95-year-old and still going strong

KOLKATA: She is 95 and still young. She has been serving for four generations. She has won awards four times in a row for keeping herself fit. Believe it or not, at 60 kmph this Stoewer 1907 doesn’t wobble at all, conveying a feeling that is quite close to our modern cars’ road dynamics. So impeccable is the performance of the ‘Darling of the Show’.
“The car had to be grounded in 1950 owing to the non-availability of new tyres as the company that used to manufacture them had cl-osed down .In 1998, the magneto of the car developed a problem, sta-lling it for some time,� says 75-year-old Shanti Nath Chowdhury, owner of the vehicle and a resident of Midnapore, now staying in Kolkata. The Chowdhurys shifted from Malighati to Kolkata in 1956.
After searching hard, he found two vintage enthusiats who volunteered to help him with the problem – Ajit Sengupta and Partha Pratim Das. While the former had repaired oldies earlier, the latter was an electrical engineer. The car was made roadworthy again in January, 1999. “In 1905, Ishwarchandra, my father, visited Emil and Burherd Stoewer factory in Stettin (now in Poland) and was fascinated by the car’s performance. He wanted to replace his old horse-driven carriage by a car strong enough to brave the poor roads of Midnapore,� recalls Shanti Nath.
Stoewer, famous for manufacturing road-rollers, earth-removers and automobile engines – manufactured the car. The company met a tragic end when it was heavily bombed during World War II.
After the war, Stettin became a part of Poland and the governme-nt refused to revive the factory. The custom-built car arrived in Kolkata in the mid 1907. An engineer and a mechanic who came here to train the family members about the maintenance of the vehicle accompanied the car. The vehicle was transported to Midnapore by train.
Powered by a 1,500cc, side valve water-cooled 4-cylinder engine, its mechanism is very simple. The engine has to be crank started. Front lighting consists of two gas lit headlights and two kerosene side lights. Also there is no electric ho-rn. A single oil pressure gauge occupies the thick wooden dashboard.