My Rolls Royce

While I'm on a Roll, let's continue talking about the rich and the famous... the Rolls Royce type! Got that? Roll... Rolls Royce! How clever! Well, the car in the photo I show you today actually could bring shame to the elite group that I will be introducing to you... but hey, it's a Corniche, so it's not something to sneeze at.

But first, you ought to know something in the history of the famous Rolls Royce automobiles that is quite cute. The Corniche, like the one you see in my photo taken at Commerce Lane, was Rolls-Royce's coupé and convertible version of the Silver Shadow produced between 1971 and 1996. The Corniche was named "Silver Shadow Mulliner Park Ward two door fixed head coupé" (alternatively, drop head coupé... Eddie Murphy owned that one.. but I am getting ahead of myself...) from 1966 until 1971 when the Corniche name was applied. The exterior design was by John Polwhele Blatchley. It's kind of ugly, if you asked me.

Although the 1971 Corniche was the first car of that name that the company sold, the "Corniche" name had been registered by Rolls-Royce in the 1930s. The original Corniche was a prototype based on the Bentley Mark V featuring coachwork by the Paris firm, van Vooren. The single car drove 15,000 miles (24,000 km) of endurance testing in Continental Europe before being BLOWN UP by a bomb at Dieppe, France while waiting at the dockside to be shipped to England. How do you like that? So the original Corniche production was killed by World War II.

Do you know who owned these Rolls? The list is very long, but it's interesting to know some of the more famous Rolls owners:

Michael Jackson - 75 Corniche Turbo - 90 Silver Spur II - 99 Silver Seraph (all three were stretched models,)
Freddy Mercury, singer of the group Queen - 74 Silver Shadow,
Sylvester Stallone - Phantom,
Elvis Aaron Presley - 66 Silver Cloud,
Brigitte Bardot - Corniche,
John Lennon - 65 Phantom V,
Eddy Murphy - Phantom & Phantom Drophead Coupe,
Donald Trump - He collects Rolls Royce!
HRH Sultan de Brunei - every shape and sizes of Rolls-Royce and also one specially made for his highness. This super super rich sultan owns about 5,000 cars, but who's counting?

And... drum Roll, please... Lan - 'cause I'm going to buy this one so I can be listed!