Classic cars roll out on Pune roads

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The annual event, which is among the biggest car events in India, first saw a 24-km rally where the vehicles were taken on city roads, followed by a function where they were judged in three categories — Vintage, Classics and Modern Classics. Beating many strong contenders in their respective categories, the cars that emerged the winners were a 1908 Wolseley owned by Abbas Jasdanwalla which won the Best Vintage Car, the 1949 Chevrolet Deluxe Convertible owned by Viveck Goenka which won the Best Maintained Classic Car and the 1933 Rolls Royce once owned by the Maharaja of Jodhpur and presently owned by Amir Jetha that won Best Maintained Vintage Car.

The two cars which were honoured with the Concourse de Elegance were the 1908 Wolseley in Vintage category while Yohan Poonawala’s 1962 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud won in Classic Car category.

There were several winners in other categories too like Feroze Mehta’s Maruti 800 which won first place in the Indian Heritage Class category, Sajid Qureshi’s 1961 Fiat Millicento, which won best restored vintage car, Subhash Sanas’s 1977 Mercedes Benz 560 SL that won Best Restored Recent Classic Car, the 1982 Citroën van owned by Dhanjai Badami won the most unique car.

Some cars were so rare that they were the only one of their kind left in the world, such as VCCCI president Nitin Dossa’s only surviving Hudson (1933) .
“I bought it eleven years ago from an industrialist in Mumbai. I am only the second owner. I have a letter from the Hudson makers who said they thought none of these cars existed anymore,” said Dossa.

And like Dossa’s car, each vintage vehicle has its own story. Like the British-made Wolseley which was bought from the Nawab of Janjiras by Jasdanwalla for a token amount in the early 70s. Or Sanas’s 1977 Mercedes-Benz SL560 which was owned by Al Pacino.

“Owning a vintage car isn’t just about money or maintenance, it is about sheer passion,” said Sanas. Some of the other vehicles he brought to the rally were a Mercedes SL500 (2003) used by Amitabh Bachchan and 300 CD Two Door Sport (1982) used by Vinod Khanna.

In the bikes, 1927 AJS owned by Jehangir Faroogh won the Best Vintage Motorcyle, the 1954 BSA 500 owned by Jamshed Marolia won the Classic Motorcyle prize and the 1962 Norton Dominator owned by Adil Davr won the Recent Classic Motorcycle. An attraction of the event was an art competition in which 20 artists had participated where they drew portraits, abstract paintings, and drawings of vintage cars of their choice, choosing from 100-odd participating cars at the event. Three of these artists were awarded prizes. They were: Amit Dhane, Ganesh Deshmukh and Amol Mote.