[//M]

Saturday, 1st November 2014

I "usually" have every first saturday's of the month as a holiday from work. So last saturday after a casual early morning ride to Lavasa and back, I decided to visit the Shubhash Sanas Vintage Car Museum located at Hotel Beverly Hills, Lulla Nagar, Pune.

This place has about 30 odd fully restored vintage cars on display plus a few more modern but rare steeds which includes a Hackney Carriage (better known to the world as the famous "London Taxi").

The collection comprises of an array of Mercedes' from the 1980's. Plus a few well maintained Chevy's, Dodge's, Austin's, Fiat's, Hillman and Morris'. In addition to that there is a pre-war Chevy Tourer and a couple of two wheelers, a Lambretta and a Rajdoot GTS 'Bobby'.

Also, just outside the Museum there are a few vehicles which are lying unattended and are sadly dying a slow death. I really wish the owner takes up these projects for restoration as soon as possible. One car that really stood out from the junkyard was a gangsta looking 1976 Mercury Grand Marquis. This car badly needs a restoration !!

I would better let the pictures do the talking now.

[callvvijay]

So nice to see the old beauties in all their glory!!

The angle in which you have clicked certain pictures makes them look like scale models!

[//M]

Originally Posted by callvvijay

So nice to see the old beauties in all their glory!!

The angle in which you have clicked certain pictures makes them look like scale models!

Blame it on my 6-foot plus frame sirji. To get an aerial shot, I used my kanoon ke haath and did not realize the cars would look like scale models.

Some more pics.

[Rajeev1]

Nice pictures - thanks for sharing. The cars look like they have been lovingly restored.

Btw. Any reason why the scooter is labelled " 1961 Lamoreda" .. Is it the local way to pronounce "lambretta"?

Also I doubt whether the London Taxi is the original UK built car. It looks like the Chinese copycat model which was imported in bulk by some Pune based hotelier (the Pune registration number is the giveaway).

Sent from my iPhone using Team-BHP

[//M]

Originally Posted by Rajeev1

Nice pictures - thanks for sharing. The cars look like they have been lovingly restored.

Btw. Any reason why the scooter is labelled " 1961 Lamoreda" .. Is it the local way to pronounce "lambretta"?

Also I doubt whether the London Taxi is the original UK built car. It looks like the Chinese copycat model which was imported in bulk by some Pune based hotelier (the Pune registration number is the giveaway).

Sent from my iPhone using Team-BHP

There were a lot of spelling mistakes with the names and even the caretaker would pronounce it that way. Limousine becomes "Lemozine" in this museum so I chose to ignore it.

Regarding the London Taxi, I guess its an original one. I am not too sure though. I always thought the maroon London Taxi I spotted at the Oakwood was an original one.

Anyway, some pics of this London Taxi:

[HarshVShrotriya]

Great share. Was not aware of this museum in Pune. Now, its surely on my bucket list. Nice pics too. The scale effect - is a skill.

[CoolCarNi]

Originally Posted by Rajeev1

Also I doubt whether the London Taxi is the original UK built car. It looks like the Chinese copycat model which was imported in bulk by some Pune based hotelier (the Pune registration number is the giveaway).

Subhash Sanas is the son of first mayor of Pune,Mr Baburao Sanas and they are into hoteling business. They have a hotel by the name of Jawahar. That aside, this taxi is original one as Mr Sanas imported it. More details are here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super-...ll-way-uk.html

[//M]

Some pics of a stunning Chevy Impala convertible with red interiors.

[Seventhgear]

Thanks for sharing the snaps .I was surprised that such a place existed in Maharashtra where a car lover has displayed his vintages for the public.

A definite place to visit and see these beauties.

A lot of TLC and vitamin M must have gone in maintaining such a collection .

[//M]

Some more pictures from the museum.

[the mole]

Nice pictures! thank you for posting! I think the term museum is widely misused in India. Someone's collection of cars displayed under a roof certainly should not qualify as one. For one a museum should be holistic in its approach whether they display art or automobiles with the aim to educate the general public about its contents, in this case cars.

Sadly I don't see that happening here. Jay Leno does not call his Garage a museum its just a large Garage. Mercedes has a museum which is educational and more than just a bunch of dolled up cars parked together.

Having said that a genuine automobile museum is strongly needed somewhere around Mumbai and Pune. I hope we get one soon.

[//M]

A part of the owner's collection, waiting for restoration.

Sad to see these cars lying in the yard in this condition.

The Mercury Grand Marquis is one hell of a gangsta looking car.

[//M]

Some pics of the lovingly restored Merc's in the garage.

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by the mole

Having said that a genuine automobile museum is strongly needed somewhere around Mumbai and Pune. I hope we get one soon.

Amol Bhau, what happend to the Idea of Indian car history museum. I understood you had that in mind and discussed too on the forum. What say on that. The one in Gurgaon is good. There are loads of cars available need with collectors, few can be had on loan for display. Also what we can also do is there will be some parts that are extra and cannot be used on cars be prepped and used to display technology of past. On such thing that immediately comes to mind is trafficators (evolution of Indicators), evolution of bettle tail lamps would be interesting too.

[//M]

Some pics of the various posters of yesteryears !