[MALCOLM FOREST]

Originally Posted by dominator

Absolutely correct Karl. Manvendra did the cosmetic restoration and Ravikumar was on his way to Indore and he had a massive heart attack enroute.He dies without seeing the car. After his death, the car was brought to bangalore & Verena ( Ravikumars wife ), offered it in the market.No takers for a long time, because of the price quoted and then Prakash Kunte picked it up for Jackie Shroff. Jackie had the car sent to Pune for mechanicals and it ended up with its present owner, Bala.

Hi,

I don´t quite understand...Are you referring to the the Isotta-Fraschini of Kotwara?

Thanks,

Malcolm

Originally Posted by Chhayanat

This is the same car which I mentioned in an earlier post about the Kotwara Isotta Fraschini under Miscellaneous Vintage cars in India "....The Kotwara family also had a pale blue grey Mk.V Jaguar till the 1960s." Only, it was not painted in the concours style paintwork favoured nowadays. There was another Mk.V Jaguar in Lucknow but I don't have a clear recollection. A third was parked on one of the radial roads of Connaught Place in the early 1970s. Probably in regular use like the Kotwara Jaguar in the 1960s.
It's not clear why the MkV Jaguars are listed under pre-war Jaguars. Perhaps my knowledge is incomplete.

Dear mr. Chhayanat,

I was very pleased to find your posting on the isotta-fraschini, cesare sala body, that once belonged to rajah sajid husain of kutwara and baldepour and his wife, princess selma of turkey. This car is currently under our care. It was with autocollections till recently and shown at pebble beach, 2008.

Mr. Rob williams of autocollections had had the vintage photos that i imagine you sent him of the car in india, along with its history. Unfortunatelly these were lost, however.

Thus, i kindly ask you to send me all information you may have on this car´s history and photos of it in india, if possible. My e-mail is malcolmforest@gmail.com. I will greatfully reply and send you current photos of this isotta for your viewing.

I have created an isotta-fraschini website, in case you are interested in viewing other isottas: Isotta Fraschini .

The isotta at point is mentioned in two books written by kenize mourad: "regards from the dead princess" and "le jardin de baldepour". The accounts are very, very interesting and i highly recommed these books. I am now in contact with the author. She is the daughter of rajah sajid and princess selma. Kenize has kindly agreed to look for vintage photos of the rajah and the princess with the isotta in her family albums and send me these asap.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanking you in advance, i remain.

Greatfully and cordially yours,

Malcolm forest

[Julian UK]

Welcome to the forum Malcolm!
Dominator was refering to the 540K in post #113 of this thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...s-india-8.html

Chhayanat only visits the forum now and again. I will pm you his email address.

[TuffRyder]

Originally Posted by MustangMan

is that an 8-track player in the Mustang?

If anyone interested, I seen quite a few 8-track players for sale for cars and home use in More Market (spelling?) in Chennai, next to the Central Railway Station.

[Julian UK]

Originally Posted by speedy

Speaking of Ferrari's

Are these taxis being introduced everywhere in India? Will they have those external meters on the wings?


photo by exoticspotter.com

[Julian UK]

Indian elephants have small ears? African elephants have large ears, these seem to be in between....but where?


photo Andrew Blake

[speedy]

Originally Posted by Julian UK

Are these taxis being introduced everywhere in India? Will they have those external meters on the wings?

This 550M is in Bangalore and no longer sports Taxi plates. It is in the collection of a Prominent person.

Originally Posted by Julian UK

Indian elephants have small ears? African elephants have large ears, these seem to be in between....but where?

Thats what you call Elephant power . The place seems to be a Ruined palace or Haveli and a great picture too. Elephants were used prominently in the South East Asian region to pull heavy loads. My guess would be India or Thailand.

[wasif]

[quote=speedy;1035945]The car is the Bombay car but i am not sure weather it is Dr.Rossi's or Mr.Dubash's car. Both had the 275 gtb and i do not know who had brought it first. Dr. Rossi's car was exported by his children after his demise, but the Dubash car is still here. I shall confirm on the registration number of which one this is. As far as i know and have heard is Dr.Rossi had only one Ferrari. Karl could you please confirm on this.

