Tiger CAR Roars Again

“Due to its distinctive history,it’s been said that the Indian consulate once requested that the car be repatriated to India to be displayed in a museum as a piece of national heritage. Respectfully declined by the then owner,the car will now be available at an auction for the first time and carries an estimate of $750,000-$1,000,000 (Rs 3.3 crore to Rs 4.4 crore),” says Julian Roup,director of press and marketing at Bonhams,one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The car is among the six pre-war Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars that will go under the hammer. He informs that the Rolls-Royce Limited company,then based in Derby,England,employed coach builders Barker & Company of London to create the highly specialised and bespoke sports touring body for the car. Then,befitting its hunting nature,it was “mounted with a Howdah gun,a double-barrel shotgun in pistol form,a rifle stand in the rear passenger compartment,two powerful searchlights for night spotting,a mountable Lantaka cannon attached to the bumper,and a machine gun mounted on an attached,matching trailer”. Powerful brass searchlights would swing from side to side. A hidden safe and a nickel-plated hissing snake horn were the other features.

As for the power under the bonnet,Roup says,“The car was powered by an eight litre,six-cylinder engine,with dual-spark ignition that was set to a low gearing ratio,allowing it to creep powerfully through the roughshod jungles of Rajasthan.”