[mukundmenon]

Hi all...

There was a Contessa Owners Meet arranged by CCI-Conti Club India (that's what we call ourselves ) at Coonoor, Nilgiris on May 11th and 12th 2013. Coonoor happens to have a large number of Contessa/Vintage car enthusiasts and all the arrangements for the 2 day meet was also done by them. After the date was fixed and we had a rough estimate of the number of Contessas coming for the meet. around 24 cars from the southern three states- Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu came for the meet. Details later, Now for the Pics- Enjoy !!!


I drove my Conty all the way from Trivandrum (450 Kms) to attend the meet and it was an awesome experience. It is my first car -Matt Black 1998 HM ISZ 2.0 diesel Contessa with AC and PS and it has been my daily driver to work for the past 2 years!


My car waiting to meet up with the maroon conty at Mettupalayam, Coimbatore



The Rat-rods of the bunch ... This maroon Conty has a rare 1.8 Isuzu Diesel Japan made engine. It is mated to a 4 speed gearbox rather than the usual 5 speed found in most conty's. It is quick and seems to have slightly more torque in the lower rev's, enabling it to attack the hill roads with gusto.


After tearing through the hairpins and ghat roads we reached Coonoor around 5Pm and assembled at the registration point.


The chief guest explains the underpinnings of the Conti's suspension. Other than FB , most of us had never seen each other in person, so intro's were made, stories shared and had discussions on mods, maintenence, spare availability, etc over tea and snacks.


Following morning we lined up for the rally to be flagged off by none other than... Mr Rajnikanth (not the actor, RTO of Coonoor actually)


So many conti's together, it was a sight to behold.


Last minute entrant for the meet, but was it a looker! Killer mod job and paint work. Clean lines and the interior was souped up like anything. We all agreed that the fake blower has to go, hopefully it would be removed. There are cameras on the outside also- One on the blower, two under the side mirrors which sends video to the screen inside. Both head rests also have screens at the back.


The interior of the matt green conti. Unbelievable transformation from the stock look. Cool AC vents and foot well lights. The screen is actually a PC monitor and has a foldable keyboard and mouse too . It was packed with speakers, woofers and amps. Really mind boggling work!


One of the old examples, still in factory shape though.


This red car stole the show. It was driven all the way from Nagercoil to Coonoor and it has a petrol turbo under the hood. This car was worked on by RedRooster and has many performance mods like a garret turbo, intercooler,imported brake pads! under the hood. Claimed top speed 160+. The owner (He owns two contessas) is truly passionate and is still on the lookout for futher mods. Bravo!


Flawless finish


Interiors of the red conti, notice the bottle of wax polish. This car is really cared for.




Cool Alloys


Petrol with an awesome sounding exhaust end can.


My car staring at its favorite road sign!


The rally went through some scenic routes from Coonoor to Kotagiri


At the end of the rally




Plenty of space for parking..


Modified tail lights similar to those found on classic muscle cars. Neat!

[mukundmenon]

Cars lined up at the venue for Inspection and lunch thereafter


The resort was set amid lush scenery.


Some shots of the private resort




Classy, the owner had just completed a thorough rework of the suspension, engine and brakes.






Really good restoration and attention to detail. Alloys go well with the overall looks


Paint changes shades according to viewing angle, blue dominates though.


matte green with some sort of matte clear mix in it. easier to clean.


Ultimate dodge charger/challenger mock up. neat work


The only other car in the modified category. It started off a trend (Dodge charger mod) and has been the reference object for many mods.


Conty looks good especially in red.


Really deserving of the stripes.


At the inspection. fine attention was paid to the originality, condition of parts, paint, fixtures,etc..


Every college boy's dream car- actually owned by a college boy!


Photoshoot begins...




Cars and their proud owners..


Trophies for the top 2 cars in each category...
Pre 1990, 1990 Onwards, Modified categories.
Not a serious competition ,just casual judging and threw in some trophies for added fun... All participants got a complimentary kit to take home though


Winner !!! I followed this car in mine to Coimbatore on the way back and was dumbstruck by the way it would accelerate and overtook multiple cars in a go! It not only looks good, but runs excellently also. Well deserved winner.


The meet made it to the newspapers- Clip from the following day's IndianExpress. My car is the fifth from the left..!

[tsk1979]

Thread moved to meet section, thanks for sharing

[anoopash]

Wow , indeed this is a great sight to watch so many well maintained Contessas . The interiors of the matt green conti is just unbelievable .
My personal best is the red conti with the strips .

