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Car of the Month - July 2018
Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, 1948, #WZB29
Saloon by Park Ward

Hidden for years in a garage in Switzerland this Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith has been found in 2014 by a gentleman more or less by coincidence during negotiations of the estate becoming offered for sale. One result was a motor car did re-appear that during the period after World War II repeatedly had been employed as transport of Sir Winston Churchill when he visited destinations at Cote d’Azure. A ‘windfall profit’ has been the chassis-number of a Swiss-registered Rolls-Royce was no longer an enigma: The car had been the property of Churchill’s literary agent (who had been publisher, too, of the memoirs of General Eisenhower and of Marshal Montgomery). Acquired in France from the first owner Baronne Vanderheiden, the wife of Baron Louis-Marie-Charles Vanderheiden, the new owner imported the car into Switzerland in December 1954. From then onward quite frequently the car was used for tours to Cote d’Azure.

Coachwork of #WZB29 had been produced by Park Ward to their Design No. 45. The coachbuilder allocated Body No. W45 to their creation. It was a slightly modernized development of the company’s early post-war design. Although the lines obviously rooted in what had been en vogue during the pre-war period. Worth a note that this Silver Wraith had not been fitted with a division but was executed as a spacious and comfortable righthand-drive Owner Driver Saloon.

Neglected over many years the car had suffered considerably and became subject of a painstakingly careful three-year restoration. In mouth-watering fine condition the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith was presented to a wider audience in June 2018 at the Annual Rallye of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club in England. In conjunction with Gerard Leclerc, President of the RREC Section Romande, the car was shown in a performance re-uniting with the Grand Old Man this Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith that decades ago had been Churchill’s transport. The event with "Doubles" of Sir Winston and his wife was orchestrated so very well for many club-members it became an outstanding highlight of the 2018 Annual Rallye of the RREC. Not least because "Churchill" gave a speech meeting tone and diction exactly there was an imaginatioin of being trapped in a time-capsule. However the only real 'survivor' from a by-gone era has been the Silver Wraith that did the job as Churchill's transport once more with the precision of a Swiss clock – perhaps less noisier…