One for the road: Avijit Singh Badnore with a 1929 Rolls Royce 20 HP Mulliner Tourer. (Express photo by Rohit Jain Paras)
A 1936 Pierce Arrow is a thing of beauty. The year it was created, the car was billed the “world’s safest car”. The engineers at Pierce Arrow did a marvellous job of producing a car that was powerful and agile. It could propel a driver and a full load of passengers down the highway at 96 kmph without breaking a sweat. That might not be possible on this Saturday, especially not in the main city of Jaipur, where the 20th Vintage and Classic Car Exhibition will be held, but that is no matter. On Sunday, a rally will kick off from Jaipur to Kanota, and, perhaps, a drive down memory lane might just accelerate into a speedy chase.
“Vintage cars have much more character. Look at all the new cars, they are all so similar. If you remove the grill and the badging, they all look the same. But the old cars, they didn’t care so much about the aerodynamics. Or efficiency, since some of them boasted of 12-16 cylinders. Their most important function was that they had to look good,” says Avijit Singh Badnore, secretary of the Rajputana Automotive Sports Car Club, that has been hosting the state’s premier vintage car rally for the past two decades.
The exhibition will be held on the lawns of Taj Jai Mahal Palace. Built in the Indo-Saracenic style, the venue provides the perfect ambience for exhibiting classic cars. This year’s highlights include a 1936 Pierce Arrow, a 1930 Rolls Royce, and a 1922 Wolseley Tourer.
Vintage and Classic Car Exhibition: The rally held last year.
The prestigious event began in January 1996, when the first edition was organised at Khasa Kothi with just 10 cars. “This year more than 100 vintage and classic cars from Jaipur and other cities of Rajasthan, Delhi and Mumbai, will be exhibited. Approximately 70 owners will enter their cars in the rally. We have also invited 25 vintage motorcycles that were manufactured before 1960, such as the Triumph (UK), Norton (UK), Indian Motorcycles (USA), and Royal Enfield (UK). In my opinion, the Indian bike is superior to the Harley Davidson,” says Badnore, who belongs to one of the 16 noble families of Mewar, and is an avid car collector himself.
“My grandfather had a passion for automobiles. He would drive to the car dealer in Jaipur and if he liked a vehicle, he’d pay as much as he could there, and ask them to drive the car to his house to collect the difference,” he says. Badnore began early. He bought his first vintage car, a Ford MG, while he was in college for a not-so-princely sum of Rs 15,000. Today, he has 12 cars, but his favourites remain his three Ford MGs and a 1964 Mustang.
While prizes in 12 categories are to be awarded at the Vintage and Classic Car Exhibition, the event also seeks to recognise the work of mechanics who have restored several old cars. “The vintage and classic car movement has played a role in providing employment to many old-time mechanics, who were unable to work on modern cars, which require a computerised system for even the slightest job. Every year, the club selects one of these mechanics and honours them for their work,” says Badnore.
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