Team-BHP - Indigenous Oddities - Oddball Automobiles of India

- - Indigenous Oddities - Oddball Automobiles of India (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintage-cars-classics-india/199021-indigenous-oddities-oddball-automobiles-india-4.html)

We're all familiar with the Jonga, based on the Nissan Patrol (?), made by the armed forces concern, 'Vehicle Factory Jabalpur'. Most of us probably never saw the modernised versionwith strong local design cues. One survives in a Pune collection, the only one I've ever seen. Came across this image on facebook the other day.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by karlosdeville (Post 4596793)

it had a 4 litre 4 cylinder Hino engine from a bus, the only car ever to scare me, brakes worse than my 1930 Studebaker. if i remember right the brakes were from a Sumo (at least on the prototype 4 door version that ive driven) but the closed body was simply too heavy for them to be effective, they behaved more like the brakes on a bicycle. you really had to calculate your distances well if you wanted to stop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohit choudhary (Post 4598319)

Saw this Badal 4 (I presume) in Pune, I don't think there would be too many around these days.

I don't know if they even made more than one :D This one is lying there for ages, hope it is restored soon, and sympathetically.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arjithin (Post 4432362)

The image seems to be incorrect.
Some photos of the car are below. This car was way ahead of the market.

I contributed to the powertrain design of this car as part of my electrical engineering degree.

Some more pictures of this oddball car, shared on the vintage and classics in Travancore facebook page.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by karlosdeville (Post 4410152)

Birla Brothers
I recall a car built by the Birla Brothers registered in Calcutta, however I cannot find the details at the moment. Not much is known, will update as and when I find the registration number, it was listed in the Calcutta records. If I remember right, the address mentioned was also 8 Royal Exchange Place, which was later the Hindustan Motors address.

Quote:

Originally Posted by karlosdeville (Post 4496106)

A picture of the car is thankfully shared

Couple of more old pictures

Picture credit: Birla science centre

BM Birlawith his grandson Chandrakant Birla. Also note the old UP registration no.

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This one from 1975/76

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The car survives and is at the BITS Pilani museum

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Quote:

Originally Posted by karlosdeville (Post 4410271)

HAL
We have heard of atleast 2 attempts from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore, at building a people's car.

The first was named the Pingle, named after Pingle Madhusudan Reddy, popularly known as PM Reddy, who designed and engineered the car in the 1950s. The car was recently in the news here. If we look closely we can see two concepts of door layouts - suicide or conventional front doors.

Another picture of the HAL Pingle is seen here, showing its registration number MYE 607 and Nehru as an occupant.

Indigenous Oddities - Oddball Automobiles of India-halpingle6.jpg

Source.

Quote:

Originally Posted by karlosdeville (Post 4799645)

Another picture of the HAL Pingle is seen here, showing its registration number MYE 607 and Nehru as an occupant.
Attachment 2002272

Source.

This vehicle number seems incorrect, parivahan.gov.in website has this details

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunilnp (Post 4800219)

This vehicle number seems incorrect, parivahan.gov.in website has this details

This is the older system of registration numbers, many series like MYE, MYA, MYS and more got re-registered after some borders were redrawn I guess.

Quote:

Originally Posted by karlosdeville (Post 4417225)

Trishul
This small little Jeep type vehicle was built in Patna in the 80s, powered by a single cylinder diesel engine. One of them seems to have survived, and is featured here.

Another picture from Facebook

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Quote:

Originally Posted by karlosdeville (Post 4410271)

Here is a lovely picture of P M Reddy very kindly shared by his grandson Anirudh Reddy, for which we are very grateful.

Indigenous Oddities - Oddball Automobiles of India-p-m-reddy.jpg

The car appears to be an Amilcar, and the picture was taken in York, England.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohit choudhary (Post 4598319)

Saw this Badal 4 (I presume) in Pune, I don't think there would be too many around these days.

Wasn't badal a 3 wheeled car? This looks like it has four.

Cross posting a very interesting article from 1965 on the HAL Pingle. Plenty of insight and rare images.

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Another article is seen here, apparently taken from The Autocar, December 1960. Wrongly filed under Hindustan at the page. Also a couple of more pages in Polish (?)

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Ex-works price estimated at Rs. 4,600.

Quote:

Originally Posted by karlosdeville (Post 4557079)

While going through this thread I realised we missed an imported one - the small 3 wheeler built by Sona
Attachment 1858094

Here are more photos of the car - can any one shed more light on the project please?

Here we see the same car with two different front grilles and colours. One grille is taken from a Fiat Delight. Headlights perhaps from a Vicky moped?

Indigenous Oddities - Oddball Automobiles of India-sona-1.jpg

Engine seems to have been Rajdoot.