[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by Stanher

Bah.....clearly a city sans 'Standards'!

The splitscreen trucks may have been steam trucks?

No dude, there were plenty of standards in the city. A lot of people in the 60s and 70s bought Heralds. My uncle (Mausa ji) had a 2 door first model Herald, handed down from his father. I have vague memories of taking a ride in the back seat of the car (was very young). The front seat folded forward, I was made to sit in the rear seat (sans windows) and off we went. Unfortunately, he didn't find the car too reliable, sold it off within a year of his marriage, and bought a Fiat 1100.

AFAIK, a small lot of Standard Vanguards were also put to taxi service. But I guess the bane of all Standards in Kolkata - public and private - was the lack of parts and trained mechanics.

Somehow, Standards never captured the hearts of Bengalis the way Ambys, 1100s and the first Bajaj Scooter did.

[RandomUsername]

Found this on thesamba.com:

[SuperSelect]

Originally Posted by RandomUsername

Found this on thesamba.com:

What a lovely picture of ShivSagar estate ! The clean modernist lines of the buildings represent Bombay at its best - breezy, laidback, and yet business-like !
The mural on the showroom wall is by renowned artist Prafulla Dahanukar, and was once a landmark in itself.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by SuperSelect

The mural on the showroom wall is by renowned artist Prafulla Dahanukar, and was once a landmark in itself.

I think it can be seen briefly in the song "Ek akela is shahar mein" starring Amol Palekar in a 70s movie Gharonda.

Surprising to find an Amby taxi existing in B'bay though! I do know they were there initially -50% of them Ambys and the other 50% fiats alloted, but the B'bay cabbies who liked the Fiats better traded the Ambys for them with their Calcutta counterparts!

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by SuperSelect

What a lovely picture of ShivSagar estate ! The clean modernist lines of the buildings represent Bombay at its best - breezy, laidback, and yet business-like !
The mural on the showroom wall is by renowned artist Prafulla Dahanukar, and was once a landmark in itself.

Brings a tear to my eye. Between 1990-94, my dad's office was here (in th first tower). I still have vivid memories of going to his cabin, sitting in his huge chair and looking out onto the sea through the glass windows. Bombay was a much cleaner and less crowded place then.

If one drives towards Peddar Road from this, just after crossing Heera Panna, Maruti Showroom and the temple, there's a petrol pump on the junction. They had a tie up with Dad's company for fuel. Our 1990 Premier Padmini (MH01 2245), Dad's company car, used to be refuelled here.

Still pass this building everytime on my way from the airport to South Bombay. Now there's a Tata showroom in the ground floor.

Sorry for getting all nostalgic, guys. But then, this thread is all about nostalgia, isnt it?

[the mole]

Originally Posted by RandomUsername

Found this on thesamba.com:

The Beetle looks like a cabriolet, whoose car could this be now??

[karlosdeville]

I found these 3 nice photos posted by our friends at pakwheels.com

An Opel in Delhi, pre partition



A Chevy tourer, probably in Karachi, pre partition



This photo said Maharani of Jodhpur, though I know nothing more and cannot confirm.

[Edsel Rulez!]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

This photo said Maharani of Jodhpur, though I know nothing more and cannot confirm.

At least she's wearing jodhpurs, so it could be the real McCoy.

[Stanher]

Sorry about the late reply, but blame it on my fluctuating net connection!

Originally Posted by predatorwheelz

My uncle (Mausa ji) had a 2 door first model Herald, handed down from his father. I have vague memories of taking a ride in the back seat of the car (was very young).
Somehow, Standards never captured the hearts of Bengalis the way Ambys, 1100s and the first Bajaj Scooter did.

They never captured your hearts because they never captured (or rather were never allowed to) your markets thanks to the strong hold of Birla (HM) and even PAL on the then govt.! Otherwise how is it that Calcutta and B'bay did have plenty of other cars before the HM/PAL preeminence while not after?

