[DKG]

Originally Posted by Steve Stuckey

This photo, an original Park Ward photo that I have owned for some years but which I only identified recently as 3CM37, has never been published anywhere before!

That's a very special gesture Steve. Thanks for sharing a rare picture of a car that no longer looks its original incarnation.

Steve do please forgive my ignorance but has your marvelous work on PIII histories been featured in a book already? It really does deserve to be published.

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by Steve Stuckey

In 2000 it was owned by Yohan Poonawalla of Pune, who has it with a tourer body (see post # 67 in this thread). Discussion is that the Park Ward body was cut down into a tourer by the French Motor Car Co. in Calcutta, but comparison between the photo below and photos of the tourer in this thread convince me that most of the body is new.

This is the car as I photographed it a few years back. The original body looks so elegant and stylish, how I wish it were retained. The new proportions are rather ungainly. The dash too appears locally put together.















Of late she makes appearences minus the wheel discs and added whitewalls.

Originally Posted by DKG

Steve do please forgive my ignorance but has your marvelous work on PIII histories been featured in a book already? It really does deserve to be published.

It already is published - on Team BHP Steve, we are forever indebted to you (and Rolls Royce archives!) for these superb posts.

[Steve Stuckey]

Originally Posted by DKG

That's a very special gesture Steve. Thanks for sharing a rare picture of a car that no longer looks its original incarnation.

Steve do please forgive my ignorance but has your marvelous work on PIII histories been featured in a book already? It really does deserve to be published.

Well, I am the co-author of the book in Bernard King's Complete Classic that covers both the Phantom II and Phantom III. Unfortunately this is out of print, although they sometimes appear on ebay.

I have been in discussion with a Chicago publisher about a big book about the Phantom III, but he is busy doing lots of other projects (like on Delage, and Martin Bennett's very recent book about post-war Phantoms). But I remain optimistic that the book will be published soon.

There is a huge amount of information - I have the same sort of info on all 727 Phantom IIIs, so the book will have to be big!

[travancore]

Originally Posted by Steve Stuckey

This one, 3CM37, was sent off test twice - the first time on 13 September 1937, after it had been fitted with a new clutch on 30 August whilst being tested. The early Phantom III clutch gave a lot of problems.

Steve, we truly appreciate and are indebted to you for bringing so much history - factually and visually!

Not that I am superstitious....but 3CM37 seems to have had its share of problems, including the ignominy of a "chop top". Wonder if 13 September 1937 happened to be a "Friday the Thirteenth" as well! Anyway, thanks again.

Originally Posted by Steve Stuckey

There are five more Phantom IIIs in India to come in these histories. This one, 3CM37, was sent off test twice - the first time on 13 September 1937, after it had been fitted with a new clutch on 30 August whilst being tested. The early Phantom III clutch gave a lot of problems. The car was taken back into the factory and was finally released on 11 November 1937. It was fitted with engine R18L, and steering at the low E rake.

Steve, is the "Three Quarters" steering wheel a chop job too ? If it is, a much better execution than the body.

[Steve Stuckey]

This is the third-last Phantom III in our list, and the last one that was sent to an Indian citizen. It was sent off test on 28 April 1938, with steering at the low E rake, and engine R18M; it was set up for use in India.

The chassis was sent to Thrupp & Maberly by rail on 29 April. They had been instructed to build a cabriolet on this chassis, along the lines of the drawings in the RR Phantom III sales catalogue. It was T&M drawing SLE138, and body number 6815. The car was to have a division with cocktail cabinet, detachable B posts and roll-up windows, and a spare wheel to each side. It was finished in ivory and pale blue, with a grey hood; the interior was in pale blue leather to match the exterior, and the woodwork was in solid teak. The body cost 952 pounds, and the total car 2,226 pounds.

The car had been ordered by Allied Motors Ltd. in Bombay for delivery to Sir Krishnachandra Gajapathi Narayan Deo, Maharaja Saheb of Parla Kimedi (28 April 1892 - 25 May 1974), of Orissa State. He was Prime Minister of Orissa in 1937-38 and again 1941-44. The car was completed on 6 July 1938 (so T&M had the chassis for over two months) and was registered with English registration DNU1. It was shipped to Bombay on 22 July aboard the ss "Soudan". It cost 115 pounds to ship the car, including war risk insurance, which illustrates the international situation at the time, which discouraged people from buying large luxury cars like the Phantom III; by 1938 sales of them were very slow.

The Maharaja owned Phantom II 27GY (a Barker tourer), which was traded-in on the Phantom III, as well as 25/30HP GRO59, a Gurney Nutting tourer. After the war he would own Silver Wraith WVA42, a Park Ward saloon with division.

RR records indicate that the next owner of 3DL26 was the Raja Saheb of Bilkha, between 1946 and 1954.

This very pretty Phantom III cabriolet was reimported to the UK in 1968, owned by Peter Brewer. He had it for sale for only 4,250 pounds in September 1969, with a very low mileage, and with new tyres and hood. In July 1973 it failed to sell (at 13,000 pounds) at a Christie's London auction, by which time it had been repainted white and purple and had a total mechanical rebuild. Later in 1973 it was exported to the USA, where it remains, after being owned for more than 20 years by Paul Wichard and now with Mark Schirmer in Massachusetts. It failed to sell at auction in 1995 for $150,000 and again in 2000 at $154,500.

