Bentleys in India

[DKG]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

I see. Forgive my ignorance, but they also look remarkabky similar to the Lucas P 100s to me.

Which is why I asked Julian if they were Marchals. In all likelihood they are the P100s? I know very little about RR's and Bentley's

Also quite possibly on account of certain countries specifying a certain type of lamp both Lucas and Marchal catered to with similar designs. The Marchals I had had the light focused by the ribbed reflector in the metal dome and a clear lens ahead. Its so interesting that after 70 years you see modern cars with a similar design where the dome surrounding the bulb focuses the light and a clear plastic just covers up front. So much for progress in design!

[Julian UK]

Just to throw some light on the subject these look like and are likely to be Lucas R100 headlights (late 30s on).
DKG, why don't you upload photos of the lamps you have then they can be identified?

[DKG]

Originally Posted by Julian UK

DKG, why don't you upload photos of the lamps you have then they can be identified?

Mine were Marchal Aerolux's. Will upload some pictures. Just wondering how you can tell the difference from a distance. They seem similar.

[karlosdeville]

Some more priceless photos and anecdotes from Harit.

I have taken out some Bentley pics which are attached herewith. Hope you like.



MRJ 3371 is today the Poonawalla car, that time it was Ashok Kumar on Altamount Road, not the actor. This pic is so old, it is black and white. In the 1970's it was better to take black and white pictures, these could be processed. For colour pics you had to give to Kodak and after they collected a certain number of reels they would process. So I used to send my reels abroad. Can you imagine how primitive we were? Can you imagine how it was not possible to restore a car because of import procedures?





MRG 7700 is probably Pranlal's car.





BMX 4472 is one of my favourite Bentleys. This belonged to Mr. Apte, he had 2 as mentioned earlier and we were all shocked when he sold to Pranlal. Today it is with Pranlal.





WBB 9206: This is the 8 litre of Pranlal. She came from Calcutta, there are some modifications to the body. Pranlal got it like this. Now we catch someone who posted a fairy tale. I have gone through a lot of threads and someone mentioned that he and his dad found an 8 litre Bentley in Chor bazar to be scrapped and they switched some chassis to save the car and gave it to Pranlal. Fairy tale indeed. There are to the best of our knowledge only two 8 litre Bentleys in India and none went through Chor Bazar. The other was in the Adenwalla collection and then to Mr. Khan and the family is getting it restored on Peddar Road.



MSC 1000 Vivek Goenka Bently, lovely Bentley.



MRH: This is one of the older surviving Bentleys in India. This pic, black and white was taken before she was sold to Indore. If I remember, at one rally the owner at that time was questioned about the year, and he informed that it was built in December, so it was entered as a year earlier than what was expected. I think it was 1927/1927, but I am not sure. I did not take notes.



BYH 2829 This is the same Bentley Mr. Julian showed now in UK. This belonged to a Parsi gentleman, Mr. Reporter who lived on Ridge Road. The first time I saw this car was at a rally in Mumbai in the 1970's. When she came both myself and Vohra ran to check her out, great presence. This car appeared once more in the 1990's for a rally. At that time they were already planning to take her out under some scheme. I wonder if that family still owns the car or did they sell. A lot of people liked to sell their cars only to outsiders, just like the Swan car which could have easily been sold locally for the same price.



BYH 2775 In Pune, nothing more to say.

One more thing,
Pranlal had one 1930's Bentley, a sporting car, aluminium bodied but the top cut off. At that time Pranlal got the top fabricated in aluminium. She was white at that time, now I do not know the colour.

Looking forward to any comments

[Julian UK]

Karl and Harit,
Thank you for some very interesting photos and very interesting memories. Some will really appeciate this rare opportunity to see very rare W O Bentley and later Rolls-Royce-Bentley cars, some unseen for decades. It will take some time to digest the sequence of ownership and discover the chassis numbers. Thank you again for helping record the cars of India, which all have such a wealth of historic interest.

[Julian UK]

Please Harit, can you throw some light on the "Passage to India" W O Bentley?

(Its hard to see the front cross member -- 6 1/2 litre its right at the front of the dumb irons -- 8 litre its further back) In the second photo it looks like a 6 1/2 litre. Could it be WK2673 Gurney Nutting or KR2691 H J Mulliner ? Any ideas anyone?

[Roger OZ]

Could anyone identify this Derby Bentley from the Nabha stables?

It was photographed circa late 1939/early 1940 by the late Mr. Neville Fernando of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during an extended tour of India.

[DKG]

Fabulous pictures Harit and thanks a ton for sharing all that info. The door cuts on the 8 litre of Pranlal look very unusual. Was that an original design?

Thanks Roger for the Nabha Bentley's picture. Looks awesome. Nabha apparently also had a 1935 Packard V12 limousine and an Auburn (not sure if it was a V12 too)

[Alvis]

Fantastic pictures all, and so much information.Though the heading is Bentley's in India, I hope no one minds my posting pictures of our Bentley R type, B31TO, from Pakistan.
The pictures are from 1974, Karachi, and I am the one in the blue shirt aged 19!
B31TO was sold to family friends in the 80's and happily is now undergoing a major restoration.

