Le magazine et marché mondial pour les passionnés de voitures classiques, par des passionnés.
Le magazine et marché mondial pour les passionnés de voitures classiques, par des passionnés.
We don’t know exactly what happened here, but we suppose the driver, HRH Field Marshal Shah Ali Wali Khan, brother of the King of Afghanistan, took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Lake Geneva. Both very wet driver and Rolls Royce 20/25 were successfully rescued. That unwelcome dip happened in 1939 and we also don’t know what happened to the Rolls thereafter. What we do know is that some twelve years ago it was found in a barn in the USA and then shipped to the UK where Fiennes Restoration’s team embarked on a twelve year restoration project. Some parts like seats and trim had to be remade; others recreated: door handles, seat-adjusters, seat-hinge mechanisms, external chrome body trims, but, wherever possible, the restoration route was preferred. After some 10,000+ hours of restoration the 1932 Rolls Royce drophead coupé will be the only UK pre-war entrant at this weekend’s Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza. The Rolls is certainly a worthy contender!