The photos below are from the Charles Bowers archive, and show the car when new.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by Steve Stuckey

There is a huge amount of information - I have the same sort of info on all 727 Phantom IIIs, so the book will have to be big!

My goodness, that should be some record. I hope we will see this soon. Do please let us know when the book comes out. I would like to procure a copy for myself. And thanks once again for a most remarkable record and for wonderfully and selflessly sharing this with all of us. I'm sure many here would join me in wishing you the very best.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by Julian UK

Then DKG’s photo is of RR 25/30hp GRO 59 Gurney Nutting All Weather 1st owner Maharajah of Faridkot

Originally Posted by Steve Stuckey

Sir Krishnachandra Gajapathi Narayan Deo, Maharaja Saheb of Parla Kimedi...

The Maharaja owned... 25/30HP GRO59, a Gurney Nutting tourer

Would appreciate if some more light is thrown on whether this magnificent car was owned by both and in what succession.

[Steve Stuckey]

Sorry, I should have said that the Maharaja of Parla Kimedi was the second owner of GRO59.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by Steve Stuckey

Sorry, I should have said that the Maharaja of Parla Kimedi was the second owner of GRO59.

Thanks Steve, that was quite a garage the Maharajah of Parlakimedi had.

Its very interesting that some of these Maharajahs bought cars from each other. Usually it may have been beneath their dignity to buy something used (or I should think so)

The reason why I say this is so many families in India let cars rot because they didn't want to be seen selling things. They prefered the cars to go into the ground or discreetly taken out by a breaker than have the car seen in town in someone else's ownership.

Also did the Parlakimedi ruler have the Maharajah title? or was it just Raja? From what I recall reading in that part of the country the only Maharajah may have been from Vizianagaram. I could, however, be mistaken

[Steve Stuckey]

Oops, I was wrong in saying in post 650 that 3DL26 was the last PIII ordered by an Indian citizen. There was also 3DL96, coming to a blog near you soon!

[Julian UK]

Thanks Steve for sharing your years of expertise, when the PIIIs are finished I hope as doubtless do many that you will share your India PII and other RR knowledge here as the learning experience for many here is both valuable and very relevant as not all have access to the books and the archives, even in the West, for whatever reasons....
Two more photos of 3DL26:


Photo from Team-bhp posted by Sat


Photo from team-bhp

[Steve Stuckey]

Now, this is to my mind an Indian Phantom III, even though it only spent a few months there. It was sent off test on 20 August 1938, set up for use in India, and with engine Q68N; it had steering at the low E rake. The chassis was sent to Park Ward & Co. on 23 August. They built a saloon with division, body number 4383. It was finished in black with a fine white line to the mouldings. It had a sunroof and a single offside spare wheel. The leather throughout was fawn, and there was fawn carpets and headcloth. The car had an electric division. There were two occasional seats with a cupboard between, as well as an electric blind to the rear window and an electric fan to the rear compartment. The woodwork was in walnut in as high a sheen as possible. The body cost 888 pounds.

The car was ordered by Allied Motors Ltd in Bombay as their latest demonstrator model, and was shipped to Bombay on 15 October 1938 aboard the ss "Mooltan". The total cost of the car was 2,156 pounds, but duty and other charges into India were 9,780 Rupees (or 666 pounds). Clearly the car could not be sold, as it was back in London by June 1939, when it was registered FXX100. In August 1939 the car had to have repairs to its collapsed steering cones. Also in that month RR spent 23 pounds on further repairs to the chassis, and All Weather Motor Bodies (a coachbuilder) spent 51 pounds on repairs to the body. When RR could not sell the car they put it into storage. Then, on 19 June 1942 it was sold to Jack Barclay Ltd for 1,000 pounds (of which 250 pounds was in War Tax). On 19 July that year it was sold for 1,451 pounds to Isaac C Agnew of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He had set up a car dealership which still operates as a family business.

On 14 November 1947 the car was sold to the Viscount Downe for 1,350 pounds, with 44,365 miles on it. In November 1975 the car was exported to the USA, where it remains.

This photo is the best I have of the car, when it was for sale on ebay in 2001.

[moralfibre]

Here is the RR PII formerly owned by Maharaja of Rewa car shot at Blackhawk Car museum in Danville California.

[Raja Mookerjee]

Parlakamidi was a very solvent state in Orissa; The maharaja,as he was entitled, was also entiltled to the H.H. ranking , a gun salute et al.
He had a huge racing stable based in Calcutta.

Originally Posted by DKG

Thanks Steve, that was quite a garage the Maharajah of Parlakimedi had.

Its very interesting that some of these Maharajahs bought cars from each other. Usually it may have been beneath their dignity to buy something used (or I should think so)

The reason why I say this is so many families in India let cars rot because they didn't want to be seen selling things. They prefered the cars to go into the ground or discreetly taken out by a breaker than have the car seen in town in someone else's ownership.

Also did the Parlakimedi ruler have the Maharajah title? or was it just Raja? From what I recall reading in that part of the country the only Maharajah may have been from Vizianagaram. I could, however, be mistaken

[Julian UK]

Welcome to the forum Raja, great to see you here!
If you wade through the threads you'll find all kinds of stuff, good to have a Calcutta representative, there are few car owners who post here so welcome to the glorious chaos!!