HI HO SILVER LADY

NEWS OF THE AUCTION OF A CLASSIC 1970S ROLLS-ROYCE HAS ROB THINKING ABOUT THE MARQUE'S HISTORY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A WHILE.

WHILE PONDERING column topics I stumbled smack bang into an elephant – yep, right in the middle of the room. Being conscious that last issue’s E-Type episode was one of several about favourites from the legendary Browns Lane factory, I also recalled the numerous honourable mentions I’ve given to many other Brit brands over the years. Some repeatedly… It was then that I realised I’ve been ignoring the room-filling presence of that most obvious of British automotive pachyderms, the Rolls-Royce.

It was a recent media report about a celebrity-owned ‘Roller’ that dragged the aristocratic British marque out of my blind-spot and on to centre stage. A 1974 Silver Shadow bought new by Brit comedian, the late Eric Morecambe, will be offered by Silverstone Auctions in the UK this coming weekend wearing a pair of the comedian’s personal EM100 number plates. While celebritycar auctions understandably bring to mind eye-watering results like the AU$8.3M that Carroll Shelby’s personal ‘Super Snake’ Cobra attracted a couple of years ago, the British don’t do the celebritycar thing quite as hysterically as their trans-Atlantic cousins. For example a nice Lancia HF Integrale EVO II from Rowan ‘Mr Bean’ Atkinson’s collection brought AU$170,000 earlier this year. So in the UK context the auctioneer’s top-whack estimate for Rolls-Royce EM100 is an affordable AU$77,000.