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Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousine

Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousine
Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousine
Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousineRolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousine
Lot number 53
Hammer value £38,000
Description Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith Hooper 'Empress Line' limousine
Registration BHC 888
Year 1953
Colour Black/Blue
Engine size 4,566 cc
Chassis No. BLW 15
Engine No. L14B

Launched in 1946, the Silver Wraith was Rolls-Royce's first new post-war car and was one of the last cars to be supplied in the traditional R-R way as a separate chassis to be fitted with a coachbuilt body of the customer's choice. Mechanically the Silver Wraith shared the same 4,257cc straight-six engine as the Bentley MkVI, driving through a four-speed manual gearbox with synchromesh as standard. With a longer wheelbase than the MkVI (127-inch), it featured a massive, box-section chassis equipped with independent front suspension, hydraulic shock absorbers (adjustable to the rear) and four-wheel servo-assisted drum brakes.

For 1951 the Silver Wraith received the revised 4,566cc 'Big Bore' engine used by the rest of the Rolls/Bentley range and automatic transmission was made available as was a long wheelbase version (133-inch). The Silver Wraith short wheelbase cars remained in production until 1953, LWB cars lasted until 1959 and were among the finest cars of their era, available only to an elite handful of high society clientele.

This particular LWB car, chassis number BLW15, was specially commissioned by Mr W. Gatty Saunt, managing director of Amalgamated Roadstone, London SW1, which owned around 60 quarries and was clearly doing very nicely from its road and rail building activities. He ordered the car with a manual gearbox in late 1951 through Caffyns of Eastbourne and elected to have it bodied by Hooper, although it was not finally delivered until July 1953. Operating at the very top end of the market, Hooper already had over a century's experience at building carriages and specialised in stately, elegant cars of the utmost opulence and quality where cost was not an issue.

For the Gatty Saunt car, Hooper's chief designer, Osmond Rivers, penned a totally new dramatically swooping limousine body, design number 8381, that was the automotive equivalent of an haute couture ball-gown. With only minor changes, this was to evolve into design number 8390 which was presented as Hooper's 'New Look' in the mid-Fifties and is popularly known as the 'Empress Line'. It thus seems fair to say that BLW15 is the prototype for the Empress Line and is referred to as such in at least one reference book, the relevant page of which is included in the history file. It differs subtly from later models in having a higher rear roof line, a flat windscreen, different attachments for the wheel spats, and door handles that are lower than the chrome waistline rather than being integral with it as on subsequent cars.

The coachwork offers the fine advantages of unusually wide rear seats and acres of legroom, only the very best materials being used throughout. Clearly a most demanding customer, Gatty Saunt made constant revisions to the design of the interior and it was to take three years until he was entirely happy with the car, as a large amount of correspondence in the history file makes clear. On one occasion he even asked for a redesign of the cocktail cabinet as he could occasionally hear the decanter clinking against the glasses! Everything worked out well though, for the car won the Grand Prix d'Honneur in the BARC at Eastbourne, photos of which glamorous event are in the history file.

Pleasingly, all the original features of the interior are still in place, including the chrome microphone for communicating with the chauffeur, the HMV radio built into the armrest, the two rear occasional seats, the tool kit that pulls out from under the glovebox and the fire extinguisher that slides out from the side of the front passenger seat. The glass division is particularly unusual in having a large perspex centre section (the height of jet-age style) which hinges up and locks into the sliding sunroof to form a moonroof. The car also still has its original number plate, BHC 888 – Sloane 0888 being the phone number of the Amalgamated Roadstone HQ on Buckingham Palace Road.

Amalgamated kept the car until March 1966 when it was acquired by Dupont Brothers of City Road EC1, before going to Edgar Parser of London and Brussels two-and-a-half years later. He paid $6,000 for the car at Frank Dale Ltd in September 1968 and it was exported to Belgium where he was to keep it for the next 24 years. In 2001 it was bought back to the UK and acquired by the current vendor in 2003.   

Still in lovely condition today with a particularly fine and original interior, the car is in regular use and has done 3,000 miles since returning to these shores, as evidenced by its old MOT certificates. Now with 78,200 miles on the clock, it is said to drive very well and is due to be driven over 100 miles to the sale. It has an MOT until March 2009 and is taxed until December. Stickers in the engine bay show that it had new guides, valve seats, water pump and headgasket in 2000. It also benefits from five new tyres, a full stainless steel exhaust system and is fitted with a modern remote control alarm system and a Becker CD, radio and satellite navigation system, though the latter is not yet properly calibrated.

Accompanied by a large amount of history including copies of the original Rolls-Royce build sheets and Hooper drawings and featured in several books, this unique and magnificent car is a privilege to travel in and would be the pride of any collection.     
 

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