Beautiful Classic Cars a Passion of Car Collectors

By Snehalatha, Udupi
Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 14 July 2011: The age of this Indian beauty is 59, but she still has the same beauty, smoothness and softness even now. Even at this age after running around she will not stop with tiredness and even the speed of running also has still not reduced….. The name of this beauty is Hindustan 14, this is the car manufactured by Hindustan Motors Limited (HML) which came to market in 1952, before the present Ambassador car of HML.

 

Now HML has stopped the manufacturing of these model cars. So even if anyone wants to buy, these are not available in the market. Therefor this car is one of the most favorite among the car collections. One such car has now come to Udupi. Gokuldas Pai has purchased this car form an entrepreneur and brought it to Udupi. As per Gokuldas Pai who speaks commandingly about the cars, there are hardly 4 or 5 such cars in Karnataka state.

 

The motor, gears, steering, mileage meter, head light etc. 100% parts of Pai’s car were manufactured in Morris Company in England at that time. HML Company used to import the parts from England and assemble them in Kolkata and sell them under the brand name Hindustan 14. This 14 is actually the horse power capacity. Pai still have the user’s manual of this car intact, even though it is 6 decades old.

 

This car is so attractive that while Pai parked it in front of his shop in Udupi the people were standing watching it and clicking pictures of it from their mobile phones. There is no fixed price for these Vintage cars, it depends on the offer made by the sellers and the interest of the buyers. When this car was being manufactured it was available for rupees 10 – 12 thousands, but now it is not available for even few lakhs rupees, says Pai.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is the hobby of Pai to enquire about the cars and its price whenever he comes to know that such cars are available anywhere. I am not so rich to maintain a collection of such cars, but I will enjoy being the owner of it for some days and then I will sell it, but in most of the times I have incurred loss in this business, says Pai.

 

He remembers Congress MP Oscar Fernandes used his Tifford (1929 model) car for the canvasing for his first election. After that, even though for short times, Pai has been the proud owner of Morris (1936), Ford Lincoln (1947), Morris Minor Tiger (1959), Chevrolet Impala (1966), Mercedes Benz (1970) and so on… about 22 such cars.

 

Morris Company of English origin had its Indian version Hindustan Motor Limited. Morris Company was sending the car parts to Kolkata, and were being assembled there and sold. Until 1949 it was sold under the brand name Morris, later it was sold with Indian brand name Hindustan 1000 in the market. Its improved versions Hindustan 10 (1950), Land Master (1954) and Ambassador (1956) came to market.

 

During the 60s and 70s Ambassador was known as the government vehicle. Ministers were given Ambassador Cars. Even today Ambassador Cars are being manufactured in Kolkata. But while booking itself, about rupees 6 lakhs full amount has to be paid in advance and after that only it will be manufactured. But there are no Ambassador showrooms or Service stations anywhere in India!