Hello and welcome, car enthusiasts! I'm Shyam, a '60s classic car nut and I live in Hyderabad (Southern India), well known, of course, for the historical monument, 'Charminar'. Now, in case you didn't know, this article is not about any of the "Indian" cars of the present that we all are familiar with, but about a few "Indian" cars from the past- among the relatively few cars that we had for decades then- that not all of us are too familiar with & that I dug up from the murky archives of Indian motoring!

What they really are:
The reason such cars are dubbed as 'lemons' (usually meaning duds) is that they weren't fortunate enough to make it on the road/into production in very large numbers, quite contrary to those that were. A couple of these however, seemed rather well designed, so we might wonder why they ended up in the lemon grove. So read on to find out the little faux pas on each & every one of these cars, mostly from the 1970s and '80s, know the tales of their failures, and maybe even come across an eyebrow-raising fact or two.. But first of all, don't forget to have a sense of humour with you if you wish to read this article right now; it's the only way you will find it interesting...

The Standard Herald Companion:
For those of you who know the Standard Herald, yes, this really is a four door Herald estate! This unusual Herald is unique to India and was manufactured by Standard Motor Products of India (STAMPRO), Madras, using a CKD chassis and produced over a remarkable period of- a year! It got it's name "Companion" from it's predecessor, the Standard 10 Companion. After the four door Herald (Standard Herald MarkIII), based on a UK built prototype, was introduced exclusively in India around 1967, STAMPRO decided to bring themselves into far more prominence in the Indian market and developed an indigenous estate model of the four door Herald that was ideal for typical Indian families of yore, with enough space in the luggage compartment for carrying various loads, including four children, in case the mother-in-law wished to have the rear seat all to herself, and built with a unique fiberglass roof and hatch door, so the car would feel as light as the two door Herald; light enough for the not-too-powerful 948cc engine that is.

However, STAMPRO, who apparently had an unfortunate habit of putting a crimp in their own act, made the rear windscreen too small, contrary to the 'control tower' all around visibility you usually found in Heralds. The Herald Companion made it into production in 1970, and unfortunately ceased production after that, despite looking like it could've actually given Hindustan and Premier Automobiles ltd. (PAL) a run for their money at the time! The prototype Herald companions actually had 4 headlamps inspired from the Triumph Vitesse, which unfortunately didn't make it on the production models for some unexplainable reason.....But imagine- this estate was in the market three decades before the "simply Bindaas" Opel Swing (I'll remember to yell this out to an Opel Swing driver the next time he tries and overtakes me on the Highway)!

Apparently, owing to their unusually short production period, relatively few examples could be spotted even in their day, so there would be fewer than ten of the Herald Companions still surviving in our country today, each (if worth saving, of course!) worthy of being a classic. Incidentally, I'm STILL waiting to see one in a '70s "Bollywood" film!
(Photo credits- Rene Pollak, Chris Longhurst and Bill Davies, Triumph Sports Six Club (TSSC), UK, and Leon. F. Guyot, USA, for the pic. of his Vitesse.)

The Standard Herald 'Front End Unit':
I once heard say that an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters could eventually come up with the entire works of Shakespeare. Well, STAMPRO heard it too, and tried this technique with half a dozen 'monkeys' in their factory and a bag of tools in 'designing' this vehicle, in 60 minutes flat (including perhaps a 5-minute 'banana' break). Of course, this wasn't exactly a car but it was derived from one so we might as well include it here.

STAMPRO should've felt fortunate they were manufacturing a car like the Herald; simply unbolting all the panels, leaving only the bonnet, bulkhead and front seats/ floor-pans intact, with the basic running gear, and creating a unique 'do-it-yourself' chassis-cab version wasn't just possible with most other cars, you know! This 'special' vehicle was offered to commercial & enterprising people to build the bodies themselves, as per their likes/requirements, around 1966 (as per the sales brochure from where this pic.'s taken). However, I can only guess that STAMPRO had really introduced this either just to prove the advantages of the Herald's 'bolt-on' body or to get one over Hindustan Motors and PAL (Premier Automobiles ltd.). Why then, did this 'useful' vehicle never hit the road here, do you think? Well, maybe because people mistook this for STAMPRO's idea of a joke, or more likely because it DID hit our roads once, but the Herald's rear axle, known to be sensitive to Indian roads, must have broken down on the very first (and last?) ride, and was hence considered unsuitable for a commercial vehicle. Only they should've thought of that before wasting an otherwise decent car! (Pic. courtesy- Bill Davies)

The Standard Gazel:
And now for an eyebrow-raising fact- the sadly forgotten Standard Gazel was India's first truly indigenous car (no, I don't drink!!).

