[Aditya]

Mod Note: Karl's comprehensive event report is located at this link. Please continue the discussion over on the new thread. Thanks!


The fourth edition of the Cartier 'Travel with Style' Concours d'Elegance will be held in New Delhi on 14th March 2015.

The event will feature rare and historically significant classic automobiles and motorcycles owned by Indian royalty and noted private collectors. In addition to the pre-established classes, this edition will feature two new automotive classes - 'Picolo Fiat Class', celebrating the Italian company's famous small cars and the 'Veteran Class' for motorcycles from the dawn of motoring to 1930. Only a limited number of entries, handpicked by Cartier curator Manvendra Singh of Barwani, will be showcased.

The judges for the show will include Sandra Button (Chairman of Pebble Beach Concours), Jean Todt (President of FIA), Riccardo Patrese (former Formula One racing driver), Sir Michael Kadoorie and Nigel Matthews (classic car collectors), David McKirdy (poet and classic car restorer), Yasmin le Bon (supermodel) with her husband and Simon Le Bon (musician) among other.

Cartier Travel With Style is an 'invitation only' event. Enthusiasts looking to attend the event can write to rsvpcartier.vty@gmail.com for invites.

[KPS]

I looked forward to the 4th Cartier event with great expectation. Did my ticketing and room booking well in advance. Even my invite had arrived ! But I cannot make it . Coinciding with the arrival of the invite, I was informed that the Senior Leadership of my company has been called for a 3 day meet from 14 th to 16th and the logistics do not allow me to make it to this wonderful event. As much as I am disappointed, I take solace from the fact that there will be extensive coverage on Team-BHP.

Over the years, the Cartier event has been followed with awe, anticipation, speculation and also its fair share of criticism. In all fairness this is a private event targeted at the Cartier customer and not everyone. Hence how this unfolds is as per the design of Cartier and we must accept it.

What does this Cartier mean to an Aam Aadmi like me. For one, I get to see cars which I would normally not see. Secondly, Cartier has raised the restoration standards significantly. Thirdly, some of the top cars like the Jodhpurs Delahaye, Nizam's RR and Napiers have been restored by Cartier. Fourthly, one gets to meet the top vintage enthusiasts from around the country. Lastly the event itself is wonderfully organised and enjoyable.

I wish the organisers all the very best and look forward to seeing the pictures.

Hope to be lucky for the next event.

Cheers

KPS

[Rosso Corsa]

Originally Posted by Aditya

The judges for the show will include Sandra Button (Chairman of Pebble Beach Concours), Jean Todt (President of FIA), Riccardo Patrese (former Formula One racing driver), Sir Michael Kadoorie and Nigel Matthews (classic car collectors), David McKirdy (poet and classic car restorer), Yasmin le Bon (supermodel) with her husband and Simon Le Bon (musician) among other.

What about Gordon Murray ? Wasn't he supposed to be one of the judges ?

[wasif]

Originally Posted by Rosso Corsa

What about Gordon Murray ? Wasn't he supposed to be one of the judges ?

What does it matter who are the judges when the winners are pre decided anyway

[Rosso Corsa]

Originally Posted by wasif

What does it matter who are the judges when the winners are pre decided anyway

I'm not bothered about the winners. Wanted to get a scale model of the McLaren F1 autographed by him !

[revvedup]

My invite just came in on Monday, its quite a thing. Cartier really don't do things by halves. Quite looking forward to the event, anyone else going ?

[CR-V]

Really wanted to attend the event but don't have a invite, anyone with a extra invitation? Would really appreciate it.

[harit]

Originally Posted by Aditya

The fourth edition of the Cartier 'Travel with Style' Concours d'Elegance will be held in New Delhi on 14th March 2015.

The event will feature rare and historically significant classic automobiles and motorcycles owned by Indian royalty and noted private collectors. In addition to the pre-established classes, this edition will feature two new automotive classes - 'Picolo Fiat Class', celebrating the Italian company's famous small cars and the 'Veteran Class' for motorcycles from the dawn of motoring to 1930. Only a limited number of entries, handpicked by Cartier curator......

Originally Posted by wasif

What does it matter who are the judges when the winners are pre decided anyway

The Cartier event has started yesterday and is on today also.
Touted as an exclusive and the greatest Vintage and Classic Cars (VCC) show in India. Exclusive as in that entry is restricted, both cars and enthusiasts. And entries were encouraged not to participate in the 21 Gun Salute Event to maintain exclusivity.
There will be many great cars to be seen. If an enthusiast gets lucky and obtains an invite, he will have worthwhile time spent there. The atmosphere should be great, if they have maintained the standard as was set at the first event at the Turf Club with plenty of good food and refreshments. Just seeing so many great cars together, the crowd, the personalities will have an effect on a visitor and may fuel a desire to own such a worthy car too. Many visitors will be there from all over India and this will be a meeting ground. Those who have the chance should definitely visit. There will be basically two categories of entries, the one competing and being pushed to be prize winners, and those which are just fillers.

Sadly though, the format has not changed. There is a curator (A manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution (i.e., gallery, museum, library or archive) is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material) who goes beyond the normal brief of a curator, restores cars entered in the competition, subcontracts restorations and then enters these also in the competition. This gives an unfair advantage to “clients”, and is not in the spirit of such competitions, however exclusive and high end it will try to be. In fact when I recently discussed this format with someone from Europe, he inquired whether Cartier knew about this Indian way of running their event. That is also gives India a bad name. Cartier and the curator in the past tweaked history, in 1911 the 1912 Rolls of the Nizam was shown as a 1911 model just to play that the car was 100 years old when displayed. In 1913 when the car came to Mumbai it was shown as a 1912 which it actually is.



