Roll with it, baby

India too celebrates 100 years of Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce kicked off its centennial celebrations on May 4 2004 in Manchester, lining up a host of events to be held over the next 365 days.

Perhaps they never expected one particular event held in India "� once the marque's biggest market between the two Great Wars "� to be a part of the official celebrations.

Still, that did not prevent them from shipping across the 21st century iteration of the Phantom in time to be part of the Indian event.

Organised by the Vintage & Classic Car Club of India, the Rolls-Royce rally was flagged off on the now-infamous 26th December 2004 from the heritage CST station and ended at the Grand Hyatt, after making its way through the main thoroughfares of Mumbai.

Though there were not many cars in this event, there was no lack of enthusiasm shown by either the participants or the rubber-neckers across the city.

Among the dozen-odd Rollers were two of Vijay Mallya's Silver Ghosts (1922 and 1924), Amir Ali Jetha's gorgeous 1935 Phantom II Continental (which we have featured in Motoring magazine), Hormusji Cama's showroom condition 1947 Silver Wraith, Fali Dhondy's superbly restored 1928 20 HP and Irphan Mogul's mint condition 1971 Silver Shadow.

I got the chance to hitch a ride in Rahul Shah's 1936 25/30, which plied the streets of Mumbai blissfully "� heck, it was hard to believe this car was almost 70 years old!

The 25/30's inline-six whispered, compared to the noise the other modern sedans on the road made.

It offered tremendous legroom and headroom, was luxuriously upholstered and while at it, also kept the rough patches of the road down where they belonged. Seriously, they don't make cars like these any more.

About 800 Rollers were supposed to have landed in India in the early part of last century, most of them heading to royal stables.

A substantial number of them featured custom-built coachwork, making each of them highly unique and one-offs. Since the value of the marque was acknowledged even then, many of these Rolls-Royces are kept alive even today.

This is why an event that commemorates something so historic and that too, at a place which still has a lasting legacy, had to be much grander than a mere procession of a handful of cars. The saving grace is that we at least had an event, no matter how small it was. The only issue is that a 100th birthday comes once in a lifetime.

Yet such thoughts were hardly present in people's minds, as they waved, blew kisses and showed thumbs-up signs as the Spirit of Ecstasy made her way through the traffic and the crowds.