[wasif]

Here is the start of this series on the oldest car collection in Hyderabad. The owner is a man of many facets, well respected and well known in the old car circles.

I have had the pleasure of looking after this collection for a relatively short but memorable period before I left India.

Some of the cars, like the black & silver Buick Super 8 and the Sunbeam Alpine Roadster were driven extensively by me.

[wasif]

Second batch is the continuation of a car that has been written about but as yet unseen, the SS Jaguar "Roadster" followed by two of the Cadillacs, the series 62 and the rarer 60 Specail followed by the Lincoln V12 Sedan which in those days was the only V12 car in Hyderabad.

Enjoy

[IndrojitSircar]

Wow that is an amazing collection.Who is the owner of this collection and does he still own all these cars or have they been sold ? Where are they now ?

[KPS]

Wonderful jewels of the past. What is wonderful of this Forum is that you atleast get to see such cars and get informed. Thanks Wasif for sharing this with us.

Cheers and Happy New Year to All.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by IndrojitSircar

Wow that is an amazing collection.Who is the owner of this collection and does he still own all these cars or have they been sold ? Where are they now ?

If I'm not mistaken, its the collection of Rashid Qayyum, a descendant of a Nawab family. The cars are still very much there, although not sure if all of them still are; I had once gone there a couple of years ago, with a mechanic from the old city he was familiar with to take a peek at the cars. 'wasn't allowed to look at them closely by his watchman as he is generally known to not like his collection being open to public. I was told the cars are not to be seen at rallies etc. either for that reason. Which makes me ask- wasif, are you sure it's ok to post pics. of them here? I know you are close to him but still, just confirming....!

I remember seeing just a few of the cars peeking out from inside their garages when I'd been there (was allowed to just seem them from near the entrance doors seen on the right of the first pic.), the maroon mercury and the car beside it, but also a couple of WW2 jeeps, which may be recent acquisitions.

Incidentally, Note: This is what the mechanic who took me there told me; most of the cars are presently not roadworthy. A few of them have engines that just start, while many of them have engines with the heads lying opened up and unfinished for 20 years or so, because the owner insisted that the mechanic work on them in his premises itself, which was declined. So the work left incomplete since.

Nice collection though. Incidentally, my mother's uncle at Madras had a Lincoln from the late 40s, MSP 3331, but I don't know if it was a V12. I have no pics. etc. of it, so have to guess that it would've looked something like this.

[wasif]

The collection is indeed that of Rashid Bhai, his pride and joy and the envey of many.

This gent had the sense and the taste to aquire these cars when others were crying about high fuel prices and selling their family jewels.

If it was not for him probably most of these cars would have gone to the breakers yards. Many a Hyderabadi families pride and joys are tucked away with him.

As far as I can confirm all the cars are intact, the only one which has its head openend is the Dodge Tourer of 27, whcih I was worrking on when I left the county.Apart form that there is a Healey which needs to be completed, paint and upholstry, but the rest of the cars are in one piece.

These are just a few of what he owns, there is another equally big and interesting lot at his factory storage and the others are at his farmhouse.

I will post more pics as and when I get time to scan them. They were taken by me with his permission and I don't see why I can't post them here.

He is recently known to have aquired a very interesting Jeep. he had around seven WW2 Willys / Ford jeeps and the Austin Champ.

He also owns probably one of the only two early Thunderbirds in India and the only Chevy Corvair Monza Convertible whcih is turbocharged.

His collect of books and magazines on vintage cars and his knowledge on them is probably unsurpassed by any in India.

[IndrojitSircar]

Thankx Wasif and shyam for that info.Do these cars run or they are just parked away?

Wasif some more shots of the cars individually and some detailed shot would be great.

Thankx anyway!

Happy New Year!

[KPS]

Dear Wasif,

What model is MYB 4508? Is it a 1941-42 Ford? MYB means this car came from Bangalore.

Cheers

[dominator]

Originally Posted by wasif

The collection is indeed that of Rashid Bhai, his pride and joy and the envey of many.

This gent had the sense and the taste to aquire these cars when others were crying about high fuel prices and selling their family jewels.

If it was not for him probably most of these cars would have gone to the breakers yards. Many a Hyderabadi families pride and joys are tucked away with him.

As far as I can confirm all the cars are intact, the only one which has its head openend is the Dodge Tourer of 27, whcih I was worrking on when I left the county.Apart form that there is a Healey which needs to be completed, paint and upholstry, but the rest of the cars are in one piece.

These are just a few of what he owns, there is another equally big and interesting lot at his factory storage and the others are at his farmhouse.

I will post more pics as and when I get time to scan them. They were taken by me with his permission and I don't see why I can't post them here.

He is recently known to have aquired a very interesting Jeep. he had around seven WW2 Willys / Ford jeeps and the Austin Champ.

He also owns probably one of the only two early Thunderbirds in India and the only Chevy Corvair Monza Convertible whcih is turbocharged.

