[harit]

This year there has been a lot of excitement about cars which are still located in India participating at Pebble Beach (PB) with their owners in attendance. The event starts on 15th August and the concourse will be on 19th August 2012.

The cars finally scheduled to leave for Pebble Beach (PB) from India are the Rolls Royce 20HP from Udaipur, Delage from Bangalore, and the Stutz from Delhi.

Media has also started covering this participation, below are pages from a recent Kingfisher magazine talking about this.

On t-bhp comments have been posted on various threads, the Stutz, Maharaja threads etc, now it is time to have one common thread because many enthusiasts are also scheduled to attend and we would like to see their pictures(please do share) consolidated in one thread.

This edition of PB has a Maharaja class, divided in two, Rolls-Royce and non-Rolls-Royce. The Rajkot Rolls is scheduled to be present, the Holkar Duesenberg also. Someone please put up the list of cars scheduled for the Maharaja class, don't forget the Swan car and the scale model.

But this is not the first time Indians are participating, Vijay Mallya has been there and has won in the past, and so has Mr. Sisodia with his Pratabgarh Lanchester. I am sure there may have been some more. Indian origin cars have been there in huge numbers, Alfa, Duessy, SDaimler, Isotta etc.

Wishing all the best to the participants, hope they bring back some glory. For the movement in India this is a huge step.

Cheers harit

[nirmaljusdoit]

Heres a pic of the lovely Delage which is taking part ! Shes gotten a paint job and will be detailed in the USA prior to the show. Will be nice to see some lovely pics in the sunlight on the day of the show !

Very glad to see a good participation from our country, looking forward to them making us proud !

[josejoseph]

Here is the web site to Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance - Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance : Welcome. This is held from Aug 13-19. Wanted to go but the admission fee of $200 is stopping me .

Thanks,
JOse.

[KPS]

Here is a good article on the Indian Entries at PB
http://www.dashingtimes.com/indian-r...-pebble-beach/

Here is an article which came in TOI-Bangalore as Doc's entries
http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...-club-concours


Entry of Star of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/14871258.cms

[KPS]

Most are aware that from Doc's stable two cars have been invited to PB. The vintage category invitee is the Ex-Holkar 1930 Delage D8 which is a well documented car in this Forum

The other car invited is in the Veteran Category and is the 1907 Locomobile. These cars are very rare at least in India. We have seen pictures in the nostalgia thread though. Doc has been kind enough to allow the pictures of the car going to PB be posted here and I am very glad that I can share it in this Forum.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did.
















Cheers

KPS

[kasli]

Does the car have any India connection except owned by Doc. The car is lovely and all the best to Doc and all associated with the cars going.

Cheers

Originally Posted by KPS

Most are aware that from Doc's stable two cars have been invited to PB. The vintage category invitee is the Ex-Holkar 1930 Delage D8 which is a well documented car in this Forum

The other car invited is in the Veteran Category and is the 1907 Locomobile. These cars are very rare at least in India. We have seen pictures in the nostalgia thread though. Doc has been kind enough to allow the pictures of the car going to PB be posted here and I am very glad that I can share it in this Forum.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did.

[Bulldogji]

Thanks KPS for sharing the Delage pictures. She is a lovely and worthy entrant. Is it not food for thought that this very car participated in one of the Cartier shows here and never got a mention. And then Pebble Beach, out of numerous requests, thinks this car worthy of an entry? Maybe the Cartier team should do some introspection. Great to hear that your club is organising a get together to give Doc a send off. In all likely hood Delhi will do the same for the lovely Stutz. The Udaipur Rolls I believe is already in the US, Doc and Titus seem to be cutting it really close. All the best to all our entries. Maybe these gentleman can educate us on how they took the cars out? What were the formalities required to be complied with like a bond etc to assure the government that the cars will return? This would help others who may wish to participate in international events in future.

[harit]

I believe that the Delage has left the country for USA for the Pebble Beach event.
Here is an article on Doc and Pebble Beach, it was in the same KF magazine as the Titus article.

Cheers harit

[dominator]

Just before the car was shipped to PB.

[wasif]

looks very nice.....it would have been more appropriate if the original red back HSC plates were made and installed on it for the show.

Wonder what its number was when it was a HSC !

[kasli]

Originally Posted by dominator

Just before the car was shipped to PB.

Congrats and wish them all the luck

Cheers

[travancore]

Originally Posted by wasif

looks very nice.....it would have been more appropriate if the original red back HSC plates were made and installed on it for the show.

Wonder what its number was when it was a HSC !

I see that the car is now "sunglow" and black. Wonder if this was the original colour scheme. And yes, "HS" (a la Alfa Romeo 1750) or "HSC" (8C-2900B) plates would be nice.

[harit]

This article on Pebble Beach appeared in Auto India July 2012 issue.
Just see how many of these cars left India illegally! Brooke (Swan car), Duesenberg, Rolls 17EX, our lucky friends visitng Pebble Beach can google at them. Now if Gandhi or Nehru had ever sat in any of these cars, the fate of them could have been different.

