Rock and Rolls: the 20hp that went to Music City

Ever since the cultural revolution of the 1960s turned the natural order of the world on its head, Rolls-Royce ownership has gone hand-in-hand with the so-called rock-and-roll lifestyle—consider John Lennon and his psychedelic Phantom V, and Marc Bolan's lyric, "I drive a Rolls-Royce, because it's good for my voice." Over in America, Elvis Presley had at least two among his stable of Cadillacs. But the fast-paced nature of rock music leaves little time for nostalgia, and we see in most rock stars' garages a predilection mainly for the latest models. Musicians with an appreciation of earlier models are a rarer breed, but they do exist. Take Daniel Berg, who recently restored this 1926 Rolls-Royce 20hp all-weather coupé by Park Ward.

Chassis GMJ67 retains all its original bodywork and has been restored to the specification outlined on its build sheet, being painted black with twin spare wheels and a dickey seat. It was returned to the factory in 1927 to receive a front-brake upgrade, which it also retains. Sold new in Britain, its first owner was a doctor, whom history records achieved the rank of lieutenant in the Second World War, during which he continued to provide medical aid, but it migrated to America in the 1950s with its second owner, who was an attorney for an Indianapolis racer. This attorney is said to have travelled to Britain to by the car, and thereafter kept on his ranch in Indianapolis where he maintained a fleet of historic vehicles.

Quite what happened thereafter is somewhat mysterious, but in 2014 cinema magnate John Ellison, also a keen car collector, heard of the Rolls-Royce's existence under a tarpaulin inside that same Indianapolis barn, where he had travelled to buy a limousine. It was Ellison who notified Daniel of the car's whereabouts and suggested that he might like to buy it and restore it. Daniel, who was living in California, had no previous involvement with vintage Rolls-Royces but was impressed by the sophistication of Henry Royce's engineering and general beauty of the car's destruction, so he decided to step in and give it a new lease of life. At some point in its life, a yellow panel had been painted on the side of the car, probably in response to the 1964 film The Yellow Rolls-Royce, but it was sensibly decided to restore the car according to its original appearance.

 

 

Daniel proceeded to consult with respected specialists and restorers including Alan Taylor in America and Vintage & Prestige in Britain, plus paint shops and engine rebuilders, about the best way to proceed with the restoration, while at the same time brushing up on all the relevant technical literature. To begin with, the car went to a body shop, were the body was removed and any necessary repairs were made before it was prepared for paint. The restoration of the folding hood mechanism was entrusted to Alan Taylor, but fortunately the car had survived well during decades of dry storage and, for the most part, it just needed cleaning up and refreshing. In addition the repaint, all the nickel fittings were very handsomely replated.

The engine was a slightly different matter, as it hadn't turned for so long. Fortunately, there was no serious deterioration. It was entrusted to an engine rebuilder in San Diego, who simply took it apart, cleaned it up, and replaced the bearings, valves, valve springs and piston rings with new items supplied by Fiennes Parts. Where possible, every nut and bolt was replated or repainted and reused, save for the few which were too corroded. That was how matters progressed until, eventually, the project reached completion after five long years. This takes us up to the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020—an unfortunate time, one might think, for completing a restoration, in light of the global events which would keep us mostly house-bound for much of 2020. For Daniel, however, it would prove fortuitous.

 

 

A couple of weeks before the Covid lockdowns, Daniel was relaxing at Windansea Beach in La Jolla, San Diego, when he had a dream of driving the Rolls-Royce to Nashville, Tennessee. A few weeks later, he was visiting his elderly mother in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, and the opportunity arose to pay Nashville a visit by Flying Lady. He did as his dream bade him and, having just entered the city limits, the car broke down, conveniently outside an O'Reilly Auto Parts. Luckily, nothing was the matter—the car just had some fouled-up sparking plugs and was easily put right—but while stopped, he struck up a conversation with Kerry Frazier, a Nashville music teacher who, by chance, was in the same O'Reilly at the same time. The long and the short of it is that Frazier introduced Daniel to some of his connections in the local music industry, and he's since recorded five country rock albums and three music videos.

Daniel, naturally, is delighted with how things have come to pass. He says, "The first time I drove it, it was kind of funny. I was going to the Greystone Mansion Concours d'Élégance and we had just got the car back together and had worked literally three days in a row to get all the parts on. I did not have time to really tune the carburetter, nor had I learnt how to really adjust it or how properly operate the car even though I had read the owner's manual. So we trailered the car in my enclosed trailer to the site and then you had to drive the car a very steep hill. I didn’t know that you could control the mixture manually, and I didn’t know to advance the timing, so the car barely made it up the hill and the cars behind me weren’t too happy that I was only going about two miles per hour, but it did make it up. While I was there, one of the other car guys came over that had a Bentley and he showed me how to adjust the carburetter correctly, and how to set the mixture and timing. When I left, I knew how to drive the car correctly, although now it was downhill so it didn’t matter as much... After that, I was pretty willing to drive places. I would try to pick out roads where people aren’t racing along, kicking up rocks, but I would drive seven or eight miles to go and hang out at the ocean or somewhere like that. It likes to do 45 miles an hour, although I’ve had it faster..."

There we have it—a vintage Rolls-Royce and a recording contract would be a dream come true for many an enthusiast of cars and music. If only other rockers could learn to share Daniel's good taste in cars...

The Rolls-Royce is now being offered for sale. For more information, click here.