Pair of Hindustan Ambassadors highlight first collector-car auction in India

To Indian motorists, the Hindustan Ambassador remains a familiar and iconic image, a symbol of sorts of the country's freshly won independence and self-determination, even if its roots stretched back to England. Naturally, then, the first Indian-built car for the Indian market would figure into the first Indian collector-car auction, slated for later this month.

"Why now? Because we believe that the time is right," said Gautam Sen, the head of the historical vehicles division for Mumbai-based fine arts auction house Osian's and author of a pair of books on Indian automotive treasures. "For the last few years the appreciation and values of historic vehicles have been on the rise. For most of the last many decades the historic vehicle movement has been operating in the grey market. But in recent years there has been a change in attitude. Thus we thought it was the right time to launch the concept of a proper, all-transparent auction of historic vehicles."

Up until recently, India's classic-car market has remained rather isolated from the global collector car market. In response to the post-independence sell-off of many maharajas' cars, the country placed strict bans on the export of vintage and classic cars in an effort to keep the country's automotive treasures in India. And to prevent neighboring countries from flooding the country with cheap used cars, the country banned the import of cars built before 1950 and has levied steep duties on all other imported cars. Only in 2013 was the ban on older imported cars lifted. An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 collector cars remain throughout India.

(Previous auctions of collector cars have taken place in India, mostly online, uncatalogued, or sporadically, according to Sen.)

Neville Tuli, the founder and chairman of Osian's, said in a press release announcing the auction that he hopes to both modernize and legitimize the Indian collector-car market with the auction and perhaps to instigate change that would open the market to the global collector-car community.

"It is a great opportunity, as there are many die-hard enthusiasts and collectors of vintage and classic automobiles in India, waiting for a new credibility and structure, a few even braving imports at the unbearable Import Duty, which will disappear as the government recognizes the archaic nature of such a deterrent," Tuli said. "India's first live automobile auction promises to be an exciting start to giving greater transparency, financial credence and a deeper historical insight to the world of historic vehicles in India."

To do so, Tuli and Sen have assembled a docket of about three dozen cars and trucks mostly dating from the Thirties through the Sixties and covering the spectrum from everyman's cars to coachbuilt Classics.

In the former camp are two Hindustan Ambassadors, a 1961 Mark I (top) and a 1966 Mark II (above), both from the collection of lawyer Diljeet Titus. The Mark I (chassis number 11125317) remains unrestored but remarkably complete, still running its original B-series four-cylinder engine; it is expected to sell for INR200,000 to INR300,000 (about $2,800 to $4,200). Meanwhile, the Mark II (chassis number 11186878) has undergone a complete restoration but retains its original 1.5-liter four-cylinder; it is expected to sell for INR300,000 to INR450,000 (about $4,200 to $6,300).

A number of American cars -- some of them assembled in India -- are also on the docket, perhaps none as meticulously preserved as the 1934 Cadillac Series 355-D seven-passenger Imperial sedan (chassis number 31-1912) originally ordered for the use of Balwant Sharma, governor of the Central Provinces. While it remained in government service through the 1950s, it went unrestored in private collectors' hands until Titus bought it in the 1990s and decided to mechanically overhaul it, but preserve the body in its unrestored state and later show it in the preservation class at the 2013 Cartier concours d'elegance in Mumbai. It is expected to sell for INR7,000,000 to INR10,000,000 (about $100,000 to $140,000).

The Osian's collector-car sale will take place February 27 at Le Meridien hotel on Windsor Place in New Delhi. For more information, visit Osians.com.