At his office, vintage car restorer C S Ananth has literature pertaining to Austin A40 Devon within easy reach. For, until August 30, he was working on a 1948 model of the car, for his client, Ashok Leyland. The company had commissioned the restoration, seeking to make the car the frontispiece of a visual story tracing 70 years of organisational history.
At an expo conducted over the last weekend, Ashok Leyland’s history was parked in rooms, each roughly representing a decade. Visitors walking into the first room were greeted by a 1948-manufactured Royal Blue Austin A40 Devon, doused in soft stage lights. The car took visitors to the genesis of the company in 1948, when it was known as Ashok Motors. A timeline at ashokleyland.com/history throws light on the genesis:
“Founded by Raghunandan Saran, Ashok Motors was set up in collaboration with Austin Motor Company, England and incorporated on September 7 (1948) for the Assembly of Austin cars.”
In 1949, at the company’s factory in Ennore, near Madras, the Austin A40 began to be ‘indigenously assembled’. Distribution of assembled Austin A40s in India continued till 1953. The Austin Motor Company was making Austin A40 Devon from 1947 to 1952, when it was replaced by the Austin A40 Somerset.
Only assembled four-door Austin A40s were distributed. Along with the four-door Austin A40 Devon, the Austin Motor Company had introduced a two-door model called Austin A40 Dorset, which didn’t make it to the Indian market. In the India of that period and the decades following it, two-doors did not make an impression on most buyers of passenger cars.
“In the West, two-door cars were in vogue. With a two-door car, buyers there were reassured about the safety of children sitting in the rear. In India, two-doors were seen as an inconvenience to elders: They would find it difficult to enter such a car,” says Ananth.
Moreover, the Austin A40s assembled and distributed by Ashok Motors (the company would be renamed Ashok Leyland only in 1955, when Leyland Motors Ltd became its equity partner) were bought and pressed into taxi service in the metros.
In the last room, where the latest developments at the company were being showcased, a 1953 Austin A40 Somerset was parked. The car had been made electric and it drove home the company’s move to work on new platforms, which include making electric vehicles. As part of the 70-year celebrations, it has inaugurated an electric vehicles manufacturing facility at Ennore.
- C S Ananth’s restoration notes throw light not only on the Austin A40 Devon, but indirectly on the challenges of restoring machines from that period, especially in India. Here, he takes us through the process.
- 1. The beadings and knobs in the Austin A40 Devon originally underwent a copper-nickel-chrome plating process. Specialists in nickel-chrome plating are available, but those capable of the triple-plating process, which includes copper, are near-extinct. We had to find a plating company in Coimbatore, link them with a plating equipment supplier that has the know-how, to get the job done.
- 2. While restoring vintage and classic cars, we often have to rely considerably on resources outside the country, because most of these cars were part of a foreign landscape and some came to our country. For this restoration, Team CSA (as Ananth’s group is called) had to become a member of Austin Counties Car Club, United Kingdom. We had to rely on them for technical information and to source some of the spare parts for us. These clubs are run by honorary members. So, they will serve you, but only at their pace.
- 3. When a vintage car has gone through multiple restoration exercises, past mistakes may have to be undone. This 1948 Austin A40 Devon, which had been sourced from Hyderabad, had altered headlights and separate parking lights, those that would fit into an Ambassador. The original headlamps were smaller with parking lights built into them. So, the fenders had to be altered to fit in 5-inch lamps, which were the original size for this car.