Featured – 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche on Car & Classic Auction
Recently our 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche that has been at Bridge Classic Cars was featured on Car & Classic Auction. This is a superb example
Recently our 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche that has been at Bridge Classic Cars was featured on Car & Classic Auction. This is a superb example
Our 1973 two-door Rolls Royce Corniche is up for sale at Silverstone Auctions where we hope it’ll find its new owner. The live auction is
We recently celebrated a year since our Golden Rolls Royce Silver Shadow found its new home with Michael, who’s been keeping us thoroughly updated with
We’re delighted to announce that the winner of our gorgeous 1992 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit II was delivered safe and sound on Friday afternoon. As
Another live draw and two more winners! Last night we announced two more winners to add to our growing collective of lucky classic car winners!
“The quality will remain long after the price is forgotten.” – Henry Royce
A few weeks ago we welcomed Deimante (@tomboy_a_bit) and her partner up to Bentwaters to shoot some of our cars. We received the BMW shots
A few weeks ago our marketing team and our friend Jack, headed over to Bentwaters early one morning to film and shoot the latest competition
The silver lady may soon be totally electric powered in the form of a possible new model, the Silent Shadow. Rolls Royce has recently released
Back in November, we headed over to Hintlesham Hall to photograph our opulent 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche with our friend Giles, who was our talented
What better way to float along the road, than in your Willow Gold Rolls Royce Corniche. A month or so back we went out to
Recently our 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche that has been at Bridge Classic Cars was featured on Car & Classic Auction. This is a superb example of a Mulliner Park Ward Rolls Royce finished in Willow Gold over Brown which was paint in-house by our paint experts.
Here’s what Car & Classic had to say about the 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche.
”A development of the Mulliner Park Ward two door Silver Shadow, the Corniche became a model in its own right in 1971, although the cars continued to be built by Park Ward, and draws its name from the French word corniche, meaning coast road and was first given to a 1939 prototype which was tested across continental Europe.
Available as a 2 door saloon or drophead coupe, both came with a 6.75 litre V8 under the bonnet with a three-speed automatic transmission and an opulent, handcrafted interior.
This car has been very well cared for over the years, with the Corniche having light use and regular servicing and maintenance, and the receipts show how any small jobs have been tackled as needed.
In 2007, when it was a popular addition, an LPG kit was added. It has not needed any big repairs over the years but has just had a full respray by Bridge Classics in the original colour, with the addition of a second colour lower half.
Included with this Rolls Royce is a pair of thick folders of receipts showing the care that has been lavished on this car over the last four decades.
There are decades of MOT certificates and receipts for parts from the well-known suppliers such as Flying Spares, BCI and Intercar, almost all for minor and service parts as no major work has been needed over the years, and there is a sheet of notes showing every service from March 1973 until 2002. The original Rolls Royce service book shows service stamps at 2273,3617, 6616, 12861, 21803, 26261, 28361, 40682 miles.
The Corniche’s interior is untouched and original, with a gentle and beautiful patina of time and care across the soft leather and fine wood. It even still has its original radio and Radiomobile Eight track player.
The magnolia cream leather seats have contrasting brown piping, and show very little wear, just some very light lines from use, while the thick, dark brown carpet has always been protected by the lighter deep-pile lambswool over mats, also in fine condition.
On the dashboard, door caps and through the centre is the fine wood that is to be expected in a Rolls Royce. There are a few age related marks on the surface, small cracks in the dashboard lacquer and around the dials the darker inner rim has flaked in places.
In the boot, the floor carpet has a few marks but the side carpet is very good and the trim under the lid is excellent. The spare wheel is present and has good tread.
The body has just been repainted by the Bridge Classics workshop in the original willow gold, but now in a two-tone combination with the addition of wendy brown lower panels. Any repairs needed to the metalwork were taken care of while the car was stripped so the panels should be solid, clean metal under the fresh paint with its deep gloss finish.
The chrome work is excellent, with the bumpers very good, the big radiator grill and of course, the flying lady is beautiful and the stainless wheel trims unmarked, and the wheels are shod in Uniroyal tyres with good tread. There is a brown vinyl roof matching the lower half of the car, in excellent condition.
The 6.75 litre V8 and GM automatic gearbox have a reputation for solid reliability, and we are told the car runs very smoothly and glides between gears.
The car was fitted with an LPG kit by Energyshift in 2007 at a cost of £1440 and most recently had a gas safety inspection certificate in 2013, although we have not tested this and this can be removed by the dealer where specialist where the car is stored.
Although not required as the car is well over 40 years old, it has just passed an MOT, so is covered until summer 2022.
