Lal Pari: The 13,500-Km Journey From India To The UK In A Classic Car

It all began with a push. 

On the morning when Daman Thakore and his family were due to leave Ahmedabad, their 1950 MG YT Tourer, lovingly called Lal Pari, refused to start. Family and friends gathered around the seventy-three-year-old red convertible and pushed until the engine coughed into life.

"The only constant memory of Lal Pari over the fifty years that it has been with us," he told Outlook Traveller, "is that she would stall and need to be pushed. Even our flag-off for this massive expedition was a dhakka flag-off.” 

Lal Pari was a member of the Thakore family long before it made headlines, and it was never about flawless engineering. Nor was it simply about becoming the first Indian family to drive a 1950-vintage car from Ahmedabad to the United Kingdom, a journey spanning 13,500 km, 14 countries, and 73 days. That would eventually attract international media attention, earn admiration from vintage motoring circles and culminate in a letter from King Charles III.

The car and the journeys it took were the Thakore family's prized heirloom, and what Daman had heard since childhood were the innumerable stories surrounding it. He was only three years old when his father, Deval Thakore, bought the MG. Over time, the car became a natural part of family life, featuring in birthday photographs, family picnics and festive celebrations. Cousins in the family, in fact, left for their weddings seated inside Lal Pari. For Daman, the fascination was all-consuming, to the point that his bed was shaped like a red car, and he would hear bedtime stories from his mother about the adventures in the car.

The Journey Takes Shape

Years later, after an eight-year restoration that painstakingly returned the MG to its original factory specifications, another idea emerged in his mind. "If we had restored it like the original," Daman remembered thinking, "it should also be able to drive back to it."

Adventure was not new in the Thakore household. After completing his MBA in Arizona, Daman spent years living abroad before returning to Ahmedabad, but travel remained central to his life. He explored India by motorcycle, drove across several countries and even turned his honeymoon into a 45-day road journey from Ahmedabad to Kanyakumari.

His father, Deval, skydived in California, climbed trees in Brazil and travelled to Antarctica. At 78, setting off on an overland expedition across Asia and Europe seemed less like a reckless undertaking than another family holiday, albeit one involving deserts, mountain passes, border crossings and a famously temperamental classic automobile.

Three generations travelled together: Deval, Daman, his wife Udita and daughter Devanshi. They were joined by Daman's uncle, whose years of mechanical expertise had helped restore Lal Pari; architectural photographer Vinay Panjwani, who documented the journey; and another close friend driving the support vehicle, or Lal Pari Ki Saheli.

Packing For Uncertainty

Nearly 100 kg of ready-to-eat vegetarian food, more than 100 original spare parts, extra windscreens, 50 kg of tools, camping equipment, translation apps, waterproof shoes—the list of things goes on. These were all part of the preparation that went into starting this epic journey.

They booked almost no accommodation in advance because nobody knew how far Lal Pari would be able to travel each day before deciding she had had enough. For Daman, "When you're driving a 70-year-old car, you prepare for the unexpected." Beyond all the logistics, however, there was one purpose that had taken shape in Daman's mind for years, which was the driving force.

"For centuries, great overland journeys had carried Europeans eastwards into India. Merchants, explorers and adventurers had all travelled in a certain direction. What would it mean to reverse that journey? Not in conquest, or commerce, but in friendship. Being a proud Indian, I was quite perturbed that such expeditions had only been done by Westerners. This was our little attempt to show the world that we can also do it. It was three generations of one family reaching out to one world.”

Before leaving India, the family commissioned a bespoke sterling silver hood ornament inspired by the Statue of Unity, honouring Sardar Patel while incorporating the flags of India and the United Kingdom. Mounted on the bonnet, it symbolised something larger than a motoring adventure. It carried with it the ancient Indian idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, meaning "the world is one family”.

On The Kindness Of Strangers

The journey had started after a great deal of preparation. But nothing could prepare Daman for the love and generosity of people across different countries that would make the expedition much more than just another road trip.

One of the countries that left a lasting mark on him was Iran. Temperatures were above 45 degrees as Lal Pari crossed the country. Mechanical issues surfaced regularly with fuel, carburetion, and wiring problems. Yet when Daman remembers Iran, it is the people and their warmth that stand out.

"I have always believed that people are good everywhere," he said. "But I had never expected how good they would be in Iran." Strangers offered tea before asking questions. Families pressed fruit and dates into their hands. Locals insisted on gifting fuel. Every city seemed to produce another group of volunteers determined to ensure Lal Pari reached the next destination safely. Before entering Iran, the family had contacted the country's Touring and Automobile Association, hoping someone might occasionally help with translations. 

The response overwhelmed them. "20 kilometres before we entered each city," Daman recalled, "there were people in cars and on bikes waiting to welcome us." They guided the family through unfamiliar streets, found accommodation, recommended places to eat and refused to let strangers remain strangers for very long. For Devanshi, who was 21 during the expedition, Iran became the emotional centre of the journey. "Travel has expanded my worldview," she said. "It has made me more empathetic, more curious and far more open to people whose lives and perspectives are different from my own.” 

Stories That Found Them

One of these people was Mr Omidvar, who was 94 years old when Daman met him. In 1953, Omidvar had ridden a motorcycle through 95 countries. "Here we were thinking we were doing something different," Daman said, "and we met someone who had done all of this without Google, a cellphone, online banking, a support vehicle—or, for that matter, roads." Without prompting, Omidvar began singing India's national anthem from memory. Until then, the expedition had felt like a once-in-a-lifetime dream. Omidvar reminded them that every generation leaves behind stories capable of inspiring the next.

If Iran was about kindness, Croatia was about resilience. It was late evening when Lal Pari began climbing a steep road towards their accommodation when, suddenly, the rear axle broke. The family member who knew the car's mechanics best, Daman's uncle, had already flown back to India. This was when a local resident came to their help with a flatbed from work.

The next morning, they got their tools out and, after a few good hours of work, with his uncle on a video call, they finally replaced the axle with the one extra original axle they were carrying.

There was only one spare axle, and Lal Pari was unable to cope with the steep roads. So they decided to change the route, choosing Italy's gentler roads over Austria's steeper mountain passes. For Daman, "It was never a race to the UK. The journey was the destination."

The Last Mile

They made many new friends on the journey, from an Indian-origin customs officer in Croatia and a Swiss bus driver to vintage car enthusiasts in France. The conversations were often about India and how its history, food, Bollywood, yoga and family values were understood in other countries. For many who met them, Lal Pari was the chief attraction.

For the Thakores, three generations travelling together also meant experiencing the expedition differently. At 78, Deval approached every morning with infectious enthusiasm. "He was a proper teenager on the journey," Daman laughed. "He was always the first to get ready and never once complained of being tired." Devanshi, raised in an era when international travel often meant airports, itineraries and efficiency, discovered a slower way of seeing the world. "A life centred around travel would be a dream," she reflected, "because it would allow me to keep learning through people."

Pari finally arrived in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, at the very factory she had left more than 70 years earlier; it was a moment of tremendous satisfaction. On October 31, 2023, Sardar Patel's birth anniversary, the family presented the silver hood ornament to King Charles III through his Deputy Lord Lieutenant as a gesture of friendship between the people of India and the United Kingdom. A personal letter from the King later acknowledging the gift made them feel that they had surely done something right.

For Daman, "The real essentials are an open mind, the willingness to embrace uncertainty, creativity when things go wrong and, above all, passion that goes beyond rationale." For all the maps, visas and border stamps, the journey left the Thakores with one certainty: the shortest distance between two countries is never a road. It is the generosity of the people waiting at the other end of it.

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