Motoring news from Delhi:
[Photo: AP]
Auction house Bonhams will put under the hammer a rare Rolls Royce Phantom modified for tiger hunting by an Indian maharaja during the days of the British Raj, featuring a mounted machine gun and a cannon, that may fetch up to $1 million.
The custom-made 1925 Rolls Royce was commissioned by Umed Singh II, the maharaja of Kotah in the 1920s at a time when tiger hunting was hugely popular in India.
The flaming red vehicle, with a convertible canvas roof and bespoke hunting features including a double-barreled shotgun, spotlights for night hunting and a mountable Lantaka cannon, is expected to fetch up to $1 million when it goes on the block in mid-August in Carmel, California.
“It was quite common, most of the maharajahs had specialized customized cars manufactured in the US and they even had gilted frames and all sorts of things,” said Pran Nevile, a writer and expert on India’s colonial era known as the British Raj.
How much of an expert can he be if he thinks Rolls-Royces were made in the US?
The car’s 8.0-liter, 6-cylinder engine with a low gearing ratio allowed “it to creep powerfully through the roughshod jungles of Rajasthan,” wrote Bonhams
It's clearly time for the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (with intro from a fresh-faced Terry Jones):
[Especially since so many of the YouTube links on my 2008 Bonzos post are no longer working.]
Mick Hartley 
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