Quote:
Originally Posted by karlosdeville |
This Bharatpur 20HP Rolls was lying together with the Farman and both the cars were in Mumbai and its surroundings. I had put up a picture of this car before.
From the net I got the following two items:
""Peter Vacher is a printer and publisher of academic journals with a passion for owning and restoring vintage Rolls-Royce cars. In 1982 when scouting around India for cars, he found the rusting remnants of an old British plane. This stayed at the back of his mind until 1996, when the wranglings to buy and remove the plane, which turned out to be a Mark 1 Hurricane R4118, began. In 2002 the plane was shipped back to England and carefully restored. It is now flying again, as it did in the Battle of Britain
Hawker Restorations Limited Restoration of Hurricane G-ROBT Peter Vacher is the proud owner of an airworthy Battle of Britain veteran Hurricane – he talked to Ken Ellis about its epic recovery and restoration.
A WORLD-renowned institution links two elements of Peter Vacher’s life. This is Rolls-Royce, a name synonymous with precision and quality. Peter has taken the step from restoring classic Rolls-Royce cars to acquiring, restoring and now operating a Hawker Hurricane I – powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin III.
After passing his driving test at 17, Peter bought a 1934 Standard Nine for £10 and started to learn about cars by looking after it and repairing it. Restoring motor cars became a hobby for him and he describes the process as “a real passion”.
Peter’s 1926 Silver Dowry car, built for a Maharaja’s wife, following its painstaking restoration.
He developed a particular love for Rolls-Royces of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1970 Peter acquired a bare chassis and completed a restorations – he still has that one. Another project was a 1922 Silver Ghost which had previously been in use as a breakdown truck.
His last restorations was a 1926 Silver Dowry car, built for His Highness the Maharaja of Bharatpur as a gift for this wife. It was exported through Nepal in 1983 in poor state and described – pretty accurately – as “automotive spare parts”. It languished in store in the UK for a while and then Peter came by it. An epic eight-year restoration has resulted in a work of art.
INDIAN CONNECTION
A good friend of Peter’s, John Fasal, made many travels in India, seeking out and chronicling Rolls-Royces owned by Maharajas for an impressive book on the subject. Peter joined him in 1982 for a trip from Calcutta to Delhi, taking in princely state by princely state, asking for permission to look into garages, to look, photograph and admire.
At Varanasi, the Banaras Hindu University was on their ‘hit list’. It was known that the school had cars for technical instruction. To their delight, they found a Silver Ghost and Phantom I.
Alongside the workshop holding the cars was a walled compound. Just visible above the wall was a cockpit. Inspection found this to be from an intact, but very forlorn-looking Hurricane. At this stage, Peter had no interest in aircraft and thought no more about it.......""
These cars, the Farman and the 20HP Rolls left in the 1980's, they were in the custody of a mill owner and were sent out via Nepal.
I was told that VCCCI office bearers including Pranlal and Dossa took this up with the authorities, but the authorities were apparently not interested. Maybe they should have told them that Gandhiji had sat in that car, apparently our authorities are only interested in Gandhi Memorabilia and nothing else of our history and culture, these just have no place. Tipu's sword, Swan car are examples of this callousness.
There is a sister car to this 20HP, also a 20HP now with Sanghi. It was with a Ruia on Nepean Sea Road, bought by Vohra for around 80K. Soon after Vohra came back to India on a visit and he had heard that this Farman was being talked about in Uk among some auction houses. Price mentioned was 6L at that time.
I myself with some friends went in the night to a place in Byculla to see the Farman. The watchman told us that it was taken away 3 days before. Unfortunately I could never set my eyes on that Farman.
Quote:
Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar Karl,
I haven't gone through this entire thread so don't know if this is covered in it. But have you seen this "THE MAHARAJAS MOTOR CAR The Story of Rolls-Royce in India" on BBC |
This movie was shot and in the can before the first Cartier event of 2008, the person who made it interacted with a lot of us and later sent me a DVD of the documentary.
Cheers harit