In context of your mentioning the Vanguard taxis, I just recalled reading in another thread here long ago that Standard Motors (Madras) was keen on continuing with the Vanguard (alongside the smaller 10/Pennant cars) even after 1959 until when they were sold here, as they were far more popular as private cars as well as taxis, but that was around when the Amby (mk1) was first launched. So the then Govt., on Birlas' insistence, ordered Standard to stop producing the Vanguard and continue on their smaller cars alone! Which also didn't receive much favour, with dealerships and spares access limited, as you mentioned (or rather, kept limited) across the entire country!
Note: I'm NOT against the cars made by HM/PAL in any way, just the politics that prevailed among them!

BTW, interesting to know about your uncle's Herald! Any chance of getting old pics. of it?

[harit]

Originally Posted by Alvis

This is definetly not a Karachi registration though the place looks so much like the Karachi of old.. The car is, as Harit says, a Humber. To me it looks like a series I - III Super Snipe, probably 1953/5. The car looks reasonably new in the photograph, shiny coat of paint and good chrome on bumpers etc, so the photograph is probably from the same era as the car. The building in the background, now that looks a lot like the old Parsi/Christian areas of Karachi. More confusion!!
Just for information KAB was the Karachi registration series around 1955 in Karachi. KAM came along in the 70's.

Originally Posted by sabinesnubbing

Alvis,
I have seen a few car photo scans on the Pakwheels website that look VERY much like 50s photos of 50s cars, are definitely taken in Karachi and they have KAM registrations. I am starting to think that in the early post partition days, some Karachi letters were allocated out of squence or more likely by area as is standard in India and was standard in pre partition British India??

Confusion, confusion!
Cheers
Cedric

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Allow me to add to or clear up some of it.

The picture I posted of the Land Rover KAM 3043 has my grandfather standing next to it. The family left Karachi (and) Pakistan in the early 50s, around '53 I believe, so the picture was definitely taken before that.

Originally Posted by Alvis

Cedric, All

I really doubt very much that KAM would be Karachi or it would have been used out of turn. Somehow I feel it is a pre partition Indian location. More confusion!!

There are still a number of Mazda 1500's and Toyota Coronas carrying the KAM series which puts it squarely in time period 1970 to 1972. Also the question of this series ( KAM ) being used previously is then in doubt
Take care

So much confusion about KAM registration, so let me put one more picture which I found on PakWheels. A Vauxhall registered KAM.

Now what is certain is that:
KAM registrations did indeed exist.
These were in use late 1940's - early 1950's.
Not in India, most probably in Pakistan.
What we do not know as yet if it was used in Karachi.

AND we do know that both India and Pakistan created a lot of confusion in their vehicle registration systems.

Cheers harit

[karlosdeville]

Rahul Bajaj with his first car, a Dodge cabrio.



The 100,000th Vespa at the Bajaj factory

[wasif]

In a strange twist of fate I was sent these two pictures of my Jaguar 1.5 Sedan right after we had started its restoration by Harit who found them in some mags I had sent him.

If possible I want to request him to upload them here in jpeg format

[harit]

Originally Posted by wasif

In a strange twist of fate I was sent these two pictures of my Jaguar 1.5 Sedan right after we had started its restoration by Harit who found them in some mags I had sent him.

If possible I want to request him to upload them here in jpeg format

Shall do so on Monday sir! And with pleasure.

Cheers harit

[harit]

Originally Posted by harit

Shall do so on Monday Sir! And with pleasure.

Cheers harit

Here goes.

Eid Mubarak!

Cheers harit

[harit]

[SIZE=2]Stanher, we should not say 100% that Birlas stopped others from making cars in India. But it is very likely. So while our politicians became deshi, were driven in Ambys and wore 'native' style clothes, the Indian population was by and large forced to buy 2 very inferior cars, the Amby was outdated when it was produced in India and the Fiat was never technically upgraded after 1964. But the management of these car manufacturers themselves enjoyed Cadillacs, Rover, Chevy, Mercs, Corvette, etc.

There is a story that a minister visited a German car factory to "see if they would like to come to India". The story goes that he was asked point blank if he had Mr. Birla's permission.
And in these bad quality cars we wasted our energy and petrol, and wore down the users.

This picture was found in an old magazine of the 1960's talking about National Automobiles, Lucknow. Do they still exist? And the cars were fitted with white walled tubeless tyres!
[/SIZE]