Recreating one of the world's greatest car ads: update three

If you’re coming to this story fresh, may I suggest you cast your eye over update one and update two to get a fuller picture of what on earth we’re up to. In a nutshell, the mission is to turn an old Ambassador into a fully functioning Peugeot 208 GTI lookalike, in a bid to recreate the world’s greatest car ad. You’ll find more on the how and why in earlier scribblings.

Anyway, work continues at pace at the D Y Patil University in Pune, where after several weeks of the donor car being stripped and butchered, things are actually being stuck back on. You might have to squint a bit, but the shape of a Peugeot 208 GTI is definitely emerging, which is quite extraordinary given that the Hindustan Ambassador’s boxy stance is the complete antithesis of a French hot-hatch.

In fact, my biggest worry right now is that it will end up looking too convincing and casual observers won’t ever know the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into making it. Then again, we’re still a long way off a polished finished product… that’ll happen when we arrive in India in January, to put the final touches to the build, and take it for its maiden test drive.

As this latest set of pictures detail, moulds for the entire front and back ends have been made, stuffed with fibreglass and attached to the chopped down chassis – marrying (almost) perfectly with the new roof and doors. Into this the actual headlights and grille from a 208 GTI (that’s right, the bits made it through customs, eventually) have been set. Same will happen with the taillights, although only the holes have been cut so far. And you’ll note the rims, too, are now accurate.

Wouldn’t it have just been cheaper to buy a 208 GTI and ship it to India I hear you cry? Probably, but where’s the fun in that? Stay tuned for more updates as the project rushes towards its conclusion. And let us know what you think, below.