Hi Ho Silver Lady – Blackbourn

By: Rob Blackbourn, Photography by: Iconic Auctioneers/Museums Victoria/Barrett-Jackson

Date: 11.10.2023

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

Right at home in the polo club carpark.

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 celebrity-car 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 celebrity-car thing quite as hysterically as their trans-Atlantic cousins.

Carroll Shelby's top-dollar Super Snake Cobra.

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.  

Frankly it’s nothing new for cars wearing Rolls-Royce badges to be off my radar. Aside from the obvious disqualifiers like their price-tags and the rarefied socio-economic atmosphere they normally inhabit, ‘Rollers’ have just never grabbed me.

They got off to a bad start during my teenage years. Again affordability aside, why would a young petrolhead even consider a car that didn’t smoke its tyres or produce a soul-stirring exhaust note, was never raced by Norm Beechey, and would be a pig to repair on the side of the road?

RELATED ARTICLE: Holden Monaro GTS 327 – Lion's Pride

As well lust-worthy cars needed to be a bit cool, and a touch edgy – what self-respecting kid wanted a car that his parents, the neighbours and his girlfriend’s parents approved of?

Instead think Ford Customline with loud twin exhausts, no hubcaps and matte-black wheels. Now that was a car…

Despite my lack of passion for Rolls-Royce cars over the years, big R-R aircraft engines have always pressed my buttons.

While at Ford about 50 years ago I had a missed-it-by-that-much moment involving an awesome Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 aircraft engine.

During the time it took to gather together the $600 purchase price (around 8000 current dollars) for the magnificent, ready-to-run Merlin, another enthusiast snaffled it.

27 litres of full-cream, liquid-cooled, R-R V12 Merlin goodness.

My plans to rig it up in the shed ready for static demo-runs for visitors were lost in a moment.

Sympathising, my then-colleague, the late Howard Marsden spoke of his own youthful dalliance with a Rolls-Royce engine that progressed further than my total fail.

He and a fellow college-student were building a Formula 5000 style open-wheeler in the early-1960s, a time when OHV V8s were scarce in the UK – except in ‘Rollers’.

A 6.2-litre V8 donated by Rolls-Royce to power a "student-project hovercraft" mysteriously found itself bolted instead to the transaxle of young Howard’s racer.

Rolls-Royce became aware it had been dudded through local press coverage of the low-budget racer’s debut outing in an article featuring its surprisingly upmarket powerplant.

While retrieving their engine the grim-faced R-R officials spoke very sternly to the enterprising duo, including threatening dire consequences for any repeat misbehaviour.

Despite my relative obliviousness to goings on at Rolls-Royce over the decades, a bullet the company managed to dodge during my student days sticks with me and still gets me grinning.

Picture the Crewe engineering team hard at it developing an important, substantially revised model to supersede the very successful Silver Cloud for 1965.

Meanwhile deep in the bowels of the marketing office the model-naming committee in a ‘Eureka’ moment decided to run with ‘Silver Mist’.

"Well done lads. Nice ‘Cloud’ to ‘Mist’ transition. Let’s get badge designs underway. Tally Ho!"

Apparently it was some time later, quite close to Silver Mist launch-date apparently, when someone at Crewe, familiar with German – the language of a very important market for Rolls-Royce – pointed out that ‘mist’ translates as ‘dung-heap’ in German.

The new model was rapidly re-christened the ‘Silver Shadow’ and went on to become a top-seller for the company, still flying the R-R flag proudly in 1974 when Eric Morecambe toddled in to his local R-R dealership.

From Unique Cars #482, August 2023

Unique Cars magazine Value Guides

Sell your car for free right here