I saw a Rolls Royce today driving to Leeds. It brought back a flood of memories I must say.
When I was a kid I loved prestige cars, which you saw now and then in Sixties and early Seventies Britain.
Basically there were three top marque saloons around back then over here: Rolls Royce, Bentley and Daimler. I seem to recall seeing all three far more than I do now. Could that be true?
I'm not including Mercs, Astons and Jags for despite being luxury cars they just weren't flash enough for me to be classed as prestige saloons and the preserve of just the super rich like the top three.
Rollers were easy to spot and still are. The front grille and the Spirit of Ecstasy were dead giveaways. Bentleys were less so and all I can recall is the Capital B with the swept tail. Daimlers I can't remember at all.
I may have had all three in die-cast but I'm just not sure. I certainly had a toy Rolls by Dinky or Corgi. I think I had a plastic friction drive Rolls too by Telsalda or someone like that. Were the other two marques released as toy cars?
What were the differences between the three in terms of prestige? Was there a pecking order? Who drove what in the upper echelons? I honestly don't know.
Have you ever driven one of these cars readers? Whats it like?
When I was younger, I would sometimes see a Rolls Royce van around Chester. It was, unsurprisingly, from some high end wine merchant!
ReplyDeleteNever seen a Rolls Royce van Kev. Did they have the spirit of ectsasy?
DeleteIt did, it was a customised 70's Rolls. Wonder what became of it?
ReplyDeleteJust googled it. It was a 79 silver shadow used for Krug champagne. They even made a die cast toy of it!
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I've never heard of Krug champers. They must have been big if they had their own toy car!
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