in focus Rarities Two very special cars from the extensive collection of Nitin Dossa

Text: gautam sen Photos: makarand baokar

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Standard Motor Company is not a However, it was not till the 1950s when famous brand, yet two great brands – the brand was launched as a part of a Jensen and Jaguar – started off by making technical collaboration with Standard cars based upon Standard chassis and Motors Products of India that it became mechanicals. Founded in , well known here. This Madras-based in 1903, the Standard name was carmaker outlived Standard in the UK, last used in Britain in 1963, but it lasted making at first the Standard Herald, then in India as a brand till 1987! Sir Charles the Gazel, and eventually the SD1, Friswell, chairman of Standard Motor, badged as the Standard 2000. worked hard at raising its profile by Essentially a coachbuilding outfit, New supplying 70 cars for King George V and Avon Body Co Ltd made a few cars that his entourage for the 1911 Delhi Durbar. were badged as Standard Avons. Not

1949 Mk VI the President of the Western chamaraja Wodeyar was a very keen car the better selling but the drophead coupé India Automobile Association (WIAA) from guy. And the marque that was his was quite rare: between 1948 and 1949 1997 to 1999, Nitin Dossa, has been the favourite was clearly Bentley – he bought just 51 were made, and Dossa’s car is Executive Chairman of the WIAA since at least six of them between 1946 and one of them. Powered by the 4257cc 2003, a post he still holds. But deep 1954. Dossa’s Bentley Mk VI Drophead in-line six the Mk VI used the new B60, down he’s an ‘old car’ guy. It’s the classic Coupé is one of them. Acquired in 1949, twin SU carburettor. Riding on a 3.05- car movement that he is most passionate the car features an elegant Park Ward metre wheelbase, the 1.8-tonne Mk VI about, and, of course, he also collects coachwork for a drophead coupé. Chassis drophead coupé was capable of 145kph. them. Like several other Indian collectors, # B438CF was ordered with several Of course, Dossa is not out to prove Dossa is partial to big American iron and special features such as an oil bath, air the car’s top speed, not after a costly he has several of them, including a rare cleaner, extra kit of tools and spares, and extensive restoration that took the Hudson seven-seater convertible from spare wheel carrier, Lucas rack-type best part of five years. Purchased in 1933 and a two-door fastback coupé wipers and large motifs to the head- 1995 from the Bharatpur royal family, version of the ‘46 Packard Clipper lamps, side lamps and boot handle. The who had been gifted the car by the Deluxe. Plus, another Packard, three colour that the Maharaja chose was a Maharaja of Mysore, it was in a water- Cadillacs, a ‘52 Windsor, a ‘23 dark blue with blue-coloured hide. logged garage for many years and Wolseley and a 1912 Rugby. We have Unveiled in May 1946, Bentley’s Mk VI, restoring it was quite a job. But it was photographed two of his cars that are and its stablemate, the Rolls-Royce Silver worth it as at the 2008 Cartier Concours quite special: a Bentley from 1949 and a Wraith, were developed as mainstays of d’Elegance event, Dossa’s Bentley very rare Standard Avon from 1933. Rolls-Royce Limited’s range of models in Mk VI drophead coupé won the trophy The last Maharaja of Mysore, Jaya- the post-war scenario. The Bentley was for best ‘resurrection’!

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Standard Avon 16HP from 1933

many were made yet a surprising number badged as Standard Avons. Beauvais's company was unable to pay the monthly of them have ‘surfaced’ in India recently. work is characterised by the tear-drop- bill for chassis and Standard cut off Nitin Dossa’s Standard Avon 16hp shaped front and rear wings that you supplies and foreclosed. It became Avon two-four Seater Open Sports is from 1933. see on Dossa’s Avon. Motor Bodies Ltd; then in 1973, Avon Founded in 1919, Avon first built car Based on the Standard Sixteen, Dossa’s Special Products was formed to produce bodies for Standard in the late 1920s. car is powered by a side-valve, 2054cc convertibles and conversion kits for Standard bodied most of their cars at the straight-six. Max power generated was Jaguar, Range Rover and Triumph. In time with saloon bodies. In 1929, Captain 41bhp at 3400rpm. The engine, chassis, 1979, Ladbrokes bought the company John Black joined Standard Motor and one gearbox, running gear, suspension, and it continued making Volvo limou- of the first things he did was to encour- axles, steering and wheels were all sines until the company stopped trading age the supply of chassis to external standard Standard, as they were on May 31, 1995. Incidentally, Standard, such as Jensen, Avon and delivered as rolling chassis to the Avon along with Triumph as a marque, is Swallow (which would later become works in Warwick, which was about currently owned by BMW; amusingly Jaguar). Standard saw a sports-bodied 35km from Canley, Coventry where the enough, when the Tata Indica was to that the young Jensen brothers, Standards were built. be sold by MG Rover in the UK, they Alan and Richard had made. They It is interesting to note that SS cars had toyed with the idea of launching therefore commissioned the brothers to adopted exactly the same approach in it as a Standard! design a range of ‘sporting bodies’ to be the early 1930s by purchasing the 16hp According to Avon expert Peter Lee built by Avon on Standard chassis. The and 20hp chassis and running gear from (who has two of them), there are another first was the 16hp in 1929. Standard and putting their own bodies on nine surviving Beauvais-designed Avons According to Standard Motor club them. The two operations – SS and Avon across Australia, Italy, Holland, Ireland chairman, Phil Homer, the Jensens were – had nothing to do with each other and and England, (of a total of 20 16hp Avons probably freelance designers working were competitors in the market. SS went – Beauvais and ‘non-Beauvais’ designed – independently off Avon. After they left, on to become Jaguar, eventually buying that are extant around the world) making Avon commissioned ‘The Motor’ maga- out the obsolete Standard tooling to Dossa’s car rather special. zine’s technical editor, Charles Beauvais, continue making . – with inputs from Phil Homer, to design cars for them. The cars were Avon went bankrupt in 1937, when the Peter Lee & JulianWilliamson

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