The handcrafted wood and leather of the interior, the flowing lines of the body and that imposing grill create an impression like no other. When close up to one of these automobiles it’s hard not to be drawn into the allure of these fine country house drawing rooms on wheels.
This example has a full and detailed history, a fabulous condition interior and having just been treated to a high-quality paint job it looks superb. ”
This is a lovely example of the pinnacle 1970s luxury. The Corniche has been painstakingly worked on by the team here at Bridge Classic Cars and it’s always nice to see it being appreciated out there in the world.
To Read More, or see the full gallery of images on the 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche, Click the link below.
Our 1973 two-door Rolls Royce Corniche is up for sale at Silverstone Auctions where we hope it’ll find its new owner. The live auction is scheduled to be on the 31st July.
Take a look at the full shoot:
We recently celebrated a year since our Golden Rolls Royce Silver Shadow found its new home with Michael, who’s been keeping us thoroughly updated with his adventures via Instagram. Michael recently wrote us this article about the last year which we’re delighted to share, along with some photos he’s provided. If you fancy having your own golden Roller, check out our golden Rolls Royce Corniche.
It’s now a little over 12 months since I became the 3rd custodian of SRH20091 – a 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow – bought from Bridge Classic Cars, and despite COVID-19’s best efforts to prevent us we’ve had quite a few adventures over the last year.
As a perfectionist and ex-car designer myself I’ve always admired Sir Henry Royce’s automotive achievements and, as a child of the 70s and 80s, grew up lusting after Rolls-Royce Silver Shadows seen in numerous Roger Moore Bond films, episodes of Lovejoy, To The Manor Born and Don’t Wait Up. They epitomised success and excellence to that small boy and he promised himself that one day he would own one.
In 2014 I had a first brief, if slightly bitter, taste of Silver Shadow ownership with an early example from 1968. Her bodywork was a bit tatty and her 46 year old 6.25 litre engine and mechanicals had been somewhat neglected over the preceding decades, meaning that she frequently, in Rolls-Royce parlance, ‘failed to proceed’! However, far from dampening my interest in Shadow ownership, it well and truly rekindled that childhood yearn and so the search for my ideal car began.
Over the next 6 years, after much trawling of classifieds online and visits to classic car auctions in all weathers, I saw a number of Shadows – including some horrors that would have made Sir Henry’s blood curdle. As a purest, it always had to be a chrome bumper Series 1 car, but now I’d narrowed that down to a late model flared wheelarch Shadow with the wider track and larger 6.75 litre L-Series powerplant – meaning a ’74 – ’76 car.
In September 2019 the Shad that I would come to own caught my attention in an online advert. For sale by Bridge Classic Cars – a very reputable restorers, the right age, model, spec and by the look of the photos, in very good condition – she stood out in her eye-catching Regency Bronze and black Everflex roof. I vowed to go and see her, but life got in the way and by the time I got around to making an appointment she’d been sold. So the search continued.
4 months later I was in the USA and one evening by the fireside while surfing the net the advert from Bridge Classic Cars popped up again. Miraculously the golden car I’d been bewitched by back in September had reappeared for sale. This had to be fate! I couldn’t believe this second chance and quickly arranged a viewing.
On that cold February morning – the day after Valentine’s – I drove up from London, through the torrential rain and high winds of Storm ‘Dennis’, to see this beguiling motor car in-the-metal for the first time. It was love at first sight! The car was just as stunning in reality as she was in her photos. Craig and Gordon Ranson were both there to meet me and their friendly, honest approach, expert knowledge and infectious enthusiasm for classic cars gave me immediate confidence. After a thorough inspection I knew that I wanted her and after a test drive in the tornado-like winds of the storm, a deal was done. I drove home happy, albeit with a much lighter bank balance!
And so I became ‘The Man With The Golden Roller’. Officially she’s R-R Chassis No. 20091, in (ICI M 151-3898) Regency Bronze with (VM 8500) black Connolly Leather interior, Sundym glass and (5218 DH) black Everflex roof, but I’ve christened her ‘Auric’. I’m a big Bond fan so her name is a nod towards classic 007 film ‘Goldfinger’, but also something that is described as “auric” : is of, relating to, or derived from gold, so it seemed wholly appropriate for my ‘Golden Roller’, which rolled off the Crewe production line in the autumn of 1974.
To me, part of the joy of owning a classic car is to research it’s back story. Provenance being just as important for a venerable car as it is for fine wine or celebrated works of art. So, since she became mine, as well as enjoying Auric on the road, I’ve been tracing her 46 year history – consulting DVLA records, the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club archives and piecing together information from the bundle of papers and clues like service stickers that came with her.
