Not just a car...

As we finally say goodbye to the well-loved Amby, we look back at its storied production run and the characters that make up the tale

In February 2017, Hindustan Motors (HM) sold the Ambassador brand to Peugeot, the French car manufacturer poised to re-enter the Indian market with the HM principals. They paid ₹80 crore for the name that moved the armed forces, government and innumerable families across India for almost 60 years.

Nostalgia trip

The car most remember as the Ambassador is based on the British-built Morris Oxford Series III, and has been produced with minor changes since 1957. Manufactured by the CK Birla group company Hindustan Motors, it was liked for its spacious interiors, solid build and status — considering it was the passenger vehicle of choice for Government functionaries. It remained so until the 80s, when Maruti Suzuki came into the country and changed motoring forever with cheap, reliable Japanese cars.

Reliability was not a strong point for the Ambassador in the early days, and owners always had to carry aggregates such as hose pipes, fan belts and such. The car also supported a cottage industry of specialist mechanics, who strengthened the chassis with additional welding to make them suitable for India . Being one of very few locally-produced cars in the country, however, made the Ambassador fairly easy to work on. You could find a mechanic to fix one in almost any part of our vast country. Engines were simple and made barely-adequate power.

Starting off with a 1.5-litre side-valve petrol engine, later models switched to a more robust 1.8-litre Isuzu petrol engine, which had significantly more power at 75hp. The Ambassador holds the distinction of being the first diesel passenger car sold in India, using a 1.5-litre 37bhp diesel motor. Later models also employed 2.0-litre diesel and turbo-diesel motors of similarly modest output.

Vintage collection

Dhananjay Badamikar of Pune has a few Ambassadors among his growing collection of vintage cars — a ’62 Mk I, a ’65 Mk II, a ’70 Mk II, a 2012 Classic 1500 diesel. The latest acquisition had done only 3000km, and was used as a test vehicle at ARAI. His Porter pickup truck model has a 1500cc diesel motor as well.

All his vehicles are in running condition. Maintaining them is a task and a hobby in itself. He’s constantly on the lookout for spares, grabbing any that become available and keeping them in his inventory. He often shares parts with friends and members of vintage car clubs.

As faithful as Badamikar is to keeping his Ambassadors mint, there are others that stick to the cars of their childhood while giving their own unique twists to their upkeep. Anant Pithawalla runs N1 Racing Equipment in Mumbai and has kept his family’s 1979 Ambassador Mk IV sprinting, quite literally. He’s swapped the old 1.5-litre engine for the more modern 1.8, installed power steering, disc brakes all round (still a rarity today in Indian cars), put in a high-flow K&N air filter, performance spark plugs, cams and a carb rejet. Still, the voluminous Ambassador carries considerable heft, so 18 seconds is his quickest quarter-mile with his beefy Amby.

As of 2017, the Ambassador has been through seven or so generations. After the Landmaster, there were Mk I through IV models, the Nova we often saw through the 90s, followed by the Grand, Classic and Encore — the final version, compliant with BS4 norms — as the vehicle became increasingly irrelevant. Nevertheless, whether due to nostalgia, canny business sense or love for its unique qualities, enthusiasts over the years have kept their Ambassadors soldiering on.