Editor’s note: David Krumboltz’s regular column is on hiatus until further notice due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In its place, we’re running some of Dave’s favorite past columns. This one originally ran in July 2017.
There is history aplenty regarding Rolls-Royce automobiles. They represent quality, status, wealth and the best of Great Britain. For most of us, they also represent the unattainable.
In the early 1900s, Henry Ford and Henry Royce were interested in horseless carriages but with 180-degree differences. Ford wanted to build a car for the common man, and Royce wanted to build the best car in the world regardless of cost. Both, of course, were successful. In about 1904, Royce and Charles Rolls met. Royce was in the electrical and mechanical business, while Rolls was already one of the early car dealers, selling upscale vehicles in London. Royce built his first car in 1904, and Rolls agreed to buy as many as Royce could make. A partnership was formed. The goal was always quality over quantity, and the company today sells about 4,000 cars a year.
An interesting bit of trivia is that all Rolls-Royce cars since 1911 have the “Spirit of Ecstasy” nose ornament, called a mascot. The story goes that the model for this sculpture was Eleanor Velasco Thornton, the secretary and secret mistress of Lord Montagu, a significant investor in the company. The first sculpture was called “The Whisper” with the woman’s finger to her lips symbolizing the secret romance. She didn’t get to see this mascot long, as she drowned in December 1915 while traveling with Montagu on the SS Persia when a German submarine was torpedoed it.
Royce didn’t approve of the mascot, and it is said he seldom drove a car with the Spirit of Ecstasy as he felt it compromised the styling. The emblem is still on current Rolls-Royce cars. Alamo resident Rafi Salem, has owned this issue’s 5,200-pound 1976 Rolls-Royce Corniche coupe since 1999.
“This car has an interesting history,” Salem stated. “It was owned from 1976 to 1982 by Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yammani, the minister of oil of Saudi Arabia.”
The Rolls-Royce coupe was intended for the sheikh’s personal use while zipping around Europe attending OPEC meetings. It was garaged at the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva, where the sheikh had rented an entire floor. Salem says there were only two of Corniche coupes made that year, one right-hand drive and this edition’s left-hand drive model. The cost in today’s dollars was $354,000, and the Corniche is the top of the line but usually is a convertible.
“The value today is somewhere between $50,000 and $150,000,” Salem said.
It has a 6.75-liter Rolls-Royce V8 aluminum engine with a three-speed automatic transmission and is equipped with Frigidaire air-conditioning. Naturally it has every conceivable option that was available in 1976, including an eight-track tape player, an electric-powered antenna and a Blaupunkt radio with a cassette player.
“Everything is mechanical,” Salem said. “We don’t have too much electronic stuff in it, so it’s fairly easy to repair.”
The second owner was a relative of the sheikh and a friend of Salem’s, and Salem expressed to him his desire to buy the car. But for 20 years the friend said it was his pride and joy and not for sale, as he thought he would pass it on to his sons. It turned out, though, that the sons were more interested in fast Italian cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
“So one day in May of 1999, he said, ‘If you want it, you can have it now, as is.’ ”
That “as is” turned out to be two expensive words.
“It has spent more time at the Rolls-Royce garage in San Francisco than in my garage, as it needed lots of neglected maintenance,” Salem said.
Thousands of dollars and four years later, the car was in almost showroom condition. When Salem acquired the car, it had about 52,000 miles on it and now has about 66,000 miles.
“It is amazing the details they give you,” Salem said. “The owner’s manual that comes with the car is leather-bound with about 160 pages explaining how to care for this magnificent car. They spend four pages on just washing the car.”
If you own a Rolls-Royce you don’t want or expect any breakdowns. Many of the mechanical items are duplicated, like the starter, the injection system and the brake system. The unstated English Rolls-Royce expression is “our cars never break down; they just fail to perform.” Salem drives his Rolls-Royce at least once a week.
“We loan it to many of our friends for weddings and graduations.”
In 1931, Rolls-Royce bought Bentley, another very prestigious manufacturer, and for many years the main difference between a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce was just the grille. A sad note in automotive history is that today BMW owns Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen owns Bentley, but all Rolls-Royce cars and most Bentley cars are still built in England.
Have an interesting vehicle? Contact David Krumboltz at MOBopoly@yahoo.com. To view more photos of this and other issues’ vehicles or to read more of Dave’s columns, visit mercurynews.com/author/david-krumboltz.