Footnotes

• Rolls-Royce's adoption of unitary construction for its new Silver Shadow and T-Series Bentley necessitated the reorganisation of in-house coachbuilder H J Mulliner, Park Ward to enable it to produce new designs on the Shadow floorpan. Recalling the firm's glamorous Grands Routiers of pre-war days such as the Phantom II Continental, these final coachbuilt models were limited to just two, a two-door coupé or similar convertible, the former arriving in March 1966 and the latter in September the following year. Some of the frontal panels were shared with the standard four-door saloon, but otherwise the new bodyshells were unique, featuring a distinctive dipping upper wing line with parallel crease, and revised, more rounded posterior. Construction involved shuttling the bodyshells between the Crewe factory and MPW's Willesden plant, a necessarily lengthy process that took all of 20 weeks for the saloon and slightly longer for the more complex convertible. These exclusive cars were hand built in the best traditions of British coachbuilding using only materials of the finest quality including Wilton carpeting, Connolly hide and burr walnut veneers, such painstaking attention to detail resulting in a price some 50% higher than that of the standard Silver Shadow. Nevertheless, demand for these more glamorous alternatives to the much more numerous four-door model was strong right from the start, a state of affairs that resulted in them being given their own model name - 'Corniche' - in March 1971.
  Delivered new to the Isle of Man, chassis number '0050721' remained unregistered because of its first owner's ill health. Following his death, the car was purchased from his estate in 1984 and then registered for the first time, the second owner being another Isle of Man resident, Mr William Kirkpatrick, proprietor of Manx Petroleum. We are advised that during Mr Kirkpatrick's ownership the Corniche was returned to the Rolls-Royce factory at Crewe for servicing.
  Circa 1998 the car passed to its next owner, who kept on the Isle of Man until 2008. It has since been fully re-commissioned and serviced, and is said to drive impeccably, having covered a guaranteed genuine 10,800 miles from new. The colour scheme is Willow Gold with tan leather interior. All trim is original, including the still excellent Everflex roof. The car is offered with its original service booklet, a copy of the original Manx registration document, MoT to 21st September 2010 and Swansea V5.
  

Auction Notices

• This car has been incorrectly catalogued as a coupe. As per the photos, it is a convertible.

---

Category: Motoring / Motor Cars

---

Auction terms and conditions