They also allowed an NSU Max to be shown as a NSU Super Max and gave a prize.

There are indeed, attempts to fix the prizes, but not through the judges. This is done as before by fine tuning the entries and leave out the competition. So in the fin tail category there will be a winner in a 1959 Chevy or maybe even a Chrysler, with fillers as a station wagon and another Impala, Ford. My Dodge Custom Royal Coupe which would be a hands down winner being the best looking fin tail car in India, but it is not eligible because I don’t get along well with the curator for these sort of activities.



The cars of the show could be a Hispano, Minerva, may be the Lanchester one never knows. I understand that the 1912 Ghost had a chance but it got caught up in litigation.
There were two issues, apparently the Lanchester got a very late invite for the Vanden Plas coach built category and the year of the post was classics was changed from 1961. These anomalies were commented on by me to reach the concerned ear and suddenly corrected, all as told to me.

The full list of participants and owners is not known to me. Among those expected to win, owners or vehicles will be Rajkot Mercedes as preservation, Mercedes 290 resurrection, Hispano, Morgan, Bhavnagar Rolls. V. Goenka, J. Patnaik, D. Titus should get a prize in one category. And maybe H. Cama, A. Tanna, Jaiswal, Bhogilal will also win something.

I don’t want to take away anything from the owners who toiled to make their cars presentable for the show, it is just the platform where these cars are shown and competing is so biased and makes a mockery of the event.

Good Luck!

[wasif]

Looking forward to the complete listing with pictures. I am told there is a ban impose on posting or sharing pictures before the event is over. Totally crazy

[garrett_t16]

My share of panorama pictures from the event. i Have tons of pictures but need to organise them and post soon. Brilliant event all in all. Mr.Goenka's cars stood out from the rest. Some really nice motorcycles and some really beautiful paint jobs too. The pictures don't do justice to the cars.

[Bulldogji]

Originally Posted by wasif

What does it matter who are the judges when the winners are pre decided anyway

This time around the bias in selecting the winners in many cases were so obvious that even the foreigners were openly commenting

Hospitality as always , was very good, but marred by one fact .Areas to relax was segregated, and I am not talking about the judges areas.

I wasrudely told by a young foreigner, not a judge, that I should not walk in a certain area as they were seated there having a cup of tea!!

needless to say, I told her to leave if my presence was upsetting her.

At a dinner at the Anand lawns, the bias was even more pronounced.

Foreign guests had lovely table arrangements with beautiful linen, wine glasses et al. We were expected to stand around.

When an elderly gentleman, a bit handicapped sat down at one such table,innocently thinking he could, he was very rudely made to get up and was told that the dinner seating was only for foreigners.

This was enough for me to decide never to participate in future.

On the blatant bias in the winners selection, an astonishingly large number of people, both Indian and Foreign, we're openly commenting on the way things in India work and were extremely displeased !

there were some very deserving cars that were awarded, but far more lost out because perhaps they were not ( owners) deserving. cars were secondary , owners seemed to be the basis barring a couple of exceptions for selection.

And for those who think otherwise, my post is based on observation of the majority and not because the Lanchester was ignored. the Lanchester won at Pebble beach!

I would like to think that is a greater honour for the car than a Cartier show in India

[Senna4Ever]

As someone with recently heightened interest in vintage and classic cars, attending Concours d'Elegance was the epitome for me. Right from receiving a formal invitation to experiencing such 'classy' event.

Also, for the same reason, my excitement somewhat devalued matters like seating arrangements and prize allocation. One quality of Concours that I must commend is the finesse and restoration work done on cars. Immaculate cars, really.

With tons of pictures to surf through, will need some time to group and post.

Attending the event, one of my observations was how the monograms were really the mascot for respective cars and must have had as much importance as the design of cars for it was expected to carry the essence of that car. I thought it would rather share these first.

Minerva


Spirit of Ecstacy


Moon


Chrysler Windsor


Jaguar


Cadillac


Shapur Kotwal in background..


Chevrolet


Lagonda


Studebaker Champion


another Studebaker..


Terraplane


Hispano Suiza

[67Bug]

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

.

And for those who think otherwise, my post is based on observation of the majority and not because the Lanchester was ignored. the Lanchester won at Pebble beach!

I would like to think that is a greater honour for the car than a Cartier show in India

Your Lanchester looked an absolutely stunner Bulldogji and was eye candy for all the enthusiasts who were present. I particularly liked the location where it was exhibited, must say quite a vantage position . Let the pictures do the talking for those who could not see it in person. My only feedback, minor as it may sound was that the no plates could have been better and the bracket on which the plate sat should be avoided, you will particularly notice in the pics I have attached and appreciate where I am coming from. But again minor and an easy fix. I tried to jump the ropes for some inside pics only to be blasted by the security person could have used my weight by telling him the owner is a friend

[FINTAIL]

Guys- more pics were shared by Akash here. He is BHPian 'ad3952n' - :

http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/fo...tml#post436822

Read the posts- following the post whose link I've shared.

Thanks!

[PAVAN KADAM]

I found a last minute opportunity to be there and i did not miss it, was there with T-BHP gang of Attari , Carbug and Karl, also met 67bug and Kasli. Missed meeting few friends as i was unaware of their presence there.

The Cartier show was a Visual treat, show stoppers aplenty i must say. Most importantly i got to meet my F1 demigod - Jean Todt , Got an intro too, as i am restoring his friends 66 Beetle here at Bangalore

Few pics from my side. BTW , i have over 300 pics to share, hope nobody minds