President Mukherjee unveiled Audi ‘Wanderer’ which helped Netaji Bose's for
his Great Escape from India
Mr. Mukherjee unveiled the car that Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose used to escape from his residence in Bihar to catch a train to
Delhi, at Netaji Bhavan in Kolkata. Sugata Bose, Netaji's grand-nephew and also
a Trinamool MP, accompanied the President to commemorate the 75th anniversary
of the great escape.
In 1941, the 1937 Audi Wanderer W24 transported Netaji from his
Elgin Road residence in Kolkata (then in Bihar) to Gomoh railway station to
catch the Kalka Mail to Delhi. A group of 10 mechanics from Audi Kolkata have
restored the iconic 4-door Audi's (then Auto Union) Wanderer W24 to its former
glory.
Sugata Bose said, "Audi gave
technical expertise and a vintage car restorer, Pallab Roy, and his team
started working in May 2016 to restore it fully. It is the most prized
possession of the Netaji Research Bureau museum. Now, once a week, people will
see this car in motion in the driveway of the building."
The 1937 Wanderer W24 lies a 1767cc, 4-cylinder engine that
produces 42hp @3500rpm which can take it up to a top speed of 108kmph. The
engine is mated to a four-speed manual transmission and has a fuel capacity of
40-litres.
Exit route from Elgin Road to Grand
Trunk Road. (Photo: Netaji Research Bureau)
The Wanderer W24 came with a wheelbase of 2600mm, with a length of
4280mm, width of 1645mm and height of 1600mm. It has a ground clearance of
200mm - the same as of the present day Audi Q5.
Auto Union had manufactured only 22500 units of the Wanderer W24
and Netaji was said to be the first Indian to own an Audi vehicle in the
country.
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