BAD ΒΟΥ

JON WALL TAKES A DRIVE TO THE DARK SIDE ABOARD ROLL-ROYCE'S BLACK BADGE GHOST

- JON WALL

Are cars male or female? Conventions have changed since the late-19th century when people first started puttering about in the horseless carriages, but well into the 1950s - and probably a good deal later than that - automobiles were always regarded as belonging to the fairer sex. It was no accident, for example, that when in 1902 Emil Jellinek, the business partner of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, looked for a trademark for the duo's cars, he chose his daughter's name, Mercedes, over the Adolph or Fernand of his sons. To have done otherwise would have been unthinkable: cars were regarded like boats, which traditionally were dedicated to a goddess or matriarch and invariably loved by the men who sailed in them. Thus, a motor car was a woman.

Think of the gorgeous Talbot-Lago 150 Teardrop Coupe, the Ferraro GTO or the Jaguar E-Type, none of which could ever be considered masculine. Consider, too, the loveliest Rolls-Royce that comes to mind - perhaps it's the Silver Dawn Drophead Coupe of the late-'40s to mid-'50s, with its voluptuous front wings, rear bustle, wheel spats, and a sweeping tail that gracefully billows like a ball gown. No way is that car a man unless, of course, it's competing in the kind of drag race organised by RuPaul.