Hi.

The Rossi Ferrari was a 275 GTB/ C and it is the same one pictured here in red. He had only one scuh car..The other special feature is think was that ir had six two barrel carbs instead of the standard 275 GTB triple carb setup. This was a very limited edition GTB made in Aluminium for competition use hence the /C designation. It was exported by his sons after his demise.

The Adi Dubash Ferrari if i remember correct was a 330 GT. It was black in colour and had a very aggressive front snout.

[speedy]

[quote=wasif;1141714]

Originally Posted by speedy

The car is the Bombay car but i am not sure weather it is Dr.Rossi's or Mr.Dubash's car. Both had the 275 gtb and i do not know who had brought it first. Dr. Rossi's car was exported by his children after his demise, but the Dubash car is still here. I shall confirm on the registration number of which one this is. As far as i know and have heard is Dr.Rossi had only one Ferrari. Karl could you please confirm on this.

Hi.

The Rossi Ferrari was a 275 GTB/ C and it is the same one pictured here in red. He had only one scuh car..The other special feature is think was that ir had six two barrel carbs instead of the standard 275 GTB triple carb setup. This was a very limited edition GTB made in Aluminium for competition use hence the /C designation. It was exported by his sons after his demise.

The Adi Dubash Ferrari if i remember correct was a 330 GT. It was black in colour and had a very aggressive front snout.

I also heard that Dr Rossi's car had met with an Accident in the GTB/C. He had sent the car abroead to get fixed and it was not a feasable option hence he brought down a 275 GTB. The car was on the same papers of the 275 GTB/C. Later his sons exported the GTB on his demise. I dont know how true this is.

The Dubash car was red as i had seen it myself. This car is owned by my uncle now and is still red. So the picture i posted of the 330 is the Dubash car.

[canonball]

Originally Posted by Julian UK

A 1966 Ferrari 275GTB long nose, not sure where
Attachment 65297

Attachment 65298



A 1946 MG TC being towed by a Harley taxi with diesel engine being started with its pull cord. Andrew at the wheel, I took the photos.
Attachment 65299

Attachment 65300

Guys I cant find a single picture of a 1966 275 gtb with wipers facing each other for that matter none of the 275's seem to have wipers facing each other all of them have both windshield wipers facing in the same direction! Is that a 275 GTB or something else I also tried to look up long nose and nothing not sure if u guys noticed this?

cheers

On secound thought maybe when this car was rebuilt which it seems they went for our good old Ambassador design more for functionsl reasons than anything else after taking a relook at the other car pics the distance between the two mounting point seems accurate and the driver side wiper is on the extram end of the windscreen almost touching the "A" pillar of all the other cars strange though!!

[harit]

Originally Posted by canonball

On secound thought maybe when this car was rebuilt which it seems they went for our good old Ambassador design more for functionsl reasons than anything else after taking a relook at the other car pics the distance between the two mounting point seems accurate and the driver side wiper is on the extram end of the windscreen almost touching the "A" pillar of all the other cars strange though!!

I thought that I would add some tit bits on Ferrari's in India, before they really came in.
The most famous one was Dr. Rossi's. He lived on Nepean Sea Road, 3 buildings away from where I lived. So have seen this car innumerable times. His building had a basement parking with windows at road level, we used to kneel down and look through the windows to see the car. Sometimes we were allowed to walk in and oogle. He had the yellow Volvo station wagon which you can see in the background of a previous post and he had a green Plymouth Valiant station wagon which he scrapped. At one time there was a yellow Fiat 124 coupe, almost looked like a Ferrari, so beautiful.
The Ferrari was very often raced, and in Sri Lanka he had an accident where the car was damaged on the front. Almost all his cars were fixed at Apex Garage, which was at Worli behind the pump near Tao Art Gallery. One night, at around 11.00PM me and a friend went to this garage around 1980 and were allowed to walk around this Apex Garage. There was this Ferrari, completely stripped and the body being rebuilt. I believe that a large part was aluminium, and there was a skilled craftman rebuilding the body. And he got it very well. There was nothing on the car, no mechanicals and no fittings.
Later, when the car was offered for sale some bloke from Japan came to see but the deal did not happen and she went to Europe.
Dr. Rossi was a very serious racer, but also a colourful character who enjoyed life. He did many crazy things as only a genius would dare, like driving huge distances to compete and carrying extra special fuel in the car as part of baggage. People should talk to the racing fraternity and ask for Dr. Rossi stories. And post them.

