Some Of The Finest Cars To Have Ever Graced Indian Roads

- Ishan Raghava

I think it’s fair to say that, in our quest to put ourselves back on the global map, we forget about our own phenomenally rich history. Often, it takes curious foreigners to make us aware of our own riches and culture.

It’s no wonder, then, that it’s taken an event on the scale of the Cartier ‘Travel With Style’ Concours to remind us of our intensely rich and diverse motoring history. To be honest, there has been a growing resurgence of the vintage and classic automobile scene in India for a few decades now. In the decades after independence, many of our finest automobiles were quietly smuggled out to global collectors across the world – and the Indian vintage automobile scene was left to a small group of enthusiasts with a limited audience.

Now, with Cartier partnering with Manvendra Singh Barwani, a leading Indian automotive historian and restorer, the focus is back on our rich automotive heritage – and this story is reaching out to a far bigger audience than ever before.

Given the grandeur of the Travel With Style Concours, it was only fitting that its sixth edition be held in the regal setting of the Rambagh Palace – the erstwhile residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur. And, like every Concours, this year’s event too highlighted some of the unique stories that make up the rich automotive history of India – so-much-so that I’ll only be able to barely scratch the surface of all that I learnt over the course of the event in the next few pages.

Gift from a Maharaja