His collect of books and magazines on vintage cars and his knowledge on them is probably unsurpassed by any in India.

Hi Wasif,

I had mentioned about Rashid Bhai on this forum. I truly second your opinion about his knowledge on cars. His enviable collection of WW2 Jeeps and his hand picked collection of other cars will always remain elusive to the world.

[Stanher]

Is this the Austin Champ Rashid Bhai owns? 'was a regular at the local shows every year:

[wasif]

The Ford MYB 4508 is a 1928 Delux Sedan, not sure wher it came from originally.

Shyam. The Champ in your pictures is the car that used to belong to Mukarram Jah. It was given to an A/c repair shop owner in Red Hills in lieu of amounts owed to him.

The Champ with Rashid Bhai if I am not mistaken came from Karnataka, he bough it form a guy who was an old car dealer who had brought it ot Hyderabad knowing Rashid Bhai would take it.I am not sure about this cars regestration number.

Here are a few more pics. The first is a 1927 Dodge Tourer which needed a new head gasket only. It was a work in progress when I left. Its a straight six with wooden artillery wheels.

Nect us in the Yellow Roadmaster Convertible followed by the Super Eight Sedan. Next is the Sunbeam Alpine Series 4 Roadster, my favoiurite drive. After that is a 47 or 48 Singer Roadster which belonged to Mrs. Cottle and was left to Rashid Bhai in her will.

I am going to post some more pics later today after I can scan and resize them

[harit]

Originally Posted by wasif

The collection is indeed that of Rashid Bhai, his pride and joy and the envy of many.

This gent had the sense and the taste to aquire these cars when others were crying about high fuel prices and selling their family jewels.

If it was not for him probably most of these cars would have gone to the breakers yards. Many a Hyderabadi families pride and joys are tucked away with him.

I will post more pics as and when I get time to scan them. They were taken by me with his permission and I don't see why I can't post them here.

He also owns probably one of the only two early Thunderbirds in India and the only Chevy Corvair Monza Convertible which is turbocharged.

I had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Rashid during the Cartier event, he came as a visitor. We spent some time together. He was very modest and one literally had to pry out info from him. Sounds familiar?

Anyway, the Jaguar shown is another Calcutta creation. It was sold as an SS 100 to Mumbai, I have grooved around in that car with Vohra who owned her. When Vohra settled abroad, Rashidbhai went there and they did a deal. This car was great, exhaust pipes on the exterior(the other side), was a real bird catcher. This car came from Calcutta along with the Silver Wraith which landed up in Mumbai's Chor bazar, both shipped by train. Nice to see her after such a long time, even if the picture is old. Along with the Jaguar a 1948/49 Packard convertible ex-Rajkot was also sold.

Thunderbirds: There are only 2 known early Thunderbirds, both have travelled through the hands of Mr. Barwani. One he has retained, the other was sold to Chennai, Electra on our forum. I do not know which Thunderbird Rashidbhai has. There is a second generation Thunderbird near Mumbai, but that is second generation.
Would love to see more of his cars.

Cheers harit

[wasif]

Here are a few more of his cars.

The T-Bird with Rashid Bhai is also the first generation car. It has been with him from around 1965 and he is the second owner. Not many know of this cars existance as it has never been on show or traded on the open market. I am not sure but it was originaly from either Bombay or Delhi. Unfortunately I can't find pics of this car or the Monza Corvair now.

The first few pics in this lot are of his Austin Healey 3000, the next car is the Dodge Tourer.

After that are pics of his very original Austin Princess, this car is from Madras and has its original interiors and everything else.

It has the hydrolic jacks at all four ends which were standard on this car from Jackall.

[wasif]

Here are pics of the Ford Deluxe Sedan, the Dodge Convertible, the Austin Princess and the Mercury Sedan with engine shots

[wasif]

Here are a set of pictures of the Austin Champ in his collection. This was purchased by him after I got to start working on his cars. It waa non runner as there was an electrical fire and it needed proper wiring to get all of its aspects to function correctly.

A truly remarkable car with all independant suspension all around with twin wishbones at each end mounted on the differentials which were in turn bolted to the frame. There were knurled nuts on the wishbone mounts so that one could adjust the stiffness of the suspension as required.

The gearbox is a six speeder with the reverse gear built into the differencials instead of in the gearbox. The reason for this was to make it possible for the car to have six forward and six reverse gears. You select reverse with a seperate lever then go up and down the gears as on a regular car.

The drive shaft from the gearbox connects to the rear diff and another shaft takes the power from the rear diff all the way to the forward diff unlike on the Jeeps where the two shafts connect to the two diffs from the transfer case.

The engine is a two litre Rolls Royce four cylinder unit made specailly for this car. It has a 24 volt electrical system and it is completely sealed to enable it to be driven underwater.The wiring is done through metal conduits.

There are many more remarkable features on it that make this a very complicated vehicle which is why the British armed forces rejected the design and went with the Land Rover.