[Champion]

Kudos People! To own and maintain such timeless beauties requires a lot of patience and $$$. And a "Coonoor" rally is the icing on top. Perfect scenic locales for our own indigenous muscle-car.

Car-lovingly yours
Champion

[xaero]

I have always loved a Contessa and its great to see so many still maintained and loved by their owners. Kudos to the car enthusiasts on owning and maintaining one of the timeless beauties of the Indian car industry. The Contessa its truly India's only Muscle car.

[JuggernauTT]

This thread makes me want to sell my K10 Alto and put all the money into my 89 Conti!
Beautiful cars everywhere! All except the matte green car, great interiors but insulting exteriors.

[KPS]

Very interesting and let me congratulate all you Contessa lovers for this event. Enjoyed see the cars and modifications done. Serious money has been spent on these cars. Just the other day I saw a car in Bangalore beautifully modified to look like a Ford Mustang. The Contessa is easily modified to look like a Mustang.

Would wish all of you many more such happy rides and please keep posting pictures.

Cheers

KPS

[Utopian]

Very interesting thread. The clean un-modded Contessa looks better than the modded ones, IMO. The blue one reminded me of the Laura RS.
Kudos for putting in such huge efforts into these beauties.

[rajoy123]

It is indeed nice to read such an amazing post on a lazy afternoon. The respect and love for maintaining these beauties is evident in the flawless looks of all the cars! Custom interiors, paint jobs, alloys, custom engine-blower, Phew!

The winning-car reminded me of a contessa that belonged to my neighbour in hyderabad. He would wake up early in the morning to clean the car, and then proceed for his morning walk. His explanation was that if he gets tired, he may skip the morning-walk, but never the car-cleaning!

Good work by the organisers for making this meet a success and thanks for the pics!!

Regards,
Rajoy.

[av8er]

Wow this is definitely something to drool about.

We have a Contessa Classic 2.0 Diesel, we have left it lying in one place for almost 3yrs. Due to a lot of reasons and also due to financial constraints.

Now we have decided to restore it. I am looking for expert advice on how and where and how much and also parts availability.

The car has a lot of rust, when we left it 3yrs ago it was just a brake issue but I am planning to get my mechanic and start it and see what else is wrong with it now. I am not even sure if it would start without any repairs to the engine.

Will update about it. Can you please help me on this regard?

Thank you in advance :-)

[Miel]

Nice report, Mukund! What is the history of your Conty? Did you do much rebuild work on it after you bought it?

The matte green Conty has been given lots of thought and gizmos, but that horrendous thing on the hood has to go. The camera on the sides (and I hope there is one at the back too) can really make parking the car a breeze. But why does he need a camera on that ugly fake air intake? Is that to make up for the loss of frontal visibility?

My personal favourites are these two:



The Blue Conty is a show stealer. The owner has given it the best of both the older and newer Contessa variants. The lovely classic full-length chrome mesh grille and chrome bumpers from the older Contessas, along with the sporty twin headlamps seen in the later variants, is a stunning combo. The paint colour and quality looks very good too (but I am a bit biased towards cars in blue). The Red Conty really needs a tyre upgrade and good looking alloys. However, if it weren't for the racing stripes, it would be an apt example of a wolf in sheep's guise.

I hate it when people make their Contessas look like Dodge Chargers or Ford Mustangs. It is just lame! For me it is akin to someone modding a Lamborghini to make it look like a Ferrari

[Desmosedici]

Wow. Loved it. I am just drooling looking at the pics. I guess everyone of us have had a desire to own this classic car sometime or the other. Me and my friend were just thinking sometime back to get into the Conti Zone but then held ourselves back as we were not sure if we would get the spares easily in future. Maintaining then would be a problem.

Only once have i sat in a Conti and driven it around my office campus 2 years back. It was a petrol.

Thanks for snaps. Will share this with my friend.

[mukundmenon]

Originally Posted by anoopash

Wow , indeed this is a great sight to watch so many well maintained Contessas . The interiors of the matt green conti is just unbelievable . My personal best is the red conti with the strips .

Originally Posted by Champion

Kudos People! To own and maintain such timeless beauties requires a lot of patience and $$$. And a "Coonoor" rally is the icing on top. Perfect scenic locales for our own indigenous muscle-car.

Thank you all... its good to see such support for the ol Conti !

Originally Posted by xaero

I have always loved a Contessa and its great to see so many still maintained and loved by their owners. Kudos to the car enthusiasts on owning and maintaining one of the timeless beauties of the Indian car industry. The Contessa its truly India's only Muscle car.

