visist, please reply to my post your view and when can I meet you.

[pranava999]

Hi Niel could you please post the address of Autofest, so some of us Bangaloreans will now have a reason to drive to Mysore! Not that driving in itself is not good enough a reason

[Sujith1100]

Originally Posted by Miyer

Hi Niel,
Please find below my conti pics.I see that you also have 2 very well mintained conti's and i am doing my best to revive this car.
Regards,
Mike

Hey know your car, Koramangala 7th block right. I admire it very much. When ever I pass through your area I drive through your lane to see the car. I stay in 8th block near the Police station

[fz_rider]

Post Deleted by the Team-BHP Support : SMS / Slang is STRICTLY prohibited on this community. We would much appreciate your using full & proper english in posts, for the benefit of other forum users.

Also, do NOT post one liners that add ZERO value to the thread.

Please view our board rules carefully before proceeding any further.

[Sujith1100]

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/collec...ml#post1744804

My friend's collection, have a look. There are many cars too but all those next time. I was running short of time so clicked a few to show my fellow-Bhpians.

[kamlesh_61]

Hello Neil, I am the guy who got up the last to this. Long story, later may be.
Your Autofest is great, needless to say.
I too have rekindled my age old passion for cars and Scale Models and discovered I do have a few!!!
I am still wondering how to well display them "DUST FREE"!!!
Can you suggest?
and yes ofcourse put me on your mailing list for your newsletter on
kamlesh_61@redffmail.com
Regards, Kamlesh

[ram_hyundai]

The best collection of scale models. Could not believe my eyes seeing the sheer numbers and quality.

Ram