The Classic Himalayan Drive 2025 started from Greater Noida with Deepa Malik, India’s first Paralympic medallist, flagging off the first group of rally cars on Sunday.
The event, a non-competitive rally, features 20 cars from the UK, France, Kenya and Bhutan alongside as many from India. It includes night halts in Ramnagar, Rishikesh, Mussoorie, Theog, Manali and Chandigarh, before concluding on November 10 at Dwarka in New Delhi.
The rally features cars from 1958 to 2022, and is a throwback to the Himalayan car Rally of the 1980s, retracing the route of the erstwhile event.
One of the oldest vehicles in the rally is a 1958 Mercedes 180 from Kolkata, driven by Prithvi Nath Tagore and Sourajit Pal Choudhury. Another eye-catcher is a classic Land Rover of the same vintage, from Chennai. There is also a Dakar Classic car, which had been driven by Sanjay Takale at the Dakar rally earlier this year.
This year’s edition is dedicated to Philip Young, who was part of the original Himalayan Car Rallies, and is considered one of the most influential figures in international classic rallying. Young, who died in 2015 at the age of 67 as a result of a motorcycle accident in Myanmar, set a world record for driving from Cape Town to London in ten and a half days.
The first day had a 280-km drive from Greater Noida to Jim Corbett National Park in Ramnagar.
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