True. I am a huge muscle car fan and had always wanted to own a Conti for the same reason.

Originally Posted by JuggernauTT

This thread makes me want to sell my K10 Alto and put all the money into my 89 Conti!
Beautiful cars everywhere! All except the matte green car, great interiors but insulting exteriors.

Do share details of your Conti as well. It can very easily be restored to running condition, thanks to the increasing support and fanbase! The green car has been modded thoughtfully i think. Remove certain bits and pieces and it makes a clean mod job. Definitely not a wacky mod!

Originally Posted by KPS

Very interesting and let me congratulate all you Contessa lovers for this event. Enjoyed see the cars and modifications done. Serious money has been spent on these cars. Just the other day I saw a car in Bangalore beautifully modified to look like a Ford Mustang. The Contessa is easily modified to look like a Mustang.

Some people like to keep it old school and keep the stock dignified looks intact. At the same time, like you said it can also be modded to look fast and loud. I personally prefer not to cut and modify the panels, but like to add alloys, hood scoops, big mesh grille. front air splitter etc for the hot rod looks!

Originally Posted by Utopian

Very interesting thread. The clean un-modded Contessa looks better than the modded ones, IMO. The blue one reminded me of the Laura RS. Kudos for putting in such huge efforts into these beauties.

Originally Posted by rajoy123

It is indeed nice to read such an amazing post on a lazy afternoon. The respect and love for maintaining these beauties is evident in the flawless looks of all the cars! Custom interiors, paint jobs, alloys, custom engine-blower, Phew! The winning-car reminded me of a contessa that belonged to my neighbour in hyderabad. He would wake up early in the morning to clean the car, and then proceed for his morning walk. His explanation was that if he gets tired, he may skip the morning-walk, but never the car-cleaning! Good work by the organisers for making this meet a success and thanks for the pics!!

Thanks a lot guys..

Originally Posted by av8er

Wow this is definitely something to drool about.

We have a Contessa Classic 2.0 Diesel, we have left it lying in one place for almost 3yrs. Due to a lot of reasons and also due to financial constraints.

Now we have decided to restore it. I am looking for expert advice on how and where and how much and also parts availability. Can you please help me on this regard? Thank you in advance :-)

Always happy to help! Contrary to popular belief , Contessa spares are still available in the market- just have to follow the right leads. Other than suspension components most spares can be sourced with the help of fellow CCI members spread across the country!

Originally Posted by Miel

Nice report, Mukund! What is the history of your Conty? Did you do much rebuild work on it after you bought it?

The matte green Conty has been given lots of thought and gizmos, but that horrendous thing on the hood has to go. The camera on the sides (and I hope there is one at the back too) can really make parking the car a breeze. But why does he need a camera on that ugly fake air intake? Is that to make up for the loss of frontal visibility?
The Blue Conty is a show stealer. The owner has given it the best of both the older and newer Contessa variants. The lovely classic full-length chrome mesh grille and chrome bumpers from the older Contessas, along with the sporty twin headlamps seen in the later variants, is a stunning combo. The paint colour and quality looks very good too (but I am a bit biased towards cars in blue). The Red Conty really needs a tyre upgrade and good looking alloys. However, if it weren't for the racing stripes, it would be an apt example of a wolf in sheep's guise.

I hate it when people make their Contessas look like Dodge Chargers or Ford Mustangs. It is just lame! For me it is akin to someone modding a Lamborghini to make it look like a Ferrari

I bought my Conty from another Contessa fan, so it was in rather good running condition.The past two years i had done a lot of work on it to keep it running, which i hope to put up in another thread. Owning the Conty has increased my learning curve in automobiles with the countless vists to the local seasoned grey haired mechanics .

The owner of the green conty just went overboad with all the electronic gizmos i think. The side cameras are novel though. Frontal view is not that impaired to have that cam. Too much cash and too many ideas had gone into the build.

The Conty's PCD is unique- similiar to BMW's . Very difficult to find and costly too. Stock steel rims on stock profile tyres are best for comfort and wobble free ride at high speeds. The same reason why the Red Turbo Conty runs on the rims.

[h14]

Seems to have been a wonderful meet! Kuddos to all involved and participated.

Proud to say that I was the previous owner of the Conti that won the show (Now owned by Naveen). I have a lot of happy memories in it and I have done quite a few highway runs in it during college days

Do keep us posted on the next meet in advance so that we can come out to watch the beauties