Suits You Sir - 1st May, 2018

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Leather upholstery hand stitched by goddesses using thread made from the hair of baby pandas, a boot larger than many Auckland apartments and wood trim made from a walnut tree planted by God himself are just some of the features of this Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. And it’s being sold at Turners Christchurch this week.

It’s a strange old world where a car that is crafted from the finest materials by men and women with names like Bartholomew and Victoria is worth less than a sedan knocked together by a bunch of Aussie yahoos with names like Stevo and Raylene. But that’s the situation we have here. It seems that we have more of a nostalgic affinity with cars that our parents drove than we do with the cars that our parents’ bosses drove. This means that a scruffy old HQ Holden is likely to attract more buyers than this magnificent 1974 Rolls Royce. Once the domain of rock stars and media barrons these old Rollers will always draw our attention but maybe we don’t think we can pull off owning one. Maybe we don’t feel worthy.

Of course the Rolls will have one or two drawbacks. The 6.8 litre engine is as thirsty as a social rugby team after a good win. And you’ll need a mechanic called Giles whose workshop resembles an operating theatre and has an hourly rate more in line with a criminal barrister to keep it going. And you’ll need to employ a chauffeur to drive it while you sip a nice single malt in the back. But surely this a small price to pay for the privilege of lording it over your fellow road users.

This particular Roller looks to be a good solid car that’s been looked after. However, there is a brake issue and it’s got that slight lean you get when you’ve had one too many (possibly an issue with the self levelling suspension). It does have a current wof and rego and the elderly owner was using it as his daily driver until recently.

So if you’ve always wanted to be called Sir or Madam by everyone then this classic Roller is potentially a cheap way of achieving this. It’s being auctioned right now. More details here.