Now before I get stormed by angry emails from TATA Indica owners, let me tell you- the Gazel was born in 1971-much before the Indica-when STAMPRO had become autonomous and aspired to create an indigenous car that would also be an improvement on the Herald. Also, it was an entirely Indian concept (except maybe for its "Made in England" Lucas Headlamps, and the name, which by its spelling, sounds Russian- but who's perfect, anyway?) and NOT an old hand-me-down unlike what most critics here think. Ironically, it was designed by an Indian named Nasir Hussein, who was evidently designing a car for the first (and last) time in his life. The Gazel was built on a modified Herald chassis and its design was basically based on the 4-door Herald, but the front end was redesigned with a stylish yet too flamboyant (for the '70s) treatment; obviously intended to scare away any cows that might have wandered into city roads in those days. The rest of the body remained basically untouched, except for the 'restyled' rear end, which looked like it originally belonged on a trash disposal truck in a foreign country and was then seamlessly attached to the body of this car with a magic wand. The taillamps were from a locally built bus (honestly!)- which is why they're STILL being made here. Nasir Hussein apparently decided the Gazel wouldn't look Indian enough if it bodily resembled the Herald. Sadly Michelotti MkII he was not. But he obviously realized how ugly it looked, so he made up by fitting a shiny one-piece chrome bumper at the rear and a stylish fiberglass dash on the inside. The running gear was from the Herald, except for the rear suspension, which, unlike the Herald's 'swing' type axle, was a rigid rear axle with coil spring suspension on either wheel, plus a unique anti-roll bar; considered more suitable for Indian roads. However, it did slightly increase the ground clearance at the rear, giving the car a strange tail-high appearance. To add insult to injury, STAMPRO, later in 1974, made the Gazel even bigger than it originally was, yet retained the same old 948cc motor that was too underpowered for it. Other major changes were fixed front wings with a rearward hinged bonnet (as per other cars) and different door handles.

Not surprisingly, the Gazel never really sold as well as all its predecessors, until it ceased production in 1977. By that time, buyers were expecting something smaller (and faster), and the Gazel obviously turned out to be the wrong car at the wrong time, added to which the manufacturing process was expensive, nearly driving STAMPRO bankrupt. Remarkably, three specially modified examples were chosen for a Dunlop Denovo tyre test campaign in India in 1975, during which they were actually driven by yesteryears' racing driver Stirling Moss. Pictured above is a "MkII" (post 1974) Gazel. My father also had one for years. Contemporary sales brochures advertise the "Mk II" Gazel as "The Small Big Car", although there's nothing small about it- except maybe the engine. (Photos- Rene Pollak, TSSC. Courtesy Chris Longhurst).

The Standard 2000:
And, last but not the least, here's just one more clunker from Standard (that's all, I swear!) The Stranded- I mean Standard 2000 would possibly be well known as India's most loathed car ever. This car incidentally wasn't Indian at all in it's origin, as it was a mere clone of the British Rover SD1, Rover's new car in 1976 that was designed by David Bache.

After the failure of their Indian car, the Gazel, STAMPRO ultimately resorted to doing what their contemporaries, Hindustan and PAL, had been doing for decades- simply make an old hand-me-down of a foreign car and give it a 'desi' name! And it so happened that British Leyland had decided to sell all the Rover SD1 tools and production jigs to STAMPRO in 1981, to be remade in India as the 'Standard 2000'; the idea being to make SD1 panels and components available to the UK and other countries in later years, through the Indian arm. Not sure if STAMPRO knew about the plot but it took them a few years to start producing the car in India. But STAMPRO once again goofed up with their "Small Big Car" theory. While the original Rover SD1 had a light but powerful aluminium block 3.5 V8 Rover engine, the 2000 was fitted with a 'reconditioned' 4 cyl.1991cc 'wet sleeve' engine from the 1950s' Standard Vanguard (that was available because it was in use at the time (in Diesel version) on the Standard 20 Van/Pick-up) and a locally built gearbox and rear axle assembly. The 2000 thus got it's name from the 1991cc (=approx. 2000cc) engine, which unfortunately proved to be heavy as well as underpowered for the car and despite tests that it could give an excellent (in 1980s!) fuel mileage of at least 15 km/l, the engine was found to return barely 6-8 km/l, obviously not upto buyers' expectations, not to mention the gearbox that was known to practically squeal with pain with every gear change. Apart from this, the SD1 body panels were known to fall apart with little rust in little time, thus being far from the company's "standards". All in all, this car has what it takes to star in this article! STAMPRO finally quit producing these at the end of 1987. Incidentally, this was the last vehicle they ever made. It eventually earned an infamous nickname as the 'Stranded 2000' from a few witty critics!

