According to organisers, nearly 200 vintage cars will be displayed at the eagerly anticipated 21 Gun Salute Concours d’Elegance 2023, which will take place in Gujarat’s Vadodara city next month.
The show, one of Asia’s most eagerly awaited auto event, will take place at Vadodara’s Laxmi Vilas Palace from January 6 to 8, 2023. The 21 Gun Salute Heritage and Cultural Trust’s chairman and managing trustee, Madan Mohan, told reporters on Wednesday.
The 1948 Bentley Mark VI Drophead Coupe, a unique design built for Maharani Shanta Devi of Baroda and grandly displayed at the show after it left India in 1966 and will be the event’s centre of attention, according to release from the organisers.
“The vintage beauty has roamed around the world and sat in garages adorned by famous collectors from America and Spain, but 21 Gun Salute successfully bought the Indian automobile honour and history back home in 2015,” it said.
“Bringing back the spark and charm of the beauty was painstaking as its restoration required its parts, upholstery and even the shade of its original paint to be imported from London. Now, the Maharani car will bask in the glory it deserved for all these lost years,” the release said.
More than 200 international and domestic vintage engines, 25 foreign cars and 120 veteran bikes will be on display at the event, according to the announcement.
“The yet another grand celebration of Indian heritage together with 200 plus featured marques from around the globe in the 10th edition of the 21 Gun Salute Concours d’Elegance will go down in history as an exclusive heritage motoring fiesta,” Mohan said.
The show has demonstrated rapid growth and has the potential to propel the image of host destination India to new heights as a heritage motoring fraternity, he said.
75 vintage cars will travel on January 5 from the Vadodara palace to the Statue of Unity at Kevadia in the nearby Narmada district.
Vintage car collector Yograjsinh Chavda said Gujarat has so many princely states, particularly Saurashtra, the princes there used to import rare cars directly.
“However, after 1962, those cars were exported back to European countries as vintage car collectors in those countries used to purchase them from royals here. Now, we have become aware of the vintage cars,” he said.