m: he did yoga. The rest all turned out to be lies.
Despite the smoke and mirrors, he spearheaded a movement that became an improbable cult. Improbable because if you’ve ever done Bikram yoga, you’ll know it means spending 90 minutes in a 41-degree sweat-box with your head in someone else’s crotch.
Yet something about it appealed to people, especially people who felt broken and believed it fixed them. As chronicled in the Netflix documentary, titled Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, this is exactly what he wanted – to take advantage of, and attack, the vulnerable women who most believed in him.
The cars themselves are shimmering and beautiful. Bikram loved vra-vra-vroom. There are boy-racer Bentleys lavishly trimmed with acres of leather and wood – some convertible, some two-tone, some with embossed seats and glossy walnut dashboards.
Amongst the shiny Rolls-Royces are a Silver Shadow, five Silver Clouds, two Phantoms and four magnificent Drophead Coupe Convertibles – one in soft baby-blue with softer white-leather seats. Estimates for each of these motors range up to $90,000.
There is a 1973 Ford Mustang Convertible, slick as a bullet in deep, pooling blue, a bright orange Pontiac Le Mans Convertible from 1971, and a 1969 Intermeccanica Murena 429 GT with striking angular sides, in startling red. It was the first Murena ever produced, is one of just 10 ever built and is estimated to sell for up to $75,000.
My favourite is a white 1966 Jaguar Mark X with bubble curves, a white exterior and red leather seats. Tantalisingly, all the cars are being offered without reserves.
It’s tempting to wonder what such ostentatious cars reveal about the man who owned them. Bikram was never shy about his vulgarities. He famously (and, in hindsight, grimly) taught his yoga classes wearing only tiny black Speedos and a Rolex. Outside he wore Fedoras, leather jackets and alligator-skin shoes.
Bikram liked bling. His daughter Instagrammed pictures of their matching white Ferraris on Rodeo Drive and posed beside their seven-strong fleet of Bentleys – all in red, black or white. (Bikram was OCD about colours, famously banning green from his classes.)
You can register here for the auction, to be held in Auburn, Indiana from 3- 5 September.
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