The Sipani Dolphin/Montana:
This sad little plastic lemon was made for a short time by Sipani Automobiles, Bangalore, who forayed into the Indian automobile scenario in the early '80s by introducing a 3-wheeled prototype called the Badal, which was in fact based on the "plastic pig" Reliant Robin of the 1970s. However, the 'car' was never formally put into production, as Sipani realized that in India, only Autorickshaws were legally allowed to have three wheels, so they introduced their first 'true' car, the Dolphin (although I doubt if I've seen anything that looked less like a Dolphin), which was also a hand-me-down '70s Reliant; Reliant Kitten, to be precise. This was a little while before the flood of Maruti-Suzuki 800s began on our roads. Built entirely of a fibreglass bodyshell, the Dolphin was powered by a puny but efficient 848cc Reliant engine that was compatible enough with a small fiberglass car. Like the Maruti 800, this was a two box hatchback that was appreciated only for it's quick-response engine and maneuverability, while looks wise, it was just as attractive as Yasser Arafat in horn rimmed glasses. Unlike the Maruti 800, it was available as a two door only- a lesson that Sipani should've learnt from STAMPRO- so it couldn't sell well all over the country, except in Southern cities like Bangalore and Madras. Also, Sipani, being a small player at the time, (thankfully) couldn't produce the car in large numbers.

They later came up with the Montana, an even more hideous but indigenous four door hatchback with a locally (Coimbatore) made Diesel engine. It was indigenous because it used no foreign components, nor any from its own company, but sneaked-in leftovers from Maruti and Mahindra bins, and thus didn't last very long when people saw the car for what it really was! Sipani subsequently rebadged it as the D1, trying to convince us it was a different car. Hmm..I wonder why that didn't work? Ashamed of their misadventures, they then assembled the Rover Montego in CKD form (which unfortunately, didn't click well either), before they finally closed shop. The less said about these clunkers the better..

However, Dolphins were also a popular choice in Indian Motor Sport Rallying for a while (before Maruti took over that field as well) because their light fibreglass bodies made them get to the finish line fast enough in most races, but they were known to have a rust-affinitive chassis, which is probably why I usually come across only dead Dolphins today, most with just the bodyshells intact.. (This one was actually photo'd when bought new, circa 1984- but aptly coloured to fit in this article!)

The Premier Padmini Safari :
Well, well, well...here's at least one lemon from the PAL grove! This estate version of the Premier Padmini now remains another rotten fruit in the lemon grove. When the original Fiat 1100 D of 1962, the forerunner of the Padmini, was introduced, Fiat had also offered an estate version of the 1100 D, called the 'Familiare', which, for reasons we cannot deduce, never made it to the Indian market, unlike the 1100 D saloon. So a few bold Fiat owners back then, who craved for a spacious estate version, took to converting their saloons to 'home-made' estates, most of which were apparently the most hideous contraptions ever seen on our roads then. PAL obviously realized how it put them to shame, so in the early '80s, they introduced an indigenous estate version by chopping off the rear of a Padmini saloon and fitting a greenhouse in its place, by the looks of it. Naturally, it hardly looked any better than the "home-made" versions and turned out to be a waste of time (and money) as the Safari, as it was weirdly named, didn't sell as well as expected. It was owned mostly by local Govt. departments and weirdoes who were really desperate for something different before the Maruti came along. It didn't even click well with the taxi trade and soon disappeared from the scene so quietly, people hardly noticed. Nothing more to say about them... (Sorry this picture isn't really of the Safari but I've got none; they aren't seen very often, but a good photo of the original would be gratefully acknowledged.)

I hope to dig out more such unknown cars if I could find any, from the lemon groves of Indian motoring and hopefully find something interesting about them too. so, watch this page- just don't hold your breath!! Any further contributions/ unearthed facts or even more unearthed lemons nominated by our readers are also welcome.