It's that time of the year again. Vintage and classic beauties are all set to roll out on the roads for the 51st edition of The Statesman Vintage and Classic car rally on Sunday, 26 February, The golden oldies old cars will line up at Statesman House, Barakhamba Road, on the morning of 26 February and the Chief Guest, Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, will flag off the rally at 10 am.

While there have been over 70 entries till this evening, more are expected as the last date for entries is 18 February. After the flagoff, the cars will proceed to Greater Noida with all the participants set to enjoy the day with their families and friends.

They will wend their way back to the National Stadium near Pragati Maidan where the prize distribution will take place at 3 p m.

A team of judges will evaluate the cars on the basis of their age, maintenance, performance and originality. A new entry this year is 1913 Rolls Royce Phantom owned by Mr Tariq Ibrahim which is coming from Kanpur while the National Rail Museum's 1914 John Morris is coming back after a gap of a year.

The stunning vehicle, always the cynosure of all eyes, missed the 50th Statesman vintage rally last year. The pre-judging of all the cars will take place on 24 and 25 February at Modern School, Barakhamba Road. The panel of judges will be led by veteran Mr RN Seth along with Jitender Pandit, Rakesh Jain, Gyan Sharma, Appa Saheb Alur, Promod Bhasin and Ashwini Kathpalia. For the first time a coffee table book outlining the oldest rally's history will also be launched by Justice Dalveer Bhandari on 26 February evening. Some of the main participants of the rally include Diljeet Titus, Uday Singh Meena, Director, National Rail Museum, Kaleem Khan, Tariq Ibrahim and others.

Last year, among the notable prize winners was a 1919 Citroen entered by Vir Srivastava that won the Statesman Challenge Trophy. The CR Irani Memorial Trophy was won by a 1930 Stutz owned by Diljeet Titus.

The Bikram Singh Memorial Trophy was won by a 1938 Buick owned by HW Bhatnagar and the V Sagar Trophy went to a 1937 Rolls Royce entered by J Housing.

The magnificent machines of the bygone era such as 1938 Buick limousine, Cadillacs, Rolls Royce, Dodges, Jaguars, Chevrolet Impalas, black Baby Austin, Volkswagen Beetle, Willys Jeeps are some of the sedans which will be seen on the roads after 11 days.