For the select few who do remember the Dolphin they would immediately fill the void in the conversation by talking about the fiberglass body. Then it would move onto the 848cc engine, made by Reliant of the UK. But then the void would fill in again. Or maybe the light discussion would proceed towards the other lemons of the Indian Automotive Industry. That’s the category it dominates. It would be easy to demean this car and push it further down. But let me try playing devil’s advocate here for a moment by saying that it could have been one of those industrial marvels that was ahead of its time!
I am not going to rest my case with that. It was a two door, peppy car. No debate on that I am sure. All that we hear about is that it looked dismal and disappointing. In my defence, the superlative and all trouncing Maruti 800 which entered the arena for which the dolphin exited was no designer masterpiece, or couture class. The Dolphin had a fibreglass shell. Not something you would expect to surround you when you are driving with family. Then again, the Maruti was not made of carbon fiber or reinforced concrete. Okay, I may be pushing this devil’s advocate bit a little too far now.
But the point I am trying to make is that it was well designed for the city. Its ride and handling was not something you would write home about or its looks was not necessarily poetry in motion. It was small, nippy with good low end torque, more than sufficient for stop go traffic. The power to weight ratio, really in the early 1980s, was really impressive. Can you imagine discussing power to weight ratios at the time when everyone was overcoming the hippy invasion and life was heading to a semblance of normalcy and family life was accepted? The fibreglass shell on impact does not produce pointy shards that can harm the inhabitants of the car. With all seriousness, the paint job would not cost much at all. You could get it painted once a year. In my book these are supreme qualities for a people mover within the city.
Well all in all, it’s not a great looker and the features, build quality and finish is not good. This is where the Maruti probably scored. Also, a 2 door version was as new as denim at that time. If time lapse photography was incorporated to showcase the progression of hatchbacks here in India, it would stand out like a sore thumb. But then you would not remember it that much as the slide show proceeds. India was stepping into the bourgeois scheme of things and the Sipani Dolphin was unacceptable. Hastily a four door version was released but the battle was lost or maybe the number of doors was not the problem altogether. Maybe the doors of perception (no disrespect to Mr. Huxley) in the Indian public was to be blamed or Maruti with its exemplary performance. I do not know. One thing I do know is that there are a quite a few proud owners of this nippy plastic car down south that are not quite willing to give it up. Also one more thing I do remember is the time when my father was trying to teach my mother driving and we owned a bright yellow Dolphin then. She accidentally floored the accelerator instead of the brake! Needless to say that was the last time she got behind the wheel again. I was really small then and do not remember much but I heard that I really enjoyed that car. The guy my father sold the car to (for reasons unknown) still has it (for reasons known).
