How the Tagore Heir, Prithvi Nath, took his 67-year-old Mercedes-Benz up into the Himalayas

Prithvi Nath Tagore, or PNT, as his friends call him, loves most things that are old. He lives in a heritage house, is surrounded by antique clocks and various other curious items, including some priceless paintings, and is the scion of one of Kolkata’s oldest and most well-known families. Considering his surname isn’t the dead giveaway I had hoped it would be, it falls on me then to tell you that Prithvi belongs to the same bloodline as Bengal’s Bard, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, albeit from the other branch of the family. Go back a few generations, and the two share a common ancestor. While PNT is passionate about many things, mostly old, the thing that brings out his passion in the fiercest form possible is his 1958 Mercedes-Benz 180A, also known as a Ponton.

So, I’m a bit surprised that he decided to get his precious Merc, lovingly named Panzer, shipped to Delhi and take part in the Classic Himalayan Drive. What drives a man in love with his classic car to take it all the way from Kolkata to Delhi and then on to the Himalayas? The answer actually comes from PNT’s co-driver, Sourajit Palchoudhuri, a kindred soul who also owns and drives a classic Mercedes-Benz. “It was the lure of the Classic Himalayan Drive itself, which I've participated in thrice now,” he says. 

Having taken part in the event thrice before, Sourajit says he’s a sucker for punishment of this kind and had himself wanted to participate this year with his own classic Merc. But the car had to undergo maintenance and would not be ready in time. “This time, I was preparing to go with my Maruti Suzuki SS 80 from 1985 when Prithvi reached out. His original co-driver had dropped out, and he needed someone. I agreed because, in addition to the lure of the drive itself, now there was the added attraction of doing the Classic Himalayan Drive in a classic Mercedes-Benz. As an owner of one, I can tell you that it's special," he says.

The Classic Himalayan Drive is a unique road trip in the high mountains open only to classic cars manufactured between 1955 and 2002. The idea is to pay homage to the legendary Himalayan Rally of the 1980s that saw national as well as international participation. As a nod to the original, the event sees participation from enthusiasts across the world.

“There were around ten cars from the United Kingdom. One car with French owners came from Dakar in Senegal. The Dakar car was, if I'm not mistaken, a 1980s Land Cruiser. The same car, in fact, that Mr. Sanjay Takale took to victory in the Dakar Classic. There was also a team from Kenya. They were really passionate people and came armed to the teeth with tools and backups and spares and their custom-built 1980s Datsun, complete with rally spec roll cage and all that,” recalls Prithvi. Of the Indians participating, there were four. There was Pankaj Mallik and his friend Madhav Gupta from Delhi in the Ford Mustang 302 BOSS, Salman Papa from Chennai in his newly restored 1958 Land Rover Series 1 Long Body, Ranjit Pratap and his wife in a beautiful Peugeot 504 T, and Prithvi and Sourajit in the maroon ’58 Merc Ponton.

The Merc that Didn't Quit

“So, for a large part, at least, up to Uttarakhand, which is up to Mussoorie, A large part of that, the surface was excellent. Greater Noida to Ramnagar was excellent. Ramnagar to Rishikesh was good, barring a few patches. Rishikesh to Mussoorie was very good. Thereafter, when we crossed over to Himachal Pradesh, it was gruelling. Himachal Pradesh was obviously completely devastated by unprecedented floods this year. And you have a landslide, which happened months back. there are boulders and gravel, and rock on the road. The road surface has got washed away. We passed by towns and villages where houses, still, you can see them washed away, broken, you know,” says Prithvi.

Prithvi’s beloved Panzer kept ploughing on and kept proving that German engineering, even at 67 years old, is tough as hell. “We had no mechanical challenges on the tough sections. Sure, there were times when the car would overheat in slow-moving traffic or on steep climbs, but that's par for the course if you're taking a classic car," says Sourajit. “From the moment we started to the time we finished every day, we never once thought that this was enough. More so since Panzer, as he is known, is a concourse winning car. This February, Panzer was invited for the 21 Gun Salute Concourse d’ Elegance, and we won second in class. There are very few people who will take a concourse show field car for an event like this,” admits Prithvi.

Despite the hardships, both admit that the entire event was tremendous fun and thoroughly enjoyable. “What really delighted me is, is that both in Uttarakhand and especially in Himachal Pradesh, people were delightful. Children in the small towns and villages immediately identified it as a Mercedes-Benz. Everywhere we went, they waved, and we waved back, and then they screamed and shouted in delight. I don't know, maybe hill people are generally a jolly bunch of people. It was fantastic,” says Prithvi.