The Hindu Chennai-Pondicherry Rally: A Retro Rally that gives life to your old cars
The Hindu is one of the oldest newspapers around and is said to host some unique and extravagant events. It hosts the Lit for life literary festival, Craft for conservation (related to wildlife) and the Supreme Connect (related to divinity). In that line, comes the Hindu Chennai-Pondicherry (Pondy) Rally which gives a new life and style to your old car that you love so much.
Pre Event
Kylas Swaminathan, the seceratary of Madras Heritage Motoring Club says that around 52 cars are expected. The old cars include Packard Clipper, Ford Prefect, Ford Anglia, MGB, MG-TD, Morris Z Van, Morris 1000, Jaguar SS, Austin Cambridge, Austin Chummy, Dodge Kingsway, Mercedes SL6 and Riley. On intriguing about the details of the course of the rally, Mr. Kylas says:
The vehicles will congregate at Elliots beach on the morning of February 1 and then roll towards East Coast Road (ECR). They would stop at MARG Swarnabhoomi and resume the journey towards Puducherry. The vehicles will regroup near the Pondy University and then head to GRT. A few cars will be parked at GRT and the rest at Pondy Port. Then the cars will go to the beach front where they will be on display between 4pm and 7pm. Later at Seagul, there will be a rock concert. The next day, the cars will turn back and head towards Mahabalipuram.
During the Event
61 Vintage cars turned up (9 more than what the secretary expected) and everyone who were present posed with the cars and the car owners didn’t mind that. Most of the internal parts were changed due to they being in rust or some problem with it. The various car models that came were from the period 1927-1975.
Post Event
Mr. Swaminathan said that:
“With no power steering, AC or auto transmission, the drive should be interesting. The handling of these cars is not very difficult, proving that cars made decades ago can very well compete with contemporary motors”
Only 54 out of the 61 could reach Pondicherry but on the whole, the event was a grand success.