[Roger OZ]

"Fantastic pictures all, and so much information.Though the heading is Bentley's in India, I hope no one minds my posting pictures of our Bentley R type, B31TO, from Pakistan."

Hi Alvis, thanks for these photos of B31TO. According to reliable information I have received, this car spent time in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), circa 1953/54, probably having been shipped there by F. Denney Scott on board HMS Perseus.

The car was subsequently "noted in Pakistan, 1956" in the ownership of a Mr. Khan.

Could anyone add information about this car's period of ownership/residence in Ceylon?

[Julian UK]

Originally Posted by Roger OZ

Could anyone identify this Derby Bentley from the Nabha stables?

It was photographed circa late 1939/early 1940 by the late Mr. Neville Fernando of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during an extended tour of India.

Thank you Roger for this very valuable photo. This is so very similar to Nabha 34 apart from the windscreen, mudguards, overriders on the bumper etc. Nabha 34 has a spare tyre n/s and o/s. Nabha 34 appears to have P100s and Nabha 2 appears to have R100s? I don't have the full Nabha car records.
Over to my betters and elders, peers etc.. Park Ward, Steve, Travencore (who is in India for 3 weeks), Harit, Karl, DKG, V16 anyone?

Source Me


Source Exoticars (where would we be without you)


Source Roger (Australia)

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by Julian UK

Thank you Roger for this very valuable photo. This is so very similar to Nabha 34 apart from the windscreen, mudguards, overriders on the bumper etc. Nabha 34 has a spare tyre n/s and o/s. Nabha 34 appears to have P100s and Nabha 2 appears to have R100s? I don't have the full Nabha car records.
Over to my betters and elders, peers etc.. Park Ward, Steve, Travencore (who is in India for 3 weeks), Harit, Karl, DKG, V16 anyone?

I spoke with Awini yesterday, he seems to think it is UPX 123, which is now supposedly getting a modified body. Sigh!

Also another shot of Apte's teardrop coupe.

[karlosdeville]

Some more from Xoticars. I think we missed these earlier.







And this convertible seems to have later Mercury (?) taillights on it.





Can Julian and others do the honours of identifying them?

[Julian UK]

I think the Sports Saloon is 1936 Bentley B67GP Park Ward and was a Mayur Bhanj car, I got it running in the 90s. It is in Delhi. The other is the Oberoi Bentley which used to be a regular in the Delhi Statesman Rally, it is a Vanden Plas open sports.
B72BN was a Indian trials demonstrator
B82DG went to Indore (maybe Mr. Bhogilal's car)
B37DK went to Allied Motors for M P M Dalar
B35EJ went to Allied motors for the Ruling chief of Nandgaon
B50FB went to Raj Kumar of Bhaunagar
All tourers.

[Julian UK]

Sometimes it takes longer than 15 minutes to compose a post (hint to the mods)

Here’s another photo of 1936 Bentley B67GP Park Ward Sports Saloon in its previous grey colour.






Here are some of the Derby Bentleys that came to India

B164EF 1935 Vanden Plas Tourer Cooch Bihar
B72BN 1935 Vanden Plas Tourer Indian trials demonstrator
B82DG 1935 Vanden Plas Tourer Indore (maybe Mr. Bhogilal's car)
B37DK 1935 Vanden Plas Tourer Allied Motors for M P M Dalar
B35EJ 1935 Allied motors for the Ruling chief of Nandgaon
B50FB 1935 Vanden Plas Tourer Raj Kumar of Bhavnagar
B183EJ 1935 Gurney Nutting Coupe Jodhpur
B144FB 1936 Gurney Nutting Coupe Jammu and Kashmir
B174FB 1936 Barker Saloon On loan to Maharaja of Jaipur
B194FB 1936 Gurney Nutting Coupe Holkar Indore
B12GA 1936 Barker Saloon India trials
B11GP 1936 Gurney Nutting Tourer Holkar Indore
Unknown yet 1936 Cabriolet Nabha (Maybe Nabha 34)
B67GP 1936 Park Ward Sports Saloon Mayur Bhanj
Unknown yet 1937Raja of Nilgiri
B192JD 1937 Thrupp and Maberly All Weather Cooch Bihar
B64MR 1939 Vanden Plas Tourer Darbhanga
B45MX 1939 Last Barker body / Hooper Saloon Jaipur
B77MX 1939 H J Mulliner Coupe Bhopal
B97MX 1939 James Young Sedanca Coupe Nabha (Nabha 2)
B131MX 1939 (delivered 1940) Park Ward Saloon S M Swenson

The black Vanden Plas tourer in Karl’s post may be one of the above but I don’t think its B82DG, B144FB, and definitely not B64MR. Help!