Hundred of heads turned as MDE 367, a car came to a halt in front of a textile showroom on Sengupta Street in Coimbatore. Why onlookers and passersby were surprised was because of the looks of the gleaming ‘landmaster’, a 1957 car, the predecessor to the modern day Ambassador, the King of Indian Roads.
Though Hindustan Motors, the makers of this car, had phased out its production in 1959 itself for their modern variants, the sight of a landmaster is sufficient to bring traffic to a halt in Coimbatore, a city known for its car aficionados.
Fed up with enquiries and questions about the origin of the car, KM Senthil Vadivel, the owner has put a small sized billboard at the bottom of the windshield. “I am 1957 model of Hindustan Motors. My name is landmaster. My owner loves me as a God,” says the billboard. Vadivel, a rich landlord from Dharapuram, is always ready to explain about the features of his proud possession to those who are interested to know more about his landmaster.
“It is a member of my family and we look after it as we do with a tiny tot,” Vadivel told The Pioneer. The car was purchased by KV Ayyavu Mudaliar, his grandfather, from the HM showroom in 1957. Vadivel was born in 1960. “I grew up watching my grandfather and father Murugesha Mudaliyar pampering this car. I too follow their tradition,” he said. Though he has a fleet of modern cars, Vadivel prefers to take his family out in this car for shopping and social functions.
The body as well as the interior panel is original. “I have air-conditioned the car but the blower has been installed at the rear so that there is no need to tamper with the classic panel,” said Vadivel. The original engine, which might have completed lakhs of kilometres, has been replaced with an Isuzu diesel engine to take care of the air conditioner. “Air-conditioned cars were unheard of way back in the sixties,” he said.
The registration number MDE 367 takes one to a different era. “When my grandfather bought this car, there was no Tamil Nadu. It was the composite Madras State and hence the MDE registration, the MD of which stands for Madras and E for Coimbatore district,” said Vadivel who still retains the original registration certificate of the car. “This could be one of the last surviving links between the modern day Tamil Nadu and the age-old Madras,” said Kalpana Senthil Vadivel, his wife.
Those who feel excited by the car are advised not to venture out and as Vadivelan for the price. Offers to exchange the same with ultra-modern SUVs and sports cars are plenty. But Vadivelan says a big ‘NO’ to buyers. While speaking to Vadivelan, another car came to a screeching halt. It was Naveen, a young MBA graduate and an avid car collector with his 1956 landmaster which he recently bought from Bangalore.
“Vadivelan’s car has completely original exterior. But he has incorporated latest technology in the interior. But my 1956 model landmaster has original exterior and interior,” pointed out Naveen.
His landmaster, a variant of the British Morris Oxford Series II, spot the original engine, tail fins, and the flat plane two-spoke steering wheel. And Naveen’s car is registered as MYO, indicating the State of Mysore which was in existence. Naveen has a collection of all the models manufactured by Hindustan Motors.
Well, Sengupta Street in the city is named after Nellie Sengupta, a freedom fighter and elected president of the Indian National Congress in 1931, the second Europe -born woman to head the organisation. Election reporting assignments open many a windows to unexplored scenes and forgotten persons.
