A Classic Drive in The Indian Express

One man’s quirky collection of vintage cars turns into a museum in Pune

The spiraling road of Lullanagar, Pune, leads to Beverly Hills Suites and Apartments. Inside the upmarket destination is a 10,000 sq ft space any car buff would love, for it hosts Subhash Sanas Classic and Vintage Car Museum, which was inaugurated on October 22.

Forty-four ageless beauties stand behind the glass panels. From a deep-green 1927 Chevrolet Spock convertible, the oldest dame in the museum, to Amitabh Bachchan’s glistening-white Mercedes Benz, the museum reflects car collector Subhash Sanas’s passion for wheels.

After being gifted an Opel by his father, when he was in college, Sanas bought a 10-horn convertible Impala. Over the years, he collected enough vintage cars to be showcased in the museum, the “queen” of which is a 1963 red Chevrolet Impala convertible, once used by Indira Gandhi, which he bought at a government auction 12 years ago, and restored with parts from the US. Other cars he has collected include a green Austin, which he bought from a foreign jockey in 1978, a 1951 Dodge SW, done up in black and white “to resemble an American police chief’s car”, John Travolta’s ravishing red 1977 Mercedes 560 SL, bought from Beverly Hills, a 1982 Mercedes Limousine 250 which was used by Indian dignitaries, actor Vinod Khanna’s two-door silver-grey Mercedes, a peach-pink 1976 Mercedes Benz 220 D, a two-toned green 1934 Austin, a sky blue 1963 Chevrolet Nova, and the most recent cobalt-blue London taxi which he bought in January. Amongst these gorgeous giants also sits the little yellow motorbike used in the film Bobby.

All cars are cleaned daily, and are in “running condition”, Sanas says. “It is my dream to preserve as many of these jewels as I can.”