Pranlal Bhogilal Vintage Car Museum – Autoworld

Trrrrriiiinnngg… Trrrriiinnnggg…

Doc: Hello

SG: Hello Doc, I was thinking of visiting the Pranlal Bhogilal vintage car collection tomorrow morning (Saturday 10th July 2010)…

Doc: Hmmm… I too was planning to go there sometime. I drove past this place a few days ago when I was going somewhere, it is around 30 – 40 minutes from campus.

SG: Good! I can book a cab for tomorrow, we could check if anyone else is interested. We can leave early and be back by around lunch time?

Doc: Let us see how many are interested, if it is around 3 to 4 people, we can take my car, if there are more, we can work out the logistics.

SG: Cool!



Later that evening, Doc sent a note to the folks who were interested, “We will assemble in the parking lot at 8.30am”. So we were all set to visit ‘Dastan’; Pranlal Bhogilal’s farmhouse that has one of India’s biggest collections of Vintage & Classic cars.
Vintage and classic cars have a charm of their own. Be it the mass produced Model-T’s or the custom built Rolls Royces, every car seems to have a character and a soul.

There are several well known V & C car collectors in India, such as Mr.Vijay Mallya, Sharad Sanghi, N Jehangir etc. Plus there are some exotic collections belonging to big industrialists & the erstwhile Royal families. But most of these collections are not open to the general public.
What makes Mr.Bhogilal’s collection unique is, not only is it open to the public, you are also allowed to photograph them to your heart’s content. (Unlike the Dharmasthala collection where pix are not allowed.)

Entry charges are Rs.50 and camera fee is Rs.100. The net proceeds of the collections are donated to a charitable organization.
Auto World" is a part of one of the most important collections of Antique Vehicles, Cars, Motorcycles, Utility Vehicles, Buggies etc. built by one family over the last century. It represents several of the greatest marques of cars from all over the world, of all types and ages.



Facilities at "Auto World" include an auditorium & souvenir shop, a cafeteria & station for fun drives in vintage cars. Witness the triumph of human creativity-the best of science & technology combined with sublime Art & Aesthetics – All at "Auto World" the largest and finest Automobile collection of India & one of the best in the world.



Contact Details:

Dastan Estate,

Sardar Patel Ring Road,

Kathwada,

Ahmedabad-382430,

Gujarat, India Phone: +91 79 22820699

Fax: +91 79 22820699

Mobile: +91 98242 76653

Email: dasco@vsnl.com

Source: Gujarat Tourism website
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The pics of all the cars on display at the museum as on Saturday 10th July 2010 are uploaded from my second post onwards on this thread.
Four of us assembled at the parking lot on Saturday morning, Dr.Gautam, Capt.Manish, Nagesh & Sanjay.
Nagesh & Gautam were armed with their Canon DSLRs and I carried along the FZ28 + the FX01 as a backup.

Fueled up and air-check before we hit the highway…





Doc knew the route to the place, so we reached ‘Vintage Village’ @ Dastan in around 35 – 40 minutes…





A neat farmhouse with open display halls specially constructed for the cars…





Cars are grouped into categories such as ‘American’, ‘British’, ‘Sports’ etc.





All set!





Bought the tickets and we went in…





We spent almost four hours walking around the places and each of us walked out with several Gigs of pix…





Nagesh’s technique to get ‘Ropeless pictures’





A guy from the museum staff walked along with us, patiently giving details, answering questions and explaining about the history of several special cars…





Cars with special interiors…





And special features…





Though I had seen the photos of most of the cars on display, you get a better perspective when you actually see them in person. This one is a Bedford mobile X-ray unit…





What he thought was a normal sized Austin, turned out to be a tiny ‘midget’ of a car!





Now, that’s team-work! Manish & Nagesh holding up the awning while Doc got his perfect shot!





Most of the cars are in excellent condition, a few could use a little more care. On the whole, a big thanks to Mr.Bhogilal for making this unique collection accessible to all…





There are a few ‘Motor-less’ cars (carts and buggies) also on display…













And there is a great restaurant at Dastan, serving tasty Gujarati Thali meals…





After almost 3+ hours of non-stop photography, we were ready for a good meal…









Had a good meal, took a couple of more pix of the farmhouse and we were back in the campus by around 3.00pm.







Buick Eight Super 1947





Chevrolet 1929





Ford 1926





Ford 1931





Chrysler 1948





Plymouth 1954





Chevrolet 1935





Diamler 1947





Bentley 1934





Diamler 1947





Lagonda 1936





Alvis 1937





Armstrong Siddley 1955





Jaguar 1950





Rolls Royce 1923





Rolls Royce 1936 (Interior)





Rolls Royce 1936





Rolls Royce 1926





Rolls Royce 1932





Rolls Royce 1927





Rolls Royce 1923





Rolls Royce 1923





Rolls Royce 1927





Wolesely 1964





Rolls Royce 1937





Contd…