Society

His Other Chariot Is An Alpha Romeo 8C

Classic motors are a sight to behold, and more Indians are in their hopeless thrall than ever

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His Other Chariot Is An Alpha Romeo 8C
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8 Most coveted ‘Vintage & Classic Cars’

  • Rs200cr  Rolls Royce Silver Ghost (1907-1926)
  • Rs1–3.5cr Rolls Royce Phantom 1 (1923-1929)
  • Rs65-75lakh Bentley Mark VI (1928-1939)
  • Rs65-75lakh Lagonda 3 Litr (1953-1958)
  • Rs65-75lakh Cadillac V16 (1930-1937)
  • Rs50-55lakh Buick 90 L Limousine (1935-1945)
  • Rs65-75lakh Packard V12 (1915-1939)
  • Rs75-80lakh Auburn Speedster (1935)

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Madan Mohan is on his way to a ‘rajbari’ in West Bengal, his third trip to the obscure village dominated by a neo-classical mansion. His objective: to persuade the maharani to sell her late husband’s 1933 Rolls Royce 20/25 Limousine. But this trip is special: Mohan has with him a brand-new Toyota Corolla, a gift for the maharani, who has no transport around the Naxal-dominated region, since the Rolls Royce is mouldering away steadily. She is pleased by the thoughtful gesture and decides to part with her husband’s heirloom—unto hands that will lovingly restore it to its glistening glory. Mohan, an industrialist who has bought many vintage cars from India’s former royalty, often lends them from his restored collection for ceremonial use.

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All collectors have tales from their long trails, and this is a backstory from Mohan’s collection of 287 vintage and classic cars. He’s not alone in his quest. There is a new fleet of Indians who are investing money and time in classic motors. “There has been a marked increase in the zeal around collecting vintage cars, and a great deal is owed to the increasing exposure the hobby has got,” says collector Nitin Dossa, president, Vintage and Classic Car Club of India. One enabling reason is the government’s 2013 decis­ion to lift the ban on importing cars of a 1950 vintage or older. “Even with a daunting 220 per cent import duty, people are bringing in cars,” says Vineet Gupta, director, Statesman Vintage Car Rally. “They are well within the reach of many more and no longer restricted to royal families or army officers,” he says. The Statesman rally—a bastion of lovers, admirers and owners of these exquisite artefacts—saw 34 new ent­ries this year—a significant hike, says Gupta.

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Fort View A 1929 Phaeton at the 6th Gun Salute Vintage Car rally (Photograph by AP)

New money and a hankering for the ‘cla­ssy’ are the other drivers. “A new BMW or Mercedes is something that many own. If you want to turn heads, vintage cars are the thing,” says Gagan Sethi, a collector. “These cars as aspirational vehicles are bought by peo­ple who want to be in the same league as the maharajas,” says Tutu Dhawan, a collector-restorer. The irresistible charm of classic cars is all too apparent—the filigreed spokes of those gorgeous tyres, the elegant snouts that speak of character, the classical, non-modular bodily sweep of, say, a 1930s Hispano Suiza or an Alfa Romeo, and those convertibles (reference: Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief) that probably can glamourise even the irredeemably dowdy.

Everyone in the close-knit group agree that the industry is propelled and sustained by the passion to collect, whet­her it is the rich elite or a middle-class individual who has persevered for years to procure a car. And the fervour is spread widely across the Indian map—from Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi and Bangalore to Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur and Indore.

Each collector has his own story of how he got sucked into this all-consuming avocation. “I remember the first time I chanced upon a vintage car. I was invited to a rally and was awestruck. I ended up driving one all the way to Shimla. I knew I had to get one,” says K.T.S. Tulsi, a lawyer and collector. For some the adoration began early. “As a child we lived close to the palace of the maharaja of Khetri. He owned many cars but I had one favourite—the Dodge Victory 6. I started saving early, and my first vintage car was this one, and then seven more from the maharaja himself,” recalls Mohan. Dossa stumbled into a life-long affair at 18 when his grand-uncle gifted him an Austin 7 as a birthday gift. He still cherishes it. Rajiv Ghosh, on the other hand, was born to a father who was a collector of cla­ssic cars. In fact, he is one of the oldest in the trade, and a judge at many vintage car rallies. “I started driving in the Calcutta Vintage Car Rally at 15, when I didn’t even have a licence!” says Ghosh. He recalls driving his fat­her’s 1947 Buick Super and 1948 Cadillac, both of which are still in Ghosh’s collection. Only death can stall a collection; once bitten, it’s only likely to grow. Apart from an increase in the number of first-time buyers entering the elite clique of Bhogilal, Titus, Thakral and Mohan, individual collections of people have also grown tremendously.