I’ve also managed to acquire Auric’s original factory Build Records. Every Rolls-Royce built at Crewe had it’s own multi-page book that followed the car, from metal pressing to finished vehicle, on it’s journey through production. Thanks to this fascinating and comprehensive document I now know that it took 35 days for her ‘body-in-white’ to reach the required standard to be sent to the paint shop, and that once there she spent 10 days having 15 coats of paint hand flatted between coats, before a thorough polishing and final inspection – in the words of Sir Henry, perfection cannot be rushed. It shines a light onto how these expensive, hand-built cars were made back in the ’70s and is an amazing addition to Auric’s history file.
She was delivered to R-R main dealer Appleyard Rippon Ltd, on Order No. R8678, for a corporate customer in Leeds who’d had the confidence, and cash, to order her in the middle of an oil crisis. She was registered GWW 480N on Armistice Day 1974, the plate she still bears today. As far as I know Auric then became the company MDs transport – covering over 28,000 miles (40% of her current, verified mileage reading) within her 1st year – and stayed with the him when he moved to Eastbourne sometime in the late 1970s. I’m assuming that this discerning gentleman may have taken early retirement from the Leeds-based business and kept the R-R he loved. However, this is pure speculation on my part, although while cleaning and feeding the Connolly leather last summer I removed the driver’s seat and found one of his business cards under the seat! It seems that at some point he was dabbling as an antiques dealer in Sussex, in true ‘Lovejoy’ style.
Like most of these majestic, but expensive to run, classic motor cars she appears to have been laid up for a number of years during the ’80s and ’90s then, in the summer of 2015 after the original owner died, she was sold at Kings Lynn’s Anglia Car Auctions. Auric’s second owner resided in Suffolk and so Auric swapped the balmy south coast for the rural idyll of East Anglia – residing just 50 odd miles away from where that small boy had dreamed of owning his own Rolls.
I believe that a car should be used, and most Rolls-Royce specialists will tell you that an R-R of this vintage gets better with use. There’s nothing I like better than nestling into the softly sprung comfort of the driver’s leather ‘armchair’ and wafting, yes wafting – there’s no other word to describe the magic carpet-like ride of a Silver Shadow – to a beauty spot, stately home, country pub or even the supermarket. So in the last 12 months Auric and I have covered the thick end of 2500 miles. Despite not being able to go to any major show events, due to the dreaded virus, we’ve had excursions to Hampshire, The Cotswolds, North Norfolk, Sussex, Surrey and Berkshire. Most memorable visits – and photo and video opportunities – last year were Buckingham Palace, Pinewood Studios, Cliveden and The Savoy. Everywhere we go we get noticed – people ask about Auric, take photos and are genuinely interested in her – which just makes my day as I love talking about her!
This year, restrictions permitting, we’re planning a little excursion onto the Continent, touring the Champagne region; an appearance at both the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club’s South of England Rally at Stansted House and Annual Rally at Burghley House; and perhaps a pilgrimage to Monmouthshire, the birthplace of C.S. Rolls; as well as the normal weekend trips out to explore this glorious country in one of it’s finest ever automotive creations.
You can follow our continuing adventures on Instagram @themanwiththegoldenroller
We’re delighted to announce that the winner of our gorgeous 1992 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit II was delivered safe and sound on Friday afternoon. As the sunset, the Bridge Classic Car transporter lorry rolled up to Russ Warman’s home in North-East Suffolk on a sunny afternoon.
Russ won our Rolls Royce with lucky ticket number 499 which was selected by Google’s random number generator in last weeks draw. We couldn’t be happier that it’s gone to someone who loves Rolls Royces and hope to see it out and about once restrictions allow!
Another live draw and two more winners! Last night we announced two more winners to add to our growing collective of lucky classic car winners! Our 1996 Mercedes 320SL and 1992 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit II found their new owners during our live draw that we hosted at our HQ in Pettistree.
Charlotte and Craig took us around the workshops to show off our current restoration projects and upcoming vehicles. With lots of exciting cars soon to be released, the live draw was jam-packed with exclusive news.
A big congratulations to Russ Warman who won our classic Rolls Royce with his lucky ticket number 499 and Steven Lambe who won the characterful Mercedes with his ticket number 950!
Charlotte also helped us move the cars around before the draw and had a go in our MGB GT LE, which she agreed is a pleasant drive! Keep an eye out for the release of our MGB, which is set to be our next competition car.
