Ashvek Vintage World! When you enter this gallery, the first thing that strikes you is that the place conjures up an aura of the grandeur of a bygone era. This place is dedicated to restoring and preserving classics of yore. All these beauties have been reconditioned painstakingly from scrap. Such cars are just dust for us, but they are worth their weight in gold for the owner of the gallery, Pradeep Naik.

At the start of my tour of this galleria par excellence, Pradeep showed me a unique machine. The uniqueness of the vehicle lies in the fact that it has a double engine – one engine in front and one at the back. The Tempo G1200 was born in Hamburg in 1927, designed by Otto Daus, and produced as a private venture by Vidal and Sohn of Hamburg. This beast is an off road vehicle with two engines and a 4-wheel drive and was built especially for the Wehrmacht. In 1934, a tempo broke the speed record for 1000km with an average speed of 34 kmph.

Among the plethora of vehicles, Pradeep’s eyes lit up when we approached that marvelous Mercedes Benz 170. This vehicle, built in 1939, was featured in the movie ‘The Sea Wolves”, and also in an LG ad. The car belonged to the maharaja of Sawantwadi and was pampered and looked after at Vintage World.

Another beauty on display is the 3-cylinder DKW 1959. Pradeep is also the proud owner of a 1931 Peugeot 301. The 4-cylinder Peugeot, with its gangloff body, striking nose, and exquisite one side headlights, makes it a must-have for vintage collectors. This beauty happens to be the vintage vehicle Pradeep acquired, a vehicle which further fuelled his passion for classic cars. It belonged to the maharaja of Sawantwadi, who in turn donated it to Satam Maharaj.

Now for the vehicles belonging to the same company. Pradeep has a 1940 Morris 8 and a Morris Oxford, besides the Morris 1962 Monir. The latter is a 4 door saloon, tower estate car (1098 cc) with more power and stronger 48-bhp engine which boasts of a top speed in high 70’s and has a more robust gear box. He also owns a robust and reliable Chevrolet Fleetmaster and a 6-cylinder Chevrolet Belair.

The 1928 Essex Super Six has a 6-cylinder, 55bhp engine with an awesome 2637 cc. This car was originally equipped with wooden spokes, which were unfortunately burnt, and were therefore replaced with steel spokes, Pradeep explains.

Then, there is the awesome 1961 Opel Kapitan. By 1928, Opel was the largest car producer in Germany and is today, the driving force behind GM’s potent presence in Europe.

Finally, we reach the oh-so well known Volkswagen. He has two VW’s, a 1956 and 1960 model.

In addition to collection cars, Pradeep also restores vehicles (which however are not on display at World Vintage). He informed me about two such vehicles – a Datsun Fair Lady and a Baby Austin 1928. Both these vehicles, which now belong to Jaywant Chowgule, were in written-off condition, but were revived to their present, almost mint condition.

And if you want to see these beauties, you can head for the showroom which is at Nuvem.

(This article has been written by Karsten Miranda for ‘LOOK’, MOTORING, in GT Weekender and first appeared in the newspaper on June 25th, 2006)