Turned my childhood dream into reality: Bought myself a Tata Sierra

All the original monograms TATA on the rear door, TATA SIERRA on both fenders were in place including the TELCO bonnet ornament

BHPian 123.rishabh recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

As enthusiasts, we all have had some poster cars on the walls of our room.

These poster cars are just like a dream for many, and remain that way for their lifetime. Cars like Ferrari F40 & Porsche 911 slantnose were those poster cars during my childhood. Then come the other cars, which you see on the road and just fall for. Being an early 90's kid, the Tata Sierra was one such car for me and many others at that time.

We used to have a Maruti 800 back in the day and whenever I used to see a Sierra on the road, my eyes were just glued to the big brawny looks complimented with the big rear glass window, chunky metal bumpers and the beautiful rear mounted spare wheel with Sierra written over the PVC cover in a cursive font.

Seeing my love towards the vehicle, my parents got me a Funtoys plastic pushback model of a red Sierra which I loved.

Fast forward to 2005: The Sierra had been discontinued in 2003 and my love for Sierra had transformed to the love for the Tata Safari which we bought in 2008 and enjoyed till 2019.

Further Fast forward to June 2024: On one of the Diecast Toys group on Facebook, I see a white Shinsei Sierra model on sale, immediately i ordered one and simultaneously opened OLX just to see if any cars are still left in India (I have not seen one in Delhi NCR since the last 10-12 years).

To my surprise i saw a few ads outside NCR region and out of those (most were modified to a state from which restoration to original shape was not possible) there was one 1st generation 1997 pre facelift model in a pretty original condition (would have been one of the last sold ones before the Turbo was launched in the same year) in the German red shade.

Spoke to a friend who was equally excited on accompanying me to see the vehicle. It was a 2nd owner car which had stayed in the same family and same village since its purchase. The car was in Punjab, we spoke to the owner who was an old gentleman, did a quick video call inspection, without much negotiation fixed the price over the phone and booked our tatkal train tickets and went to see the car.

The car was in Dosanjh Kalan, a village near Phagwara city of Punjab. Reached the location, met the owner (a 70 year old gentleman) and came to know that he had two of these back in the day. This car was standing since the last 12 years wrapped in a closed garage since the owner's children stayed abroad. The owner had pushed the car out & washed / cleaned the car inside out for us using a high pressure tubewell in his adjoining farm.

This is how she looked at the first glance

All the original monograms (TATA on the rear door, TATA SIERRA on both fenders) were in place including the TELCO bonnet ornament, the grill logo and chrome slats. It had period correct high beam stickers on the headlamps, number plates, aftermarket velvet seat covers and roof liner from that era. It was like a time capsule

The car had done 136160 kms, we inspected it and surprisingly found no rust spot on it even in the wheel well areas, to our surprise, none of the body panel had been repaired or repainted in the last 27 years of ownership.

Despite being stationary for such a long time, we pumped in 20L of fresh diesel, put in a charged battery, topped up the radiator with water and the car fired up after such a long slumber with almost no drama .
Got the PUC done (It passed at the first attempt), tires pumped with air and we were ready to drive 60 kms to Ludhiana in it. Drove all the way to Ludhiana slowly, the brake pedal was a bit hard, the engagement of gears was a bit hesitant at first but it all became fine gradually. The exhaust was smoking a little black smoke (permissible for a Pre BS pollution norm car). It was turning heads of almost everyone on the highway including folks in a LC300.

To our surprise, all the instrument cluster meters, central digital clock and even the cabin lamp was working. The blower and A/C was non functional which was acceptable for such a car, and we were literally baked in the June heat.

Enroute Ludhiana at NH44. The shiny bonnet still reflecting well after 27 years of usage (Afterall Tata & Mercedes Benz used the same paint shop at that time)

Reached Aggarwal Packers warehouse in Ludhiana and dropped the car to be shipped to Gurgaon in a shared 6 car carrier.

On opening the hood for a general inspection, we noticed that everything was fine except some oil leaking from the engine oil fill cap due to a worn out rubber seal. Even the work lamp under the bonnet worked fine

Boarded the train back to Delhi and got back to work for the next 7 days till the car was supposed to reach. I Started searching for the owners manual & brochure of the vehicle. Was lucky enough to find a digital copy of the Turbo model owners manual on TeamBHP itself.

Found a seller/collector on Ebay USA who had a original hardcopy brochure of the 1991 - 1997 model, immediately called my cousin in the states and ordered it right away

As per the promised time, the car reached Gurgaon, went to the transporters warehouse, almost 35 kms away with a flatbed and lifted the vehicle from there and transported it to the workshop where the restoration work will be done.

Since the car will be in Gurgaon, It will not be drivable due to the NGT rules apart from some occasional fun rides early in the mornings. I plan to do a proper mechanical & paint restoration of the vehicle and try to restore it closest to how it rolled off the assembly line back in 1997.

I have already begun the mechanical restoration and will keep this thread updated with all the work done in the coming days.

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