“The quality will remain long after the price is forgotten.” – Henry Royce
Nothing quite says luxury like a golden Rolls Royce. A timeless classic, oozing with nobility and class, this 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow I left our doors just over a year ago. Its proud new owner, Michael, has been enjoying cruising around in his beloved Rolls Royce, documenting his travels on Instagram.
With just a service and a small neaten up from the workshop, this stunning gold motor was in perfect condition when we sold it on behalf of a client in February 2020.
We’ve been keenly following the trips and adventures of Michael and ‘Auric’ on their appropriately named Instagram page, ‘The man with the golden roller’ (@themanwiththegoldenroller). Over the last year, Auric has been pictured dotted around London from Buckingham Palace to Richmond Green and Chelsea, Westminster Abbey and Knightsbridge. Michael continued the very royal road trip theme out to Windsor Castle, Blickling Estate, Clivedone House, Combe, home of 007; Pinewood Studios, and Denham! He’s even photographed Auric around Norfolk! Auric even featured in ‘Spirit and Speed’ magazine last year!
A Rolls Royce is the epitome of British nobility in the car world, and driving one is said to be a unique and timeless pleasure. We’ve currently got a 1992 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit II up for grabs over on our competition page and could be yours for just £9! Alternatively, for those who just cant wait and want their own golden roller now, our 1973 Golden Rolls Royce Corniche is up for sale with us and could be yours straight away!
A few weeks ago we welcomed Deimante (@tomboy_a_bit) and her partner up to Bentwaters to shoot some of our cars. We received the BMW shots at the beginning of February and today we got these beautiful Rolls Royce shots. We’re delighted with the results!
Deimante writes;
“Have you ever driven Rolls Royce!
I only just did! Never been a fan of a big, luxury, automatic cars that looks like I have to behave in them and sit like a lady on the back seat.
But driving 6.7 V8 Silver Spirit II made me actually feel like I’m a teenager who stole dad’s car. I could instantly imagine how it would be to go for a road trip in a car like this. (Could probably fit a pit bike in it).”
If you fancy winning this stunning classic, you can buy your tickets here. Alternatively, you might want to dive straight in there and buy your own! If that’s the case, we’ve also got you covered with our Rolls Royce Corniche.
A few weeks ago our marketing team and our friend Jack, headed over to Bentwaters early one morning to film and shoot the latest competition car. With sunshine streaming through the trees, you could easily overlook how brisk the weather was. Crisp blue skies and dreamy dappled sunshine provided the perfect Suffolk set up to show off our classic Rolls Royce.
Now available, this car could be yours to win for just a few pounds! We’ve got plenty more photoshoots coming up soon so keep your eyes peeled!
As well as stationary shots, we also focus on moving shots and videos that capture the beast in motion.
The silver lady may soon be totally electric powered in the form of a possible new model, the Silent Shadow.
Rolls Royce has recently released the prototype image of its new all-electric car. Whilst other brands have scrambled to produce an electric vehicle, Rolls Royce seems to have been playing it slow and steady. The new EV design may have a futuristic utopian flare but Rolls Royce has kept their signature royal boxy elegance.
This stunning Rolls Royce is set to be released to the public in 2022 and will mark the 2020’s with a flare of utopian opulence.
You can see more here
Back in November, we headed over to Hintlesham Hall to photograph our opulent 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche with our friend Giles, who was our talented model and driver for the shoot.
This stunning gold and brown classic is a spacious and dreamy drive, perfect for the road trip and country get away.
This car is currently up for sale with us and could be yours! You can read more about it here.
What better way to float along the road, than in your Willow Gold Rolls Royce Corniche.
A month or so back we went out to Hintlesham Hall to shoot this stunning Rolls Royce Corniche which we currently have listed for sale.
Sympathetically restored by Bridge Classic Cars’ master vehicle technicians, any poor condition metalwork has been replaced with fresh metal, prior to a full respray. We repainted the car in original Willow Gold but opted to complement this with dual-tone Wendy Brown lower sections.
The interior is a lovely place to be and we have completed no works in this area. The Magnolia seats piped in brown and the woodwork is aged to compliment the whole car. Comes with lambswool over mats. It also has the benefit of LPG but we have not tested this and it will be tested prior to sale. If required, we can remove the LPG system.
The 8-track player and radio are in situ.
The engine and gearbox are superb. There are no unwanted noises from anywhere on this car. She is silky smooth and changes gear effortlessly.
Although not required, it will be MOT’d prior to collection after sale. She has an extensive history and has covered just 71,000 miles from new.
You can find out more here.
Bridge Classic Cars are award winning Classic Car Restoration and Maintenance specialists. Your pride and joy is in safe hands with our expert Classic Car Technicians. Take a look at our awards here.
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