With good wishes to our participants

Cheers harit

[harit]

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

Heres a pic of the lovely Delage which is taking part ! Shes gotten a paint job and will be detailed in the USA prior to the show.....

Is this an old picture? Now she appears to sport a different shade. BTW, detailing is more of a cleaning and grooming excercise.

Originally Posted by kasli

Does the car have any India connection except owned by Doc..... Cheers

No India connection other than the current owner

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

.........Is it not food for thought that this very car participated in one of the Cartier shows here and never got a mention. And then Pebble Beach, out of numerous requests, thinks this car worthy of an entry? Maybe the Cartier team should do some introspection. Great to hear that your club is organising a get together to give Doc a send off. In all likely hood Delhi will do the same for the lovely Stutz. The Udaipur Rolls I believe is already in the US, Doc and Titus seem to be cutting it really close. All the best to all our entries. Maybe these gentleman can educate us on how they took the cars out? What were the formalities required to be complied with like a bond etc to assure the government that the cars will return? This would help others who may wish to participate in international events in future.

You are asking too much here, could not shorten your quote
I will give some history of the car and Cartier below. The car went out on a bond given by Doc, not a bank guarantee, and it was arranged for by the cargo agents. The Karnataka Vintage club also gave the required letters. So simple, remember there is no one who has a monopoly on paperwork for export of such cars from India for such events, even if they claim otherwise on other threads on t-bhp. Unfortunately the Stutz isn"t going to make it.

Originally Posted by wasif

looks very nice.....it would have been more appropriate if the original red back HSC plates were made and installed on it for the show. Wonder what its number was when it was a HSC !

When I read this post I swung into action She will have a HSC ? plate. I know the number, and its Docs lucky no. Just watch the pictures when they come.

Originally Posted by travancore

...... And yes, "HS" (a la Alfa Romeo 1750) or "HSC" (8C-2900B) plates would be nice.

It will be HSC, Holkar State Car.

This Delage, as mentioned before, lay abandoned in an ice factory. She was picked up by a broker named Bhalerao from Ahmedabad. He took her to Bhopal. At the same time Bhalerao had a Packard 120 which I bought. That was also kept in Bhopal. While the Delage was lying in the ice factory, some idiots thought that some of the internals of the engine were made of precious metal. So they opened the engine, dumped its contents around and left it to rot. Ofcourse, no precious metal was found. But the crank was bent, rendering it unusable.
Bhalerao told me about these cars which he then owned. He told me that the Delage was sold to Manvendra, I did a deal for the Packard. Unfortunately he ran into some trouble and he could not retrieve the cars from Bhopal for about 4 years. The Packard was delivered in a dismantled condition, and Solanki managed to get her going. The Delage was a difficult project. Manvendra could not get her going, sent the chassis to Bangalore to be fixed. On my first Bangalore visit where I included vintage sites, I went and saw this chassis lying with an adventurous mechanical engineer. After a while the project reached a dead end and Doc took over. He got a new crank forged, and got the car running.

At the Cartier 2008 Doc made a grave error, he did not sell his Delage and hi-lite the condition of the car when he got it. He could have got the resurrection prize. Nitin Dossa got that prize for his Bentley Mk VI, and he lied when he said that he got the car as a junk, when in fact it was driven from Alibag to Mumbai. BTW, another worthy contender for the resurrection prize was the Westland-Healey, it could not get it because Cartier awarded only one prize for a car.

We hope that Doc learnt his lesson, and will represent his car well. He has a big challenge, the Delage will be paired with the Duesenberg, both being ex-Holkar cars. Lets watch.

As is the traditional Indian way to which we remain true, politics played a big role in selection of cars from India. Initially only one car was selected, which unfortunately is now not going, luckily others intervened and helped PB to increase the numbers. Out of the final 4 cars, 2 have gone, 2 could not. PB being a good sport has agreed to invite the two which could not make it for the next year.

Entering a car for PB is no joke, PB does not sponsor anything. Hopefully some clubs and organisations will be encouraged to help and sponsor some future entrants. It is wishful thinking for such a scenario to happen in the coming years, hopefully politics will not come in the way.

Now to our entrants, all the best, do your best, we are with you.

As far as I know, only two vintage cars from India have been exported for events in the past, Vijay Mallys's Pierce Arrow to Singapore/Malaysia and Ashok Shah's Studebaker to Australia. As far as I remember, Ashok was the first to do so.

Cheers harit

[wasif]

LOL....so HSC plats will be made, its only appropriate. Doc should have a picture montage prepared to show with the car showing how it came to him and the restoration process it went thru to what it is today.

Howe does the car drive , I hope it really drives well !

Harit....maybe in uears to come you can finish the Dhanrajgir Packard and send the details to PB and hope it gets invited.

What a blast it will be if one of the Indian cars wins best of show !

All the best to the owners, may God ensure the cars reach in good condition and have a great showing on those precious lawns !

I wish I could go for the event !

Any idea if gen Lyons will be displaying the Orcha Cadillac too ????

The Holkar Lagonda is not going for sure though ! what a sight it would have been next to the Duesey and the Delage !