Vintage beauties rock Heritage City streets

Aged nearly a century, the 1928 model of Lachester rolled on the road like a breeze on Sunday as it left Vidhana Soudha along with other vintage beauties in a rally organised as part Dasara celebrations.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy flagged off the rally at Vidhana Soudha, with people lined up to see the nearly 50 vintage cars. The old beauties, part of ‘Royal Classic Car Drive to Mysore-2018’, reached Mysuru at 4 pm where the old beauties lined up in front of Lalit Mahal Palace.

The rally was organised by the Tourism Department, in association with Federation of Historic Vehicle of India (FHVI), as part of Mysuru Dasara and to promote the vintage culture.

The oldest car participating in the rally - ‘Lanchester 40 hp Tourer, from England, was one of the major attractions. The vehicle was manufactured in 1925 in Russia. Peter Noble, purchased the vehicle in 1991.

He and his wife have come from England to participate in the rally. The couple drove the car from Mumbai to Bengaluru and then to Mysuru.

The cars used by Maharaja’s of Jaipur and Lucknow and ‘Lancaster ST 8’ used by Motilal Nehru, were other attractions.

At Lalith Mahal, District in-charge Minister G T Devegowda flagged off the city rally from Lalith Mahal. The cars moved on the main roads of the city before arriving at Mysuru Palace.

Hundreds gathered on the palace premises to have a glimpse of the classic beauties. Twelve cars from other countries including 10 from Sri Lanka, one each from England and France, 14 from Karnataka and 26 from other states participated in the rally. Four cars developed technical glitches on the Palace premises.

Chamundi Hill

The vintage cars will take out a rally to Chamundi Hill on Monday morning and a few of them will join the Dasara elephants during their Jamboo Savari rehearsal, between Mysuru Palace premises and Bannimantap later in the morning.

Later, the rallyists will visit Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) Dam in Srirangapatna before returning to Bengaluru.