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Of course, vintage cars are an expensive proposition. If you want to own the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud convertible in which David Hemmings tears London’s roads up in Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966), you need cash; actually, loads of it.

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Italian Job A Fiat classic at the Statesman vintage rally in Calcutta (Photograph by AP)

Buying the car itself is only the first step, which isn’t difficult if you are in the circuit. “It is about lucky finds and contacts who might help you find what you are looking for,” says Aditya Vij, a collector. If you buy a ‘done-up’ model, the cost is high, like the 1911 Delahaye which Mohan bought at an auction in France for about 75,000 euros (over Rs 50 lakh). But if you decide on buying it in its raw form—‘scrap’ or ‘junk’ as it is somewhat cruelly called—it can come cheaper. But then restoration can be a long and exp­ensive process.

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“Original parts are hard and expensive finds, as are trained and qualified mechanics,” says Sethi. “I bought both my cars, a 1934 Austin Convertible and a 1941 Buick 90 L Limousine, almost 20 years ago, and only restoring them then cost me approximately Rs 25 lakh each,” recalls Tulsi. Almost 90 per cent of Mohan’s cars have been bought ‘in junk’ and then restored. He found them in junkyards, old bungalows, forests, forts and palaces in India. Even if you are importing a car, buying in junk and then restoring works better in India. Abroad, restoration costs are prohibitive.

Restoration of cars, much like that of any artefact, is an art in itself. It begins with working on the mechanical aspects, which means either finding new parts or fabricating new ones. Only tow­ards the end does one attend to the ‘look’ of it. The key word is to “keep it original”. A proper restoration can take from a few months to over a year.

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Spit & PolIsh Tutu Dhawan at work on a 1937 Ford V8

The work doesn’t stop once the car is restored. “Maintenance is a big part of collecting vintage cars. You have to make sure they are regularly used and serviced,” says Dhawan. These cars have high depreciation values, and repairs can be very costly and tedious if they are not serviced regularly. Sethi services, on his own, his seven cars in turns. Before rallies, the cars need more attention. Others, like Mohan, have a team of 47 engineers and mechanics who service and maintain his army on wheels, all segregated into countries of origins—mainly British, French, Belgian, German and American. The Mohans are certainly serious about vintage cars—Madan’s brother is currently in Pennsylvania State University, doing a three-year course in Automotive Resto­ration Technology. The hobby is high on investment. “Only people with deep pockets can truly afford it,” explains Dhawan. Unlike art, this hobby requires rolling money, plus some expensive space for storage. Bearing all the one-time costs is one thing, regular servicing another, but you also have to have space for your investment. “I have several farmhouses in Gurgaon that house my entire collection,” says Mohan. Vij, on the other hand, has had to convert an entire house into a parking lot to accommodate his collection of 14.

And if all this wasn’t enough, there are laws stopping collectors from enjoying their hard-earned collection. First, there is the sweeping 220 per cent import duty; then there is the environmental tax levied by many states like Maharashtra. Worse, some states don’t allow these cars to run on roads, as in New Delhi, where the National Green Tribunal ruling put a ban on vehicles older than 15 years on the roads. Many collectors drive their cars around in their localities, to keep the engine functioning, when no traffic cop is looking. “The government must realise the value of these cars and the fact that you can’t expect such classic machines to maintain the same standard as the new ones,” says Sethi. “These are pieces of history and heritage, and a marker of industrial development at the time,” says Tulsi. Sethi, along with other collectors, have petitioned the Maharashtra government to exempt vintage cars from the tax.

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Though the law and the expenses can play spoilers for the passionate classic car aficionado, there are spurs to their enthusiasm too—the Rajast­han government rec­­­­og­­nising some vint­age cars as ‘Heritage Tourist Transport Vehicles’ offers hope to vintage’s ever-widening circle of admirers. Almost all of them are looking at new buys, if they don’t already have some in the works. Madan Mohan will get ten more cars in April. “I’m importing 90 cars this year,” he says. Sethi is working on a 1932 Austin 6. “Once you have begun collecting cars, it is very difficult to stop,” says Dossa. It’s a point made before, but as a rem­embrance of past elegance, it deserves another long drive.

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