Luxury in reverse gear

The 12th Mercedes-Benz Classic Car Rally gave car lovers a chance to go back in time and watch automobile history unfold

- By HORMAZD SORABJEE

For one weekend every year, the lawns of the Taj Lands End in Mumbai transform into something almost mythical: A 50-metre walk through the history of the automobile. No other carmaker can pull this off, simply because no other carmaker has been around for so much of it. Mercedes-Benz can, because it isn’t just the oldest manufacturer in the world — it is the arc of automotive progress itself. And at the 12th Mercedes-Benz Classic Car Rally, that felt more vivid than ever.

Over 100 classics lined up this year, more than 75 of them debuting at the rally. Many cars, some over half a century old, arrived under their own power. A handful of determined owners even drove their classics all the way from Kerala, a tribute to the engineering robustness that remains Mercedes’s calling card.