Hindustan Motors
Millions of brown men all over the globe share one passion. Whether it be aspirations for a Mercedes, a 2000W subwoofer in the bimmer or changing the fanbelt on an orange Datsun, the South Asian diaspora is held together by its love of cars. This is the first of two posts that will pimp your browser with desi drivers.
I took this picture driving into London last week. This is a Ferrari 456 GT Venice, one of a reported six made (estimates range from five to seven) expressly for the Sultan of Brunei. He has asked numerous car marques to custom-build special editions of popular vehicles and they have always obliged. He ordered six estate, or station-wagon, style Ferraris but only purchased five. Imagine my excitement when I considered this could be his reject.
Further investigation revealed the Sultan, aka Hassanal Bolkiah, could well be the owner of the world’s most esoteric car collection. His fleet last year was said to comprise 531 Mercedes-Benzs, 367 Ferraris, 362 Bentleys, 185 BMWs, 177 Jaguars, 160 Porsches, 130 Rolls Royces and 20 Lamborghinis. He keeps many of his 5000 vehicles in colour-coded rooms. His particular interest is rare cars, such as the above Ferrari, eight McLarens F1s, six Dauer 962 LMs (yellow, above), the only right-handed Mercedes CLK-GTR in the world, a Lamborghini Diablo Jota, two Jaguar XJR-15s and a stretch Range Rover.
One of the Sultan’s most recent acquisitions is this amazing and unique £500,000 Rolls Royce, photographed in London. A Silver Spirit Mk IV has been transformed into a 6.75l sports coupé with a sloping 350Z-style rear and scissor doors normally found on a Lamborghini Murcielago.
This particular Spirit of Ectasy and its carriage were designed by DC Design, an Indian firm owned by Dilip Chhabria. Chhabria qualified in Transportation Design from the Art Centre of Design, Pasadena and went on to work in the Design Centre at General Motors. He kicked the job in to launch his own automotive styling company in India and DC Design now offers vehicle and plane styling, show car and prototype building, customised and armoured vehicles building and, oddly, bespoke furniture.
Wiki says he designed James Bond’s Aston Martin Vanquish V12 in Die Another Day [Link], but far more impressively he is responsible for Tarzaan - The Wonder Car’s, er…wonder car. He has been described as India’s automotive pioneer, but I can’t see too many contenders for that crown aside from Ratan Tata and his Nano.
Three of Chhabria’s 2008 designs are special editions of:
The cult classic 2004 Peugeot 206 ad featuring Indian modding and a Bhangra Knights soundtrack:
Previously: Nano-Tech
on Thursday, July 10th, 2008, 9:14 pm in Cars, Design, Toys › 
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Beautiful post… The Desh will soon be littered with design studios. Design requires minimal manufacturing capabilities just theory and imagination (plenty of both talents around in the desh).
DC Design is a very old player in the car design business in India. They could be what people would describe as a coach builder. Way back in the mid nineties, they specialized in modding body work on marutis. They came into the mainstream after modding cars for the stars, particularly one modded Gypsy that Shah Rukh Khan drove in the movie Dil To Pagal Hai.
My office in Bombay is right above his studio on 14th road in Khar. I hope I can get pictures of what he had done to 100CC hero hondas. He has been around for many many years and the frst DC modified car I remember seeing was a contessa stretch limo.
From what I read he’s been around in India since ‘93-’95. Indeed most of the designs are not as outlandish as the Roller, but more down-to-road creations often based on cars popular in the Desh.
Okay, I know I’ll likely get flammed for this but do you really think there is plenty of “imagination” in desh? I know there are lots of smart and particularly hard working people in India but I would argue that India’s education system and society don’t encourage imagination and hence this is lacking in desh.
On average I’d say the arts are far more passionate than, say, in the U.S., and it’s not just a matter of earnestness vs. ironic detachment. Springs from an emo culture with all its rich traditions, and a recently socialist econ which provided more time than money.
Best post on Ultrabrown ever.
His fleet last year was said to comprise 531 Mercedes-Benzs, 367 Ferraris, 362 Bentleys, 185 BMWs, 177 Jaguars, 160 Porsches, 130 Rolls Royces and 20 Lamborghinis.
We all, of course, know who held the previous record for ridiculous Rolls retention.
Rohin, my uni (as you Brits are fond of saying) is infested by the scion of these picnic-table-checkers head-gear wearing king makers. I was first made aware of their presence while walking to my jalopy after class one day and seeing an all black Mercedes S-coupe with the front end of a C and no insignia whatsoever, something I had never seen before. I was so blown away I literally waited around for the driver to appear so I could pepper him/her with the obligatory: Where did you get this? How much did this cost? Why? Why? WHY? The owner never appeared, but I found at later, from the closely knit campus’ grapevine, that the car could only belong to the same student who regularly sent bodyguards to class in his stead yet was marked as having perfect attendance.
You hear that bossman? They want the understudy.
DJ, I would’ve had no idea what you were talking about without the link to the table cloth, nice. Which one is your uni? I trawled through the entire collection and ol’ Sultan owns a lot of sh*t cars, like A LOT. As for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, I’d never heard of him but I do like when the article refers to Rolls Royce’s chief executives being in Britain…ah the good old days.
Thanks, it’s always nice to meet someone who appreciates my work.
I’ve already said too much.
And why do you think that is? That family is always in need of a place to hide the bodies of blabbermouths like myself.