Then the next Ferrari seen in India was that of Dubash. I was lucky to see her really close when she was new. The driver, yes driver brought the car to the airport to pick up saab, ( boss, not car). I was also there to pick up somebody. He was parked right outside the arrival section, actually not allowed for cars to stand there. And saab was late. We persuaded the driver to open the bonnet, he did. There were three carbs. Later on we heard that the car was damaged because it could never be driven above the 2nd gear, so something burnt out. By the way, they also had a BMW M1 which was sent back as our roads were too bad for such a low car. This Ferrari was yellow at that time.

Then the next Ferrari seen in India was a 308. This had some documentation issues with customs, and was seen in an advertisement featuring the car, then Pataudi and sporting a numberplate PAT 1. Can anyone remember this?

Another Ferrari which appeared around the same time was the one in Delhi with Mr. Sharma. He got it from his association with Mr. or Dr. Rossi, a person connected with the Italian Embassy in Delhi, different from the Mumbai Dr. Rossi. He was impressed with Mr. Sharma's skill and got him over to spend time at Ferrari in Italy.

Now ofcourse there are many Ferrari's in India, as the barriers opened up they came in even if initially as a taxi!

Brief story of Ferrari's in India

[wasif]

Here is a picture of what a Ferarri 275 GTB/C looks like. There were only twelve made and only two were actually made for road use. The road versions had the magnesium alloy wheels just likre those seen on Dr. Rossi's car and the race versions had wire wheels.

Dr.Rossi was know to race his 275 all over India and it was indeed involved in a major accident. The car was subsequently repared here in Inida and was with him till his sad demise.

The Adi Dubash car was a Ferarri 365 GT 2 + 2. It was black in colour at one time but has gone in for a couple of colour changes. The third picture is of a similar car in the US.

The 308 seen in the advertisment with Pataudi was a 308 GTB which was brought to India on Carnet and would have left the country in a few years.

The fourth Ferarri in Delhi was a 412 very similar to the attached picture and was bought by Mr. Sharma from the Italian Embassy.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by harit

Then the next Ferrari seen in India was a 308. This had some documentation issues with customs, and was seen in an advertisement featuring the car, then Pataudi and sporting a numberplate PAT 1. Can anyone remember this?

Is the same Ferrari in the Vijay Mallaya collection? He also has a red 308 in his Mumbai collection but I am not sure if it was bought new.

[iraghava]

In the Delhi Ferrari bit don't you guys mean the 400i which can currently be found parked in the Ambassador Hotel compound?

[harit]

Originally Posted by iraghava

In the Delhi Ferrari bit don't you guys mean the 400i which can currently be found parked in the Ambassador Hotel compound?

yes it is the same car. Before being parked in the Hotel compound it was lying in his garage at Okhla Industrial Estate. That is were I met him personally. He also had a 1960's convertible Lancia and some other fine cars.
I deliberately did not mention model nos because I never took notes but the pic put up by Wasif is very similar.
By the way, was the Oldsmobile pictured elsewhere also not lying very close to the Hotel compound? I had seen it there covered up many years ago.

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by wasif

The fourth Ferarri in Delhi was a 412 very similar to the attached picture and was bought by Mr. Sharma from the Italian Embassy.

Prabal had earlier shared some pics of that car at an event in Delhi, perhaps he can post them here. Not the prettiest of Ferraris I'd say.