[KPS]

Originally Posted by Sarvodaya

It is a 1971 Cadillac Eldorado

What a beauty. The owner has very good taste.

Cheers

KPS

[harit]

Originally Posted by Sarvodaya

........It is a 1971 Cadillac Eldorado

This is the kind of car I love, never knew that any came to India. Anyone knows the history>
There was an Impala convertible of similar period, that had also landed up in Bangaluru, wonder where that is now. Such big, square convertibles hardly reached our shores.

Cheers harit

[scooby05]

Originally Posted by harit

This is the kind of car I love, never knew that any came to India. Anyone knows the history>
There was an Impala convertible of similar period, that had also landed up in Bangaluru, wonder where that is now. Such big, square convertibles hardly reached our shores.

Cheers harit

Would Love to own one such Beauty at any price!! so so Useable with ALL comforts!! Americans of the '70s had all the reliability.

[invinci]

Originally Posted by harit

This is the kind of car I love, never knew that any came to India. Anyone knows the history>
Cheers harit

Originally Posted by KPS

What a beauty. The owner has very good taste.

Originally Posted by scooby05

Would Love to own one such Beauty at any price!! so so Useable with ALL comforts!! Americans of the '70s had all the reliability.

Originally Posted by Sarvodaya

Picture clicked by a friend mine.

Hi!
This photo was shot at Suvarna Soudha Belgaum, and a previous post by Karl, had a link to photo of this car.

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Though I have not visited Belgaum, I'm told there are still a fair amount of vintage and classic cars and bikes there, and even events happening. We can see pictures from one event here.

A treat of Vintage cars | All About Belgaum

Few more photos of the car (for reference of size!). I am still trying to dig some history of the car. so can't comment conclusively on that. Unfortunately I was not able to post on team-bhp for months due to some technical problems & this event happened in this time.





The Dodges below which attended the rally belongs to Fellow Team-Bhpian Moralfibre, I Guess.

regards

- invinci

[invinci]

Mods Sorry for back to back posts. A correction has to be made.

Originally Posted by invinci

The Dodges below which attended the rally belongs to Fellow Team-Bhpian Moralfibre, I Guess.

The dodges come from Team-bhpian Manishk123's family.

Originally Posted by manishk123

Unfortunately I was not in town on that day. My manager had taken 3 of our cars on request of the association there. Will try and get a list of the cars that attended.

I am not sure which was his 3rd car. I will post the photos of the rally soon.

-regards

invinci

[srinand]

Originally Posted by harit

This is the kind of car I love, never knew that any came to India. Anyone knows the history>
There was an Impala convertible of similar period, that had also landed up in Bangaluru, wonder where that is now. Such big, square convertibles hardly reached our shores.

Cheers harit

Hi Sir,

Here is an article which was published in Bangalore Mirror on the 14th with link here. It does give a part of the history in it.

regards,

Srinand.

Cadillac show-stopper at session
For the locals and visitors, who found the winter session of assembly boring, the sight of a 1971 beauty came as a refreshing change
Niranjan.Kaggere@timesgroup.com


The winter session of the state legislature at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belgaum was the usual dour mixture of chaos and slumber so much so that eager locals and visitors were looking for interest elsewhere long before the session concluded. On Wednesday, the penultimate day of the session, they found what they were looking for. Agleaming algae-green 1971 Cadillac Eldorado rolled stately through the gates of the Suvarna Soudha, turning heads and popping eyes. Even the traffic police were so awestruck by it that, instead of directing the driver to the parking lot as they normally do for the ‘ordinary’ cars belonging to members of the house, they allowed him to park adjacent to the main entrance of the Suvarna Soudha. Had it been mounted on a pedestal, this ‘ship on wheels’ of classic variety could not have attracted more attention.
The Cadillac, though, belongs to one of Belgaum’s own — Prakash Babanna Hukkeri, Congress MLA from Chikkodi-Sadalaga, who is often mistaken for RSS supreme leader Mohan Bhagwat. Hukkeri is known for his sharp speeches in the house, but his love for classic automobiles is more closely guarded.
The Cadillac is a recluse. It is rarely taken out and even then it is either early in the morning or late in the evening when traffic has ebbed. Even on the first few days of the session, Hukkeri had travelled to the Soudha in his Innova. This is probably why people who spied it on Wednesday, immediately began clicking pictures of it on their mobile phones.
Measuring almost 25 ft in length, the Cadillac is a two-door convertible (sports a collapsible roof) and is powered by a petrol engine.
Speaking to BANGALOREMIRROR, Hukkeri's driver said, "Our boss rarely takes it out. On special occasions, he drives it to nearby areas either in the morning or late in the evening. Hence not many have seen it. It was purchased along with other vintage cars including a Wesley jeep dating back to the II World War."
Hukkeri revealed that he had purchased it from an American businessman eight years ago in the US for Rs 38 lakh.
“It was shipped to Mumbai when our senior leader, S M Krishna, was the governor of Maharashtra,” Hukkeri said.
“I had paid close to Rs 10 lakh as custom duty and drove it to Belgaum. Till today, I have not allowed anybody to drive the car except my driver who has been specially trained to drive it. I would have brought it to the Suvarna Soudha from day one, but by the time I could start the house would have been adjourned owing to chaos. As the House was back on track since Monday, I decided to use the Cadillac.”


