CHENNAI: There it was — an elegant display of maroon and metal; a testament to Brass Era carmanship and modern-day prowess in restoration. The grand old Benz Model 8/20 PS Runabout Tourer Car manufactured in 1914. The oldest recorded Benz in the country has — over the years — held its own at the prestigious Cartier Concours de Elegance, the 21 Gun Salute International Vintage Car Rally and Concours show.
Now, it finds a place at The Chennai Heritage Auto Display 2021 hosted by the Madras Heritage Motoring Club. The production of the car was discontinued in 1921, just five years before Benz merged with its competitor DMG to form Daimler-Benz AG and launched Mercedes Benz. Yet, the fruit of their labour has survived for over a century, thanks to Rao Bahadur PC Muthu Chettiar and the PCM family of Madurai.
Presenting the car at the event, Muthu Chettiar’s grandson Rajesh Somasundaram remarks that it’s a family heirloom. “All original documents of the car are still in the family archives. In those days, Benz had written to my grandfather — several times — asking him to become their representative in India.
The letters said: ‘Cheap American cars are flooding the Indian market (after the First World War). You are one of the few people who have imported a German car; you know it’s quality. Why don’t you take on a Benz dealership in India?’ But, he being an agriculturalist wasn’t interested.”
Vintage stories
It was stories like this that marked each of the 60-odd vintage cars and 20-odd bikes on display at the AVM Rajeswari Kalyana Madapam’s car park on Sunday. Naresh Bangara, talking about the Ambassador Mark 1 (1959 model) that’s stayed in his family for 60 years, says it’s one of the first five cars in the country with the overhead-valve engine; improving upon its initial side-valve engine. It was his grandfather who had purchased the car, even before Naresh was born.
Now, the upkeep rests in his hands. He complains that maintenance has increasingly become difficult due to the diminished availability of spare parts. GD Rajkumar, GD Naidu’s grandson and a director of UMS Technologies, Coimbatore, gives us the story about how his company came about producing replicas of the display’s members of pride — the Benz Patent-Motorwagen and Ford Quadricycle.
“Mercedes-Benz built a hundred cars (of the Motorwagen) for their 100th anniversary. For the 125th anniversary, they wanted to build 125 special editions. The guy who made them for the 100th anniversary, a British person, approached us with the project for he did not have the infrastructure any more. We agreed but Mercedes did not want to source the car from India.
Then, we procured one of the cars. The 123rd car in that run was won by somebody in a lottery. He wanted the money very badly and had decided to give away the car as parts. We collected the parts; at our vocational training institute, our students made the drawings and we rebuilt the car. Now, we’ve sold more than 100 cars worldwide. Even Mercedes- Benz in Bengaluru has got a car from us,” he recounts.
Awe of the wonders
If there was one other thing bringing the car owners and the curious viewers together, it was the complete awe and admiration for how far we’ve come with technology and engineering feats. “Seven-eight years ago, we ran the car (the Benz replica) from Coimbatore to Chennai. It took 36 hours and seven drivers to do it. It reached here without a single flaw.
This is the car made in the world. Just moving from steam engine to the internal combustion engine was a great feat. It’s a very unique design; you have to be a real inventor to come up with this and that’s what has led to this revolution,” he remarks. Rajesh has similar sentiments about his barn-find Rolls Royce that went through two years of restoration work. “German cars are much more expensive than American ones. If you see the correspondence then (between his grandfather and Benz representatives), they clearly say that their products are far superior and they want to maintain that.
All this philosophy comes from a long time. Germans were always known for their precision. Similarly, the Rolls Royces also. They are an engineering marvel. If I press one button, it’d lubricate the entire car; it has the lubricant going to every nut and bolt,” he points out. While these nuances and the many colourful stories may not have been available to every visitor, there was still plenty to delight even the most clueless onlooker.
For even for this untrained eye, there were some familiar classics, thanks to its immortalisation on the big screen — the Chevrolet Impala (Karakattakaran’s legendary Soppana Sundari vandi), Mercedes Benz W124 (Rajini’s ride in Kabali), Volkswagen Type 2 Transporter (the road trip van from Saroja). A whole range of classics from Dodge Brothers, Jaguar, Wolseley, Fiat and Vauxhall had their share of the spotlight too.