Rolls Royce


Going sideways. Sipping champagne.

2015-Rolls-Royce-Drift-by-Paddy-McGrath-1-1200x800

I don’t understand the rules of competitive drifting, but I do love the spectacle of it*. I also appreciate the humour an No-Fucks-Given attitude of many of the participants. Particularly when the result is something like this stealth black Rolls Royce drift car, built for a pro drifter as part of a TV documentary.

What I always wanted to see was a chopped, sectioned and channelled Roller, kustom style. The nearest I’m going to get to that is building one as a kit. I started one based upon one of these Minicraft Silver Cloud IIs, but butchered it. I need to buy another and have a go again.

*Motorsport could be considered a guilty pleasure for a Green. I don’t care.


Cloud 9, Messerschmitts and other silliness

Time for another trip through eBay’s Classic Car section. A boy can dream.

Having grown up in the country the “Cloud 9” Rolls Royce appeals to me. The description’s disappeared since I first found it but this beauty is a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud atop a four wheel drive Mitsubishi chassis so you can go almost anywhere in style. The temptation would be to put chunkier tyres on it and take the newlyweds across the fields.

But now I live in the city and find off roaders (or their sad, spoilt offspring- “soft roaders”) pointless and annoying on the roads I regularly use. So a smaller car is in order for day to day travel. Like this Messerschmitt bubble car, which is located somewhere in South Manchester. It is, however, in the sort of fine condition that would make you think twice about taking it out often, so how about this pile of bits, from which could be built a bubble car rat-rod?

Slightly more practical than the previous two cars is this Ford Anglia retrofitted with a two litre Vauxhall engine which is just the sort of car I’d love to own if I could afford to own a car. This low riding Volkswagen 1600 also appeals, I could even use it to shift bikes and bits. A Morris Minor van would be another sweet way to shift stuff as well. Or how about a Morris Marina van in a very seventies colour, which claims to be gold but could better be called something like “baby shit beige”.

Back into fantasy territory with this ex-military Land Rover, which has been built to withstand more winters like the last two. Or perhaps this quarter million pound E-Type Jag.

If this Cosworth engined Ford Escort looks familiar, it’s because I asked for £25,000 to buy it back in March. Bids are currently at £7,962.69, with the reserve still to be met.

£2,500 is teh starting bid for this tasteful “Godfather” VW Beetle. More expensive, but far more tasteful, £11k seems to be the asking price for Mk2 Jags and Daimlers, with a Jaguar in British Racing green and a Daimler in Old English white.

The listings let me list cars by distance from my house, which is neat. 30 miles seems like a good point at which to stop, but I have to step over that just to mention this Datsun Laurel Six lowrider with “hydrolics”. It’s like a little bit of SoCal landed in Barnsley. Not sure it’s something I could live with, but I have to admire the craziness behind it.


Object of Desire- a vintage Rolls in the rain

A Rolls on the pavement

These pictures were taken in November, but for various reasons I only got round to retrieving the card they were on yesterday. They were taken on the cheap camera I bought to tide me over after my last Canon died. That camera was stolen soon after, but at least I got the few pictures I took with it.

This vintage Rolls (Phantom?) was parked on the pavement across the road from the Bull’s Head one rotten night when we were drinking there, so I popped out to get pictures. They’re very noisy- I can’t remember why I didn’t use the flash- but I’ve done the best I can with Photoshop to get as much out of them as I can.

Vintage Rolls in the rain

Vintage Rolls in the rain

Vintage Rolls in the rain

Vintage Rolls in the rain

Vintage Rolls in the rain