IN A nation where the average income is still less than £300 a year, Rolls-Royce has opened a dealership to sell its £256,000 Phantom car after an absence of more than half a century.

In India, the Rolls was once the favourite of maharajahs who took them on tiger hunts during the days of the British Empire. Now they are expected to be bought by the new maharajahs of industry.

Yohan Poonawalla, 33, became the first Indian Rolls-Royce Phantom customer when he spent an estimated £480,000 on a specially customised version of the luxury vehicle in Bombay last month.

The industrialist and stud-farm owner said: “I think the Rolls-Royce is the best car in the world. It will be a mobile office for my father and myself.” Twenty per cent of all Rolls-Royces were exported to India until the 1940s but the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club says that it now has just eight members in India. Until now, devotees have imported the cars but the new dealership in Bombay, Navnit Motors, is confident that the Phantom — an earlier model of which was hugely fashionable in the 1920s and 1930s — will be popular among the Indian elite.

Mr Poonawalla’s family bought its first Rolls-Royce, a Silver Shadow, before he was born. He purchased his first Rolls-Royce in 1994, a Silver Spur II, then added two vintage models, including a 1937 Phantom III. All are in mint condition.

Six of Mr Poonawalla’s chauffeurs are being trained to maintain and drive their boss’s new acquisition, which is capable of 149mph. “But I will definitely be driving it a lot,” said Mr Poonawalla, of the Poona-based industrial group in western India. “The Phantom has tremendous road presence, comfort, prestige and now even speed and power, which Rolls was not known for earlier.” Launched by BMW, Rolls-Royce’s owner, two years ago, the Phantom is many motorists’ dream car. It weighs 2.5 tonnes, is 19ft long and has a 6.75 litre, 12-cylinder engine. Speed addicts are particularly fond of the car’s immense power — it can go from 0 to 62mph in 5.9 seconds.

Enthusiasts pay much more than the basic price to get a customised model. Mr Poonawalla requested a black and silver twin-tone paint job and ‘P’ logos on the exteriors and dashboard. Now built in Goodwood, near Chichester, West Sussex, Rolls-Royce chose the Phantom as the model to relaunch in one of its oldest markets.

Rolls-Royces have been seen on the subcontinent throughout the car’s 100-year-old history. It is believed that the first reached India in 1907, introduced by an English businessman. The car, christened Pearl of the East, later took part in a number of motor trials and was bought by the Maharajah of Gwalior.

After the resulting publicity, scores of maharajahs bought Rolls-Royces, many of which were used on tiger hunts. The Maharajah of Patiala went on to be the car company’s best prewar client — he owned 44 Rolls-Royces. The eccentric Maharajah of Alwar in western Rajasthan, however, did little to impress Rolls-Royce’s owners. He turned his fleet of cars into rubbish vans.

Colin Kelly, the regional director for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Asia Pacific, said: “As India enjoys a surge in economic growth, we are delighted to bring the Phantom to a country which has a deep appreciation of the excellence which the Rolls-Royce name stands for.”

TOP MARQUE

• Rolls-Royce was established in 1906
  
  
• The six-cylinder Silver Ghost was hailed as “the best car in the world”
  
  
• At the start of the First World War, Royce designed his first aircraft engine
  
  
• BMW took over responsibility for Rolls-Royce cars in 2003
  
  
• A separate company, also Rolls-Royce, makes aerospace engines

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