Expansive Hobby: Ranjit Pratap

With a wide variety of classics in his prized collection and active participation in car events, Ranjit Pratap is a well-known collector in India. But it's not just an arbitrary number he's after; the ever-expanding list of Mercedes-Benz in his possession exemplifies his taste. And every car of his has a story to tell.

Afternoons in the southern Indian city of Chennai are typically sultry, especially when it's not pouring down. The greenery does tend to help keep the unquestionably harsh sunlight away, but on this momentous afternoon, it was the presence of some amazingly well-kept metal that had me forget the weather — and the 'hardships' of photographing under direct sunlight. As I took the liberty of carefully removing the covers from some of the cars from the collection, I could sense that this treasure was every bit as special as I thought it to be.

Okay, this wasn't going to be an unearthed selection of low-mileage C111s, but rather something that can be enjoyed regularly, even in the driving and weather conditions in India. Ranjit Pratap, a businessman by profession, has been around cars all his life. Influential in helping him develop that interest were close family members, but the way he's taken it seriously and built a remarkable, ever-growing collection for himself is worth applause. Despite being a sizeable array of cars to choose from, he makes a point of driving them regularly, often finding the much-required 'me time' away from work and travel commitments, all of this while being in the densely populated city of Chennai.

The first time I spoke with Ranjit, much before we met for this feature, he came across as someone who's not just very grounded but equally excitable when talking about cars. And his cars are easily, and understandably so, his favourite topic. There are about 20 Mercedes-Benz cars with him, including nearly all the generations of the S-Class, two SLs (an R129 and a C107), a W110, a W108, and a W111, among others. But the list doesn't end there! An imported W124 is joined by a US-spec W123, a recently restored W116 finished in light blue is complemented by a project W201. There's also a rather impressively restored /8, which looks like it left the dealer forecourt not more than a year ago.

Ranjit fell in love with cars at a very young age, and it was a Mercedes-Benz Ponton whose sight left a lasting effect on him. Only a few years later, deviating from the rounded styling of the Ponton, a Fintail caught his attention. But it wasn’t until one of Ranjit's uncles drove down in a 230S that actually fuelled his passion for Mercedes-Benz cars. He spontaneously recollects how nearly six decades ago, he was offered a chance to be driven around in a 1963 ex-German consulate LHD W111.

'It was unbelievable; it drove like it was floating in air'.

What followed this was a series of Mercedes-Benz purchases, both as family cars and as Ranjit stepped into adulthood, his own, too — the first of which was a Stroke Eight. This serial habit of switching cars continued, but Ranjit maintains that from the mid-70s onwards he 'never let go of a Mercedes...'

While buying and upgrading to newer and better cars didn't stop, from the early noughties, Ranjit started building his car collection, and it got, in his words, 'some tremendous momentum from 2004 onwards'. Beginning with a 230S, which he got restored to replicate the car that made him fall in love with Mercedes-Benz, complete with white paintwork and red interior.

This was followed by a now-pristine W114, which in a way, enables Ranjit to relish the good memories of his W114/115s. Another car that he thoroughly enjoyed in the past was the W123. He had four of those in the 80s and 90s, and now the collection has a single-former-keeper US-import 240 saloon and a 300D S123 estate. Fittingly, the urge to add the Sacco-designed W124 was satiated with the inclusion of an imported RHD W124, painted in a non-standard spec blue.

Moving on to the S-Class: an appearance on celluloid by the W140 made Ranjit want to buy one. He was also a fan of the 220-series, and gladly found a great example, too, while his current W126 has been painted in the same shade of blue as the example he had imported back in the 1980s. There's also a W116 that's been finished in light blue and a neat W108. Modern Mercedes-Benz cars haven't been ignored either, he has a GLE and a 221-series S-Class, which he adores, and a 222-series, too.

He swears by the S-Class, 'the best is the 222'; every S-Class has found a way to his heart, but the one he prefers the most is the 222-series. He's not the first collector I know who hasn't bought a 223 S-Class yet, and, I believe, that more than the latest car's fault, it's down to how good the W222 was, actually. In addition to that, there are two SLs: a neat C107 SLC, which came as a result of an impressive drive in Germany, and an R129.

All the restoration takes place in-house, with a team of specialist mechanics who have been employed to work on his cars. While the vastness of the collection sounds impressive, what makes talking to Ranjit Pratap even better is how his eyes light up when he talks about his cars, the stories of how he sourced and restored some of his favourite models, how he used all his persuading powers as a teenager to get new cars in the family, and most importantly, how each car, no matter how prestigious or everyday the brand, turned out to be a great memory. And some of the greatest ones to grace his collection have been Mercedes-Benz, and that trend continues.

The story was originally written for Mercedes Enthusiast, but unfortunately owing to the unfortunate demise of what was one of our favourite titles, I've decided to carry it on The Car Cult.