When N Rangaswamy, the 73-year-old Chief Minister of Puducherry was handed over a pearl white Ambassador car on Tuesday, he was left speechless.

The soft-spoken Chief Minister could not believe that it was the same 1995 model Ambassador which he had entrusted to Thanjaneyan, a car mechanic at Thoothukkudi for restoration. This car had seen many summers and winters and was as good as scrap when Thanjaneyan asked him permission to restore the vehicle to its original form.

Rangaswamy, who had a sentimental attachment to the car, did not think twice and asked Thanjaneyan to go ahead. The Chief Minister always preferred the battered and bruised old Amby for his personal use. Though Hindustan Motors, the company that manufactured the car had stopped production in 2014 because of mounting losses and other factors, the passion for Ambassador remained intact.

For two years, Thanjaneyan worked on the car in his small workshop and once it was completed, the restored Ambassador resembled a showroom model in all respects. It is living up to the catchword 'the Car with Plenty of Drive', coined by the manufacturer," said Dr Anjan Chatterjee, a lawyer-turned-car lover. Dr Chatterjee is an authority on the 'horoscope' of the Ambassador, which extends from the genesis till the car took the last bow.

"It was exciting work because it is an Ambassador car. Restoring and maintaining the Amby is an intoxicating experience," said Thanjaneyan, an expert in restoring even the previous models of Ambassador like the Morris, Vauxhall, Land Master and Baby Hindustan. The white Amby that was lying in the backyard of N Rangaswamy's residence has been brought to the portico of the house.

One of the slogans used to promote the Ambassador and caught the national attention was "ideal at 200 potholes per hour". There were no national corridors or expressways in the country till former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee launched the six-lane highway mission in 1998 and which was pursued by the Narendra Modi government since 2014.

Dr Chatterjee lists many reasons for the shut down of the Ambassador plant in Hooghly district of West Bengal. "Militant trade unions and a management without any clue of what is happening around were the factors that led to the untimely demise of the car manufacturer," he said.

Doraiswamy Naveen, an avid car collector said he could not find any owners who made complaints about the Ambassadors. "There was a time when the choice of cars were restricted to Ambassador and Premier Padmini (owned by Walchand family).The liberalisation saw the gradual opening of the car sector to foreign investors and technology and this resulted in Ambassador making way for the newcomers," said Naveen who himself is busy restoring a Mark II Ambassador owned by his grandfather.

Dr Chatterjee said it was nice to see car enthusiasts reviving their passion for older cars like Ambys. "Ambassador tops the list as the most desired classic for their garage. It is beautiful to see owners spending much more than the market value of an Ambassador just to restore the carto its glory," he said.

It is equally important to note that there are car lovers who drive only Ambassadors. Chennai-based Belgamwalla, a Parsi gentleman and Rathna Nadar, in spite of their wealth, prefer only Ambassadors. Built to last will be how future generations would describe this machine. Ambassador is a splendid tribute to Calcutta too.