When you love British cars, you eventually find yourself drawn to a Rolls‑Royce. As you might guess from my other cars, I have a deep appreciation for truly well‑built machines—and Rolls‑Royce is the epitome of that philosophy.
As you dig into Rolls‑Royce history, you discover that the standard steel Rolls and Bentley saloons were built at the Crewe factory after WWII, but the coachbuilt cars were typically completed in London at Mulliner Park Ward. Chassis units arrived from Crewe and were then hand‑built in the traditional coachbuilding manner: each panel shaped by hand, welded, filed, lead‑loaded, and finished individually. Once the body was complete, the car was trucked back to Crewe for installation of the engine, transmission, and mechanical systems. After that, it was transported again to Mulliner Park Ward for paint, interior trimming, and final appointments before delivery.
The entire process for this Corniche took seventeen weeks. Efficient? Not remotely. Extraordinary? Absolutely.
A dealer friend of mine knew of this particular car and that it had fewer than 100,000 miles, having spent many years sitting in two different doctor‑owned collections. The body and interior were beautifully original, but letting a British car sit that long is an invitation for trouble. Everything that could leak, did leak.
Donald Lower—a retired Rolls‑Royce specialist—came out of retirement, traveled up from Florida, and camped in my shop for more than two months while he went through every system on the car. We also installed a stiffer coil‑spring setup from Intercar in the UK to reduce the Corniche’s natural “roly‑poly” tendencies in corners.
Once everything was sorted, it became clear why these cars earned such a reputation for comfort and effortless driving. It was as comfortable as an old pair of jeans. And with its very modern‑for‑the‑time GM Turbo‑Hydramatic 400 gearbox and ice‑cold air conditioning from a GM‑sourced compressor, this was a Rolls‑Royce you could genuinely use in today’s city traffic.
And of course, the car simply oozes character in a way nothing else can.
