What do you get when you roll out 81 supremely beautiful Mercedes-Benz gadis in one go? The tenth edition of the Mumbai Mercedes-Benz Classic Car Rally.
Sooooo many classic Mercedes-Benz cars all in one place!
The rally must have been a sight to behold :(Sadly I could not be a part of it, but thanks to friends, colleagues and the great Internet world, I got to drool over some of these beauties, if not experience the rally). You too, dear reader, do have a look.
A Benz Bash: There were 77 different model variants of the car on display. Quite a record. Seen in the picture here is the Mercedes-Benz 500K.
Lady In Red Takes Off: The rally was flagged off by Ashish Shelar, who heads the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai, and Santosh Iyer, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, from the Taj Lands End hotel in Bandra, northwest Mumbai.
Benzs Schmooze It Up: The assortment of rare, iconic Mercedes-Benz cars were a treat to see including two-door luxury roadster 190SLs, like this one, that was once owned by Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur.
Prominent collectors were at this Benz jamboree -- Indian Express Chairman Viveck Goenka, industrialist Yohan Poonawalla, vintner Rajiv Kehr and a bunch of royals like Himanshu Sinh of Gondal, Pratapsinh Gaekwad and more.
Seniors Beauty Pageant: The convoy elegantly glided from the Taj Lands End to Worli Sea Face and beyond and then back via the Bandra-Worli Sea link.
When Marine Drive Looked Like Mayfair London: Seen on the left is the 1937 Mercedes Benz 170 range and on the right is the 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 Sc Cabriolet. This is one of Mercedes-Benz's rarest models being one of only 49 300 Sc Cabriolets built. And this same car had participated in the first Mercedes Benz Classic Car Rally back in 2014 and was back here after a fresh restoration this year.
What Big Eyes You Have: Here's another look at the 500K. Built by Mercedes-Benz between 1934 and 1936, the Mercedes-Benz 500K Roadster was distinguished from the other cars by the letter 'K' which means Kompressor (German for supercharger). This was only fitted to performance cars, which continues even today.
Skidmarks On My Heart: Among the vast sea of stunners in this rally, the one that stood out was a red 300SL Roadster. This model did boast to to be the only one in the country at the display in Bandra.
Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me A Mercedes-Benz: On the left is the Nürburg 460, the last of the passenger cars created after the merger between Daimler and Benz & Cie, that was desgined by automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche, who later went on to found Porsche AG.
On the right is the Mercedes 600 Grosser or Big and a fancy car that was, according to GQ magazine, 'the darling of evil doers' be they Pol Pot, Leonid Brezhnev, Nicolae Ceauşescu, Idi Amin Dada, Enver Hoxha, Saddam Hussein, Papa Doc Duvalier, Chairman Mao, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Ferdinand Marcos. No surprise then that many of them were bullet-proof.
This car, that was loved less, feared more, had a bit role in the James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever.
