The temporary suspension of operations at Hindustan Motors’ Uttarpara plant in West Bengal may mark an end to the prestigious journey of the car that ruled Indian roads ever since its inception in 1948
Ambassador was the first car to be manufactured in India. Originally based on Morris Oxford (United Kingdom, 1948), the Ambassador underwent a series of changes, adapting to customer expectations.
Prior to the Indian independence, Hindustan Motors limited began assembling the car as Hindustan 10 in a plant in Port Okha near Gujarat. It’s production continued till 1954 and in 1957 Ambassador took on the Indian roads with 1478 cc side valve engine, which was taken from the earlier Hindustan 14 model. In a short period of time, the car brought great income returns to Hindustan Motors and raised their productions with vehicles like Contessa, Trekker, Porter and Pushpak.
Right from its earliest productions in 1957 to the Ambassador Encore model of 2013, the classy motor icon of Indian roads has undergone several changes, but the one thing manufactures never compromised on was the reliable engine. Early models of the car had a 1,476 cc side-valve petrol engine, which was replaced by a 1,489CC, 55 bhp overhead-valve BMC B-series petrol engine in 1959 and were patent under the Mark I versions.
After its production was shifted to India in 1957, the car was renamed as Ambassador, the styles were changed from Morris II to Morris III.
Recently, at the Beaulieu’s World of Top Gear motorsport show, the Indian Ambassador Taxi was crowned as the best taxi in world as the Indian taxi outclassed the big rivals like Russian limousine, Mexican Volkswagen Beetle, Black london Cab and many others.
Car designer Dilip Chhabria created a concept inspired by the Ambassador. version, the Ambierod. This car is not manufactured by Hindustan Motors nor is it based on the ambassador. Several styling cues however have been borrowed from the Ambassador.
The car was briefly imported to the United Kingdom in 1993. The cars were retrofitted with a heater and seat belts in order to comply with European safety legislation, but only a tiny number were ever sold, and the importer went into liquidation.