The 54th edition of The Statesman Vintage and Classic Car Rally will be held on 19 January at the RCTC ground. Kolkata was always famous for cars and motorcycles.

Raja Rishikesh Laha took his fleet of cars to attend the ceremony held to honour George V in Delhi. Pradymnu Mullick was a passionate collector of cars, and every Saturday his cars were taken to the banks of the river Hooghly so that they could get fresh air. Once he thought of taking his cars to the river Hooghly so that they could take a holy dip in the morning along with their owner. However, he could not fulfill his dream following stiff resistance from his friends and acquaintances. He used to lead the troupe in his small two-seater tour, Baby Austin, while the cars that included Rolls Royce, Cadillac, Pontiac, LaSalle, Buick, driven by his drivers, followed him. The cars came out from his house in Chitpore and then for hours they were driven along the river Hooghly so that they could get fresh air.

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Dr Upendranath Bramhachari, the doctor who discovered urea stibamine, the medicine that could treat ‘kala azar’, used to drive a Rolls Royce. Dr BC Roy used to visit the Writers’ Buildings, the former state administrative headquarters, in his black Buick Roadmaster. Rabindranath used to travel in a Humber bought by his son Rathindranath. Rathi bought two such vehicles, one for the city and the other one was kept at Santiniketan. Humber was not a costly car, but it was purchased for the poet so that he could use the car during the monsoon when most of the roads surrounding Jorasanko House were flooded.

There were huge American cars in Kolkata like the Cadillac, Buick, Dodge, De Soto, Studebaker, La Salle, Dodge, Pontiac, Overland, Hupmobile, and Oldsmobile among others. There were British cars like Minerva, Rolls Royce, Austin, Morris, and MG. There were few German cars which included Mercedes and Daimler.

From the mid-1950s most of these cars got grounded. The big taxis like Chevrolet, Dodge and Pontiac were replaced by Standard 10, Ambassador and Landmaster following an initiative taken by Dr BC Roy.

When The Statesman is holding the vintage and classic car rally for the 54th year, it will not be out of context to remember and pay our respect to those who had brought back to life these cars. These great collectors and restorers are no longer there, but car lovers across the country will remember them and pay respect to them silently on this auspicious occasion.

Shashi Kanoria was a great vintage collector and restorer. He loved the old cars more than his children and the first car he had restored belonged to his in-laws. His son Srivardhan has carried on the legacy of his father and has come up as the most prominent restorer in eastern India. He has a collection of Rolls Royces, all maintained in pristine condition. He has a rare Renault built in 1906 and a Woolsey.

Mandeville Gardens has lost one of its finest sons with the death of Sanjay Ghosh. Ghosh was a collector of American cars and had in his stable a Cadillac, a Buick Super 8, a Chevrolet Fleetmaster and a Ford V8. The Ford V8 he inherited from his maternal grandfather, late Justice JP Mitter of the Calcutta High Court. Ghosh restored this vehicle and became such an attachment to it that he gave up his job and opened a garage to repair and restore old cars. Unfortunately, all his cars have been bought by a Delhi-based businessman and the Ford V8 which had received The Statesman trophy for a restored number of times would not take part in the rally this year.

Pratap Chowdhury, who died after suffering a massive heart attack on the prejudging day, was the owner of Stoewer, a rare German car, the only one surviving in the whole world now. The century-old vehicle is driven by Chowdhury’s son Ananda. Four generations of the Chowdhury family have used this vehicle. Chowdhury had his workshop at Unsani in the Howrah district. He was an expert on war jeeps. He had a fleet of cars and jeeps that included Mercedes, Chevrolet Pillarless, a huge left hand drive American giant.

Gautam Mukherjee, a collector of Baby Austins, is no longer with us. He was an expert on this vehicle and was very meticulous and fussy about his prized possession. He had a baby Austin with no headlights.

Bampu Sarkar, a great restorer, died prematurely some years ago. Partha Sadhan Bose, who died some years ago, was a collector of a rare American cart called Auburn. He had a Buick Super 8 tourer and two century-old Royal Enfield motorcycles.

A few days ago a vintage car collector told me that within the next few years all the vintage cars in the city will be grounded due to a lack of mechanics. As the restorers have closed down their workshop the old mechanics could not train their next generation. “Now spares are available, but you do not get good mechanics who could repair a carburettor or distributor. Also, you do not get a good coach repairer. Unless the car manufacturers take up an initiative to train up young boys, maintaining an old car will be a real problem in near future,” he said.