A Car that will Unite Romantics and Cynics Alike. A 1937 Rolls-Royce 25/30 Limousine

1937 Rolls-Royce 25/30 Limousine Coachwork by Hooper & Co. Estimate £20,000 - £24,000

Most people – cynics as well as romantics - will doubtless agree that the wedding day journey to the church deserves something special. This wonderful Ivory White Rolls-Royce carriage would definitely add some magic to that emotional drive to rendezvous with a future husband or wife.

For a bride, it is both something old and being restored, is something new, and it is borrowed too. As for the required blue, that can be remedied with some blue flowers in the car’s rear seat vases.

The car was supplied new in 1937 to a Mrs. F. K. Bush of Devon and retained by her until her passing in 1949. It has matching chassis and engine numbers and was the beneficiary of a bare metal repaint in 2020 in Ivory White. The car is offered with a history file that includes the RREC chassis records.

Maintaining its policy of offering one ‘large’ and one ‘small’ model, Rolls-Royce introduced the 20/25 in 1929 as a successor to the outgoing 20, and, now with 3,699cc, the engine made for superior performance. By 1936, the capacity had been further increased - this time to 4,257cc - thereby creating the 25/30 model. As with its forebears, bodywork for the newcomer was to the taste of the customer, and Park Ward, Thrupp & Maberly, Mulliner, Hooper, and Abbott were among the many coachbuilders selected to clothe these fine cars, of which just 1,201 examples were made before the 25/30 was superseded by the Wraith in 1938.

Known to have subsequently spent several years in the United States of America, the 25/30hp was repatriated to the United Kingdom in 1997 and reunited with its original registration number ‘ELP 84’. Chassis GAR50 was then retained in the ownership of one individual from 1997 until 2019 when the Rolls-Royce was acquired by the vendor.

The gearbox has been replaced by a reconditioned unit, but the matching numbers gearbox is accompanying. Undergoing a bare metal repaint in 2020, the 25/30hp was also the beneficiary of a new insulated and waterproofed fabric roof. ‘ELP 84’ is offered with a history file that contains a copy of the RREC chassis records; sixteen previous MOT certificates from 1997-2014; pictures on arrival back from America and while in previous ownership; a previous logbook and a current V5C document. The vendor describes the engine as ‘running smooth and quiet’, and the ‘chauffeur intercom still being fitted and working, along with the sliding glass partition’.

Here is a car that will get you to the church on time and in great comfort. If there is one issue, it is that the betrothed may well prefer to simply continue the journey, giving the church a miss.