The Gondal Collection

[DKG]

The Gondal royal family, near Rajkot Gujarat, are known to be automobile enthusiasts across generations and have retained a significant number of their family's cars presently on display in a museum in one of their palaces.

During my annual travels across India, invariably, hunting out vintage cars is a must on the agenda and consumes a great deal of my time, pleasurably so

The Gondal collection has many more cars, I took pictures of only what I liked. Hopefully other visitors can take pictures and complete this thread

A New Engine







A lovely 1935 Packard 120 Convertible Rumble seat Coupe







A massive Daimler Double Six. Now this is a very imposing car and I just couldn't get over its size









A spectacular Delage D8, loved its lines







The legendary Mercedes 300 SL, one of only two in India I am told. This one's a LHD roadster, fabulous car







My all time favourite the Jaguar XK, this I think is one of two 150's the family has, my choice is the 120 though





A vintage mini road roller

[DKG]

I couldn't get through to seeing the Jamnagar collection, as I had to move on, but managed to see this Lanchester convertible sedan on display at a local fair



The royals sure knew how to start off young, a toy Lanchester!!!



PS The royals were referred to as Jamsahibs of Nawanagar. I think they are Jadejas

[Cyrus43]

Absolutely Beautiful Pictures DKG. Thanks for sharing them with us. Gondal also has a Formula Spec car dont they?

[DKG]

Originally Posted by GTA

Absolutely Beautiful Pictures DKG. Thanks for sharing them with us. Gondal also has a Formula Spec car dont they?

Ex Surtees? something like that. They are quite fond of racing I believe

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by DKG

Ex Surtees? something like that. They are quite fond of racing I believe

Yup. It appeared at a recent Speed Run. It is covered elsewhere on the forum.

Here is their other 150 and Corvette.

Long time no see - Drop head gorgeous - Business Standard Motoring

[Mugen_Power]

Did you get a chance to see their private collection ?

[Julian UK]

Wonderful pictures DKG just love the Daimlers, are they both Double Sixes? Quite a pretty Packard too. At one rally in the 90s in Delhi a massive Double six Daimler arrived at the judging (I think it was towed) it was a huge formal "Royal" limousine in not too good mechanical shape. Later it sat in the drive way of the house of a Raja who is a 50-60s american car collector, bits went missing then it was sold to someone, never to be seen again. I always wonder where it went. It was accompanied at the rally by an elderly mechanic who during the 1980s used to work on some of the large cars around, he got the Darbhanga Delauney Belleville (photos in the Delhi Rally pictures thread, now safe in Delhi) going and it ran a few rallies ok. Does anyone remember this mechanic? When I started restoring cars in Delhi in about 84 he seemed to be the only chap at the time involved in the big cars. I believe he is no more now. If I remember he loved a drink too many... I digress, has any one seen a huge 30s Daimler double six high roof limousine anywhere?
Again lovely photos of the Gondal cars what is that monstrosity that comes first? Thankfully the road roller never altered the cars in any way

[brat001]

i remember the gondals had some cars in one of their properties in b'lore.. in fact there still is the shell of a jag lying around in one of the sheds . i was told that most of their cars from bangalore have been moved back to gondal.

[Rehaan]

Thanks for sharing those pics DKG!

Originally Posted by GTA

....Gondal also has a Formula Spec car dont they?

Originally Posted by DKG

Ex Surtees? something like that....

Being discussed here :
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super-...tees-ts11.html

cya
R

[71Convertible]

Are there any photos on the Jamsahibs collection? I met a local mechanic who claims that they have about 150odd cars -- some of which are stored in bangalore. He claims to maintain 4 beetles for them in Bangalore (near the Saibaba ashram).

B

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by Julian UK

At one rally in the 90s in Delhi a massive Double six Daimler arrived at the judging (I think it was towed) it was a huge formal "Royal" limousine in not too good mechanical shape.

These pictures were taken at the Delhi Statesman in 89.

[awini]

Originally Posted by Julian UK

Wonderful pictures DKG just love the Daimlers, are they both Double Sixes? Quite a pretty Packard too. At one rally in the 90s in Delhi a massive Double six Daimler arrived at the judging (I think it was towed) it was a huge formal "Royal" limousine in not too good mechanical shape. Later it sat in the drive way of the house of a Raja who is a 50-60s american car collector, bits went missing then it was sold to someone, never to be seen again. I always wonder where it went. It was accompanied at the rally by an elderly mechanic who during the 1980s used to work on some of the large cars around, he got the Darbhanga Delauney Belleville (photos in the Delhi Rally pictures thread, now safe in Delhi) going and it ran a few rallies ok. Does anyone remember this mechanic? When I started restoring cars in Delhi in about 84 he seemed to be the only chap at the time involved in the big cars. I believe he is no more now. If I remember he loved a drink too many... I digress, has any one seen a huge 30s Daimler double six high roof limousine anywhere?
Again lovely photos of the Gondal cars what is that monstrosity that comes first? Thankfully the road roller never altered the cars in any way

after the brass parts went missing, chetan sold the darbhanga daimler to the pune buick collector, don't know what happened to it since, the SS1 and the Riley drophead were smuggled out by the chap who he sold the cars to, he was in a lot of trouble with the police for a while, thankfully he took the entire payment by cheque so was able to prove that he had no hand in exporting the cars. btw, chetan passed away a few years ago

p.s. this double six is ex Buckingham palace

[moralfibre]

Interestingly, the registration reads BRG 4. Does it have any ownership connection with BRG 1 RR?

[Julian UK]

Thank you everybody for the update and photos, a shame it had to suffer that way, one mother of a car. The mechanic I mentioned is the chap in the pink shirt who is present in some of the photos though obscured from view. The car must have come from the Darbhanga collection. I remember going to see the Jaguar (wasn't it a SS100?) at Chetan's house in Pusa Road. They used the same cylinder block as the Standard Vanguard.
Apologies for intruding on your Gondal thread DKG but it is a magnificent car with Royal history. Maybe a "Royal Daimler" as they were known.

The chap in the foreground of this last photo was an "electrician" called Trilok who was working at one car collection I worked in for many years.

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by DKG

A lovely 1935 Packard 120 Convertible Rumble seat Coupe

I was saving this picture for an "oldie photo" thread Im working on, but this has to be shared earlier. It looks like an identical if not the same car. The photo was given to me by a lady who is unfortunately no more. She had herself taken the photo back in the day at West End theater in Pune where they were playing a Clark Gable movie featuring this very same car. Can anyone contact the Gondal family and check if it is indeed the same car? Unfortunately I cant decipher the regn plate.



OT - Anyone who is familiar with West End theater will never believe me that this is the same place!

Originally Posted by DKG

The legendary Mercedes 300 SL, one of only two in India I am told. This one's a LHD roadster, fabulous car

Where is the other one? I was told the Singhania family had one as well, but not confirmed.