Mercedes-Benz 680 S Tigerjagdwagen "Nawab of Bhopal"

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A Swabian goes to India!
 
The Mercedes-Benz, designated as the “Tiger Car”, takes us to India in the 1920s/30s and a world that seems very unfamiliar today, but also mysterious. It was the time when Maharajas and Nawabs determined the Indian society and provided a topic of conversation through their enormous wealth. In this own world of the highest Indian circles, shaped by the influence of the British Crown, Sir Hamidullah Khan ruled in the Muslim Bhopal under the title ‘Nawab of Bhopal’ since 1926. For his hobby of tiger hunting, he ordered a customized car based on the chassis of the Type 680S 26/120/180 hp at the English Mercedes-Benz Branch in London in 1928.

The chassis was equipped with a 180hp-strong engine and was delivered by ship from Germany to England on October 22, 1928, and on December 19, 1928, the ‘Haira Trading Company London’ took over the chassis – presumably to coordinate the construction of the future body. Already on January 2, 1929, the car was loaded again was shipped the way back to Stuttgart, from where it came to the body shop in Sindelfingen in March 1929. The customized sheet metal body work was completed on May 8, 1929, and on June 1, 1929, the final shipment via London to India took place. The special features of the unique Mercedes were various equipment, all of which were especially designed for the hunt of tigers. The most striking feature was a particularly powerful searchlight embedded in the car body behind the seats, which could be driven upwards by scissor poles and swiveled sideways by hand. In 1935, Sir Hamidulla Khan sold his car to the Maharaja of Bahawalpur.