Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Pre-War (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/pre-war/)

-   -   Pranlal Bhogilal Collection - Auto World - Dasthan - Kathwada - Gujarat (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/pre-war/28055-pranlal-bhogilal-collection-auto-world-dasthan-kathwada-gujarat-3.html)

Thats a 1946-48 Chrysler Town and Country Woody Convertible. Very rare and I know of another one in Bombay (at least used to be in Bombay) with another private collector.
These woodies were made from 1946 and were note worthy for incorporating wooden trim on coupes and convertibles. Wood trim was not new for either Chrysler or the other car makers but before the war, it was restricted to only estates also known as station wagons thus the name Woody Wagons. The Town and Country series remained unaltered till 1948 with a very few minute changes.

In the 1946 Town and Country models, everything from the cowl rearward except the fenders and the sedan roof, was panelled in Mahogany and trimmed with White Ash framing. For 1947 the mahogany was replaced with very realistic looking decals, although the white ash would continue.
The interior was as elegant as the exterior. Wood was also used inside, and this, combined with leather, Bedford cord fabric, and colour coordinated carpets, gave it an imperial aura of a fine luxury yatch.
Production of the Town and Country was a slow and expensive operation. Because there was no roof structure for stiffness in the convertible, reinforced body framing had to be added. This required a lot of individual hand work, as did the preparation and fitting of the wooden body parts. The result was a production rate of only about 10 bodies per day.
Of the 2,159 1946 T & Cs built, 1,935 were convertibles, riding on a long 3,238 mm (127.5 in.) wheelbase. These woody land yachts were all powered by Chrysler's big, side-valve, straight-eight, 5.3 litre, 135 horsepower engine. In the Bhogilal collection, the car seems to have wheel caps of the Plymouth/Dodge.



The fuel filler was hidden behind the left hand rear tail light lens. A feature started in 1941 by Cadillac which was followed till 1959. In later cars they were found behind the Number plate

.

Those are Plymouth Savoy hubcaps. Did you notice the front right wheel?
Bhogilal also has a pink (!) 46 Windsor/New Yorker convertible.
We keep hearing legends of a mint Town and Country locked away in litigation in Poona for decades. Its an all time favorite for me.

Agreed - the collection is so vast that it requires immense resources to get to concours. As mentioned, a lot of the cars, he has rescued from the chikkee for steel mob

Theres no question about it, we dont expect the cars to be in concours condition. He's only one man. But am I being unreasonable to expect the Chrysler Airflow to be in digestable colours? :p

I have similar issues

And my favourite too. You shouldn't have used flash though. :) Made some small corrections.

Does anyone have any details on the entire Pranlal Bhogilal collection? Hes has THE largest collection in India right?

IIRC it's the largest collection in the world. Could be wrong though.

Certainly not the largest in the world, but defintely amongst the most exclusive if we look at rarity or desirability of each model.

BSMotoring has painstakingly documented the whole collection, and have been featuring some examples from time to time.

ishan he is the seventh largest collector in the world and the largest collector in india. he stopped buying car as he could not maintain the current fleet.

karl and ajmat i agree with you, but he likes to paint his cars to his colours and not according to the book. i am sure ajmat you must have seen alot of cars in non book colours.

And May God bless him for that and for stopping the chikkee guys from committing vehicular blasphemy :D

I was told his name features somewhere on the top in the "collection owned by one single person" whatever that means.

it means bhai that it is an individual (sole owner of the company or trust) and not a trust or company that have more then one person as owners of the cars. ajmat could you shed some light on this i hope i am right.
all cars solely belong to Mr Bhogilal,so in collection owned by a single person he is seventh in the world and in india he is the largest collector. this information is from an international magizine listing the top ten collectors of the world and is atleast a year old. dont know the current status. so if there is new information regarding this please do let me know. thank you.

Thanks Ajmat for giving us an insight of the collection. I remember as a kid when we stayed in Walkeshwar, I used to drive up the road leading to teen batti sitting on my fathers lap in our Padmini. As soon as I saw the wall to my right turn red and a green coloured gate leading to the basement I used to yell "Stop" so that I could get a glimpse of the garage housing nicely kept vintage beauties. I didn't know what vintage was but those cars caught my eye more than anything.

Just out of curiosity, does Dr. Mallya own less number of cars than Sir Bhogilal?

Yup, many more than Mr. Kingfisher.

the green coloured gate lead to the house and it is atleast a floor higher then the road all the cars stand there. the basement is the road level and has a prison type gate that does not house his cars.

Mr Mallya owns far less cars then Mr bhogilal