Instead of directing the Cadillac driver to the parking lot, the police allowed him to park the vehicle adjacent to the main entrance of the Suvarna Soudha

[invinci]

Originally Posted by srinand

Here is an article which was published in Bangalore Mirror regards,
-Srinand.
Hukkeri revealed that he had purchased it from an American businessman eight years ago in the US for Rs 38 lakh.
“It was shipped to Mumbai when our senior leader, S M Krishna, was the governor of Maharashtra,” Hukkeri said.
“I had paid close to Rs 10 lakh as custom duty and drove it to Belgaum.”

Right from the Horses mouth.
I had heard a similar story, but it still leaves me scratching my head when i think of it.

[manishalive]

Also the mention about "Wesley jeep", how incorrect. But would love to see the pictures of the Jeep. And howe could these be imported??

[Bulldogji]

it would be interesting to learn how this gentleman could buy a second hand car, left hand drive, in the US, and import it. How did he transfer 38 Laks ? For a car of the seventies available eight years ago in the US for maybe five thousand dollars max? And what was the basis of duty calculation? Ten Laks on a declared purchase price of 38 Laks makes it less than thirty percent. The story and the figures are quite unbelievable. BUT, it's a good story for the media.

[harit]

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

it would be interesting to learn how this gentleman could buy a second hand car, left hand drive, in the US, and import it. How did he transfer 38 Laks ? For a car of the seventies available eight years ago in the US for maybe five thousand dollars max? And what was the basis of duty calculation? Ten Laks on a declared purchase price of 38 Laks makes it less than thirty percent. The story and the figures are quite unbelievable. BUT, it's a good story for the media.

I think that the rules may have been different when the car came in, and then it could have been a TR, and then figures may not be audited ones, exact to the decimal. BTW, duty is sometimes calculated on the depreciated value, which would be lesser anyways.
With more interest coming up, hopefully the government will ease the rules, before all the "cheap junk" lands up in Russia and nothing is left for us Indians to buy. Is anyone aware about the massive movement of cars from US to Russia?

Cheers harit

[ajay99]

Originally Posted by harit

I think that the rules may have been different when the car came in, and then it could have been a TR, and then figures may not be audited ones, exact to the decimal. BTW, duty is sometimes calculated on the depreciated value, which would be lesser anyways.
With more interest coming up, hopefully the government will ease the rules, before all the "cheap junk" lands up in Russia and nothing is left for us Indians to buy. Is anyone aware about the massive movement of cars from US to Russia?

Cheers harit

Hope you will provide more insight on that movement!
please see this. A russian defence minister is sacked due to involvement in a classic car ''missing '' issue
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...m-scandal.html

[harit]

Originally Posted by ajay99

........... please see this. A russian defence minister is sacked due to involvement in a classic car ''missing '' issue.....

Here Russian cars have been lost, in Russia. But many classic and muscle cars in the US are being exported to Russia, it seems that its become a trend.

Cheers harit

[PAVAN KADAM]

Anyone can throw some light on how valuable this Pillarless Impala is.....?

LHD Automatic, done genuine 21,000 miles on the odo.

Car is picked up by my friend yesterday.

[wasif]

Nice car, what year is it. Since its pillarless it is pretty collectable for sure

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by wasif

Nice car, what year is it. Since its pillarless it is pretty collectable for sure

Wasif Bhai, this car is supposed to be a 1963 Impala, once it lands here, i will be able to ascertain the exact vintage of the same.