Rides of the Raaj
We head out to Rajasthan to experience cars owned by royal families. What we came back with was the experience of a lifetime
Rajasthan, the land of kings is an awe inspiring state, rich in history and heritage. And woven in its history are many automotive stories. The Maharajas’ tryst with the motor car began at the Delhi Durbar in 1911 and there was no looking back. Today the scene is a bit different. Most of the large palaces have been converted into heritage hotels where commoners like us can experience the royal life and the royalty’s love of cars. As fellow enthusiasts we went in search of the best royal garages which have still eluded us. But not to be outdone, we decided we would go in the luxury cars of today. It had to be the very best of the best and hence we chose the Mercedes-Benz S350L CDI, the Audi A8L 3.0 TDI and last but not the least, the BMW730Ld.
Our search for the Rajputana car collections started at the Udai Bilas Palace in Dungarpur. Though we were awestruck by the grandeur of the pal
ace it is the massive building with ‘Dungarpur Mews’ engraved on top that is the star attraction. This was the erstwhile horse stable of the royalty and even today it is where a lot of horsepower is stored. The Dungarpur collection is impeccable with marques like Mercedes and Steyr in it. But chosen for us was a beautiful Mercedes 230SL, a Jaguar XK 120 and a one of a kind Cobra replica.
Next up for us was Fatehgarh Palace in Udaipur. The magnificent palace was our home for the night and from our rooms we could see the collection of beautiful cars gleaming far away in the other side of the palace. Fatehgarh greeted us with a unique set of wheels. A small 1935 MG PA was the cynosure and we loved the little black sports car. Other attractions included many an American marquee but to us the second best was the Kaiser jeep which was casually parked on the side.
The most unique collection though belonged to Ravla Bhenswara. This collection comprised of a plethora of 4wd vehicles starting from the Willys Jeep to the Nissan Jonga. The Royalty also owned a bunch of Land Rovers and even some Russian jeeps. The Jeep to be honest is synonymous to Rajasthan thanks to its terrain and we had a blast there experiencing almost all the vehicles. Not just that, we also tried our hand at dune bashing with these awesome vehicles.