IDDY CHAMPION

The Model 1 signified the end of Prompt Motors and the beginning of Aravind Automobiles.

After his unfortunate accident, Menon was more worried about his beloved Champion than the workshops. He is said to have instructed his chief mechanic that the car was a priority.

When work begins on the car, they find that the damage is severe and includes the six-cylinder engine block too. Menon quickly seizes on the opportunity to instil his own sense of style and inadvertently develops the first-ever Indian automotive design language. The original Studebaker was thus reborn as Iddy Champion, with a 46hp diesel engine from the Mercedes Benz, W120, 180D.

In 1958, the first Aravind was sold to a well-known Tamil film director Akkamappettai Paramasivan Nagarajan and sent to Madras. However, the Nagarajan descendants do not have the car any longer, and say that they sold it decades ago.

But what’s in a name? Iddy is a verb in Malayalam that means “to hit” or could be construed as “accident” in automotive parlance. Champion refers to the team’s success in rebuilding the wreck.