Fiat ‘Black Beauty’ Padmini: Gone But Not Forgotten

Back in the day we raced whatever we could get our hands on. Ambys, Heralds, Mahindras and – best suited to the task of going faster in the hideously red tape-bound times – Padminis. Back in the day we also had free-for-all racing categories. Group 2 cars in particular weren’t even subject to scrutiny, all they had to do was bear a passing resemblance to the road car and retain the engine head and block. The most extreme is this McDowell-liveried Padmini, fondly called Black Beauty, and also the first car from Chennai to beat the all-conquering Coimbatore cars at Sholavaram. Except this wasn’t really a Chennai car. Janspeed built this car in the UK for Vijay Mallya, then an active racer who even raced a Formula 1 car in India, before going on to own an F1 team. The Fiat’s 1100cc engine was extensively hot-rodded with dry sump lubrication so it could sit lower in the chassis. Forged con-rods, polished head and a twinbarrel Weber DCOE carb, doubled the stock 45bhp to a shade under 100bhp. Power went to the rear wheels via a close-ratio floormounted gearbox and a two-piece prop shaft that kept breaking and had to be redesigned in Chennai by the car’s current caretaker Vicky Chandhok.

To handle the power the Fiat was lowered, tracks were widened, rear suspension was semi-independent and rose-jointed, terrifically stiff race suspension all but eliminated body roll, and there was even a new steering rack that ran through the gearbox. The brakes were from a Chevron F2 single-seater, and the wheels were gorgeous centre-lock items, quite possibly the first time something like this was seen on a touring car in the country. Extensive weight reduction meant the doors, bonnet and boot were crafted in aluminium while equally extensive aero appendages include flared fenders, front splitter, side skirts, a rear spoiler and bumperdelete front and back. The rear doors were welded shut and the fuel cell was mounted in the boot curiously shaped so as not to hamper useability of the spare wheel well.

Vijay Mallya drove Black Beauty in the practise sessions but handed it to Bob Fernley for the race, the Brit benefiting from the lead car breaking down to become the first Chennai entrant to beat the Coimbatore lads. Fernley would later run Mallya’s Force India F1 team before Lawrence Stroll seized control renaming it Racing Point and now Aston Martin. Neglected for years, Black Beauty has been brought back to life for Generation Speed. The engine no longer has the masala-parts from its racing heydays so there isn’t much to talk about performance but the barely-silenced side-exhaust is ear-splitting.

The brakes need five tonnes of pressure to get them to work. The steering is super-heavy while the ’wheel fouls with your thighs, exacerbating the 50 tonnes of pressure needed to operate the clutch pedal. The tenacious grip from the modern MRF race rubber and almost no body roll leaves you gasping for air. Black Beauty’s, erm, beauty is matched only by how exhausting it is to drive. But then again, our parents and grandparents weren’t inclined to grumble. Whatever they could, they raced.