Classic Himalayan Drive: ‘It all went like clockwork’

The Classic Himalayan Drive concluded in the capital on Monday; Classic Himalayan Drive is a deja vu event attempting to retrace the path of the Himalayan Car Rally that was a regular feature of the 1980s.

This was the fifth edition of the Classic Himalayan Drive and it has traversed various routes such as Sikkim-Bhutan and Jammu and Kashmir-Ladakh in the past. (Express Photo | Gajendra Yadav)

After nearly 10 days of travel through scenic terrain, the Classic Himalayan Drive concluded in the capital on Monday. The final day of the event, which was of a non-competitive nature, saw cars – many of them vintage ones – move from Chandigarh to Delhi, where there was a celebratory ceremony to mark the successful completion.

The convoy – that included several cars from the UK, France, Kenya and other countries, apart from India — started from Greater Noida on November 2 and also moved through Ramnagar, Rishikesh, Mussoorie, Theog, Shimla and Manali. It went through the Rohtang Pass and the Atal Tunnel, and over the Jalori Pass.

“It all went like clockwork. Even though it wasn’t a competitive race, we had a schedule to follow and did that impeccably,” Rajan Syal, one of the architects of the event, told The Indian Express.

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The Classic Himalayan Drive is a deja vu event attempting to retrace the path of the Himalayan Car Rally that was a regular feature of the 1980s.

“Those were different days. We used to have presidents and prime ministers flagging off the cars and it used to generate a lot of excitement,” Shailendra Vyakarnam of Team Firefox recalled.

“The roads are much better these days and the scenery is beautiful. The support we received from the local administration everywhere has been remarkable. As we had to drive through busy roads, we couldn’t breach speed limits. Also, we had to be careful as those regions were susceptible to landslides,” he said, adding that the only challenging aspect was the customs formalities to get the foreign cars in and out of the country.

Some of the cars participating in the drive were 40-60 years old, with the oldest being a Mercedes of 1958 vintage.

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This was the fifth edition of the Classic Himalayan Drive and it has traversed various routes such as Sikkim-Bhutan and Jammu and Kashmir-Ladakh in the past.