At MyTVS Heritage Rally on Sunday, one did not have to imagine what it would have been like back then.
Vintage vehicles, which are the stuff of quaint black-and-white archives, motored down Egmore roads, before arranging themselves on the grounds of Don Bosco School.
The road show of the 10th edition of the annual heritage car and bike rally, organised by Madras Heritage Motoring Club (MHMC), a vintage and classic car and bike club, drew both new entries as well as those participating for years.
V.S. Kylas, founder-secretary of MHMC, said they received the highest number of entries in this year’s edition, with around 127 cars and 40 bikes, dating between 1926 and 1975, participating.
“The response from the public was overwhelming and the footfall was around 20,000,” he said. The new entries included a 1959 Chevrolet Impala, Jaguar Mark II and an Austin London Taxicab, among others.
However, among the sparkling vintage vehicles, the ones that drew some of the largest crowds were those with photographs of the famous personalities who owned them.
Lined up were noted industrialist (late) A. Sivasailam’s 1956 Dodge Kingsway-Delux, A.V. Meiyappan’s 1938 Vauxhall 14, and Gemini Ganesan’s 1952 Ford Prefect Saloon, among others.
The road show was flagged off by Vinod Dasari, managing director, Ashok Leyland. The guest of honour was R. Dinesh, joint managing Director, TVS and Sons. Sudhir Rao, managing director, Skoda India, gave away the prizes in various categories.
S. Srivardhan’s 1938 Mercedes Benz, Naresh Bangara’s 1959 Ambassador, and Arjun Ananth’s 1966 MGB, won in the Concours D’ Elegance upto 1940, 1941-1960, and 1961-1975 categories, respectively.
Sumanth Shaganti’s 1936 Royal Enfield was the winner in the ‘best maintained bike up to 1940’ category; Sumanth’s 1943 James won in the 1941-1960 category; and R. Srinivas’ 1959 Java won in the 1961-75 category. The winners were judged by experts Raja Mookerjee and Partha Banik from Kolkata. MHMC has organised close to 60 events in the past 12 years and has 120 members now, said Mr. Kylas.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Events / by Asha Sridhar / Chennai – August 25th, 2014