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New Delhi, October 15: A common passion has brought together Tutu Dhawan, Ranjit Malik and Vijendra Gupta at a farmhouse in Chattarpur. Vintage cars. Delhi’s Heritage Motoring Club of India, now four years old, was formed by a group of vintage and classic car afficionados. What started as a small gathering of 24 members in a Greater Kailash house is now a 125-member club that has organised more than 15 events in the last four years. Eminent among these have been the classic car rallies held to highlight 100 years of the Kalka-Simla rail link, celebrations to mark the Taj Mahal’s 350th anniversary and a drive to Sariska to lend support to the ‘Save the Tiger’ campaign.
Recently the club had a visitor from Pakistan—Mosnin Ikran—the president of the Vintage and Classic Car Club of Pakistan. He flew down just to have a look at some of the cars here and invited all members of the club to visit Pakistan. The invitation has been accepted and Delhi’s Heritage Motoring Club is planning a friendship rally to Pakistan with over a hundred cars early next year.
Not content just with weekend meetings and occasional drives in the countryside, the members have big plans to get their house in order. Immediate plans include a museum and a club house with a track to test the cars, says Tutu Dhawan, president of the club.
The club has approached various states to allot land for the club. ‘‘We were also interested in having the Safdarjung Airport for the club but had to shelve the idea due to security reasons,’’ says Ranjit Malik, convener of the club.
Vijendra Gupta, the club’s general secretary adds that the club has been requesting the government to allow re-import of cars that left the country’s shores a long time ago, particularly since a good number of the vintage cars were shipped out of India during British rule.
The club members keep in touch with other affiliated club across the world and help them out with parts of old cars . They also fabricate parts of vintage cars in India and sell them in the international market at one-third the price.
And the members vary from lawyers to mechanics. In some cases, the passion runs in the family. Some older members also bring along their sons for the meetings. |