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It’s Royal Ascot week.
This festival of horse racing takes place in southern England every year and is the nation’s smartest racing event. Its upmarket nature is closely related to it being the Queen’s favourite event, and she’s been here all week accordingly, aged 92; lucky her country place is just up the road at Windsor Castle. She owns several horses competing this year.
Earlier in the week she was joined by grandson Prince Harry and his new wife, Meghan Markle, now styled the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Autocar is mainly about cars, and our main interest at Royal Ascot was the car park, not the horses – here’s our pick of the bunch:
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Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph
Rolls-Royce usually makes cars that last for ages and ages – the Silver Shadow lasted 15 years, for example. So for the company to make a car that lasted for just four years is somewhat extraordinary. But a lot happened to the company between 1998 when it launched to 2002 when it died. The car was fitted with a revvy BMW V12 which proved a poor deliverer of the silent waft owners came to expect from the hallowed badge.
And although BMW acquired the right to make Rolls-Royces that year, it didn’t get the factory in the divorce from Bentley – that went to Volkswagen. BMW started with a clean sheet of paper at a new factory with a new model, the Phantom, and so the Silver Seraph quietly disappeared. Its Bentley Arnage sibling soldiered on until 2009.
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Bentley Mulsanne
Talking of which… the Mulsanne arrived in 2009 to replace the Bentley Arnage at the very top of the Bentley range. The Mulsanne inherited the Arnage’s 6.75-litre L410 V8, a modified and modernised version of an engine that first saw the light of day in the 1950s. Very old school, and all very fitting for Royal Ascot.
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Bentley S1
The magnificent S1 was made from 1955 until 1959, sister car to the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. It’s equipped with a 4.9-litre straight-six cylinder engine, a descendent of an engine first used in 1922. When we tested it in 1957 we got 103mph out of it, and 0-60mph in a decent enough 13.1-seconds – it does weigh 1924kg (4242lb) after all.
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Bentley Turbo RT
This magnificent specimen grabbed our attention for being the final, rarest, most powerful and most expensive of the bruiser Turbo R line that originally launched in 1985; this 1997/98 model administered around 400bhp, a good 100bhp more than the original model – not that Bentley would ever discuss such uncouth matters, of course.
The model stands out from lesser brethren through its sports alloys, mesh grille, and colour-coded bumpers. It was extremely expensive – US$211,600 – the equivalent of US$329,000 today. 252 RTs were made.
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Rolls-Royce Silver Spur II
The Silver Spirit arrived as a replacement for the Silver Shadow in 1980; the Spur was the long wheelbase version. The Spur II launched in 1989, and rather distinguished itself by out-selling its smaller and cheaper sibling by 44%.
As with all the Rolls’ of the period, power came from a 6.75-litre Rolls-Royce L410 V8.
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Armstrong Siddeley Star Sapphire
Non-car folk seeing this in the Ascot car park could be forgiven for thinking this was just another Rolls or Bentley. Not so – this Brit was the top of the Armstrong Siddeley range, but available for much less than those famous cars. Power came from a 4-litre straight-six cylinder engine, good for around 165bhp. It was made between 1958 and 1960, and this is an early model.
When we tested it we managed to achieve 99.6mph and 0–60mph in 14.8sec. The company gave up on car making in 1960 to focus on aircraft engines. Ironically perhaps this company that once made cars that looked a bit like junior Rolls-Royces ended up being part of Rolls-Royce when the latter bought it in 1966 - though it was after its 'plane engines, not its old car designs.
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Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud
Sister car to the previously featured Bentley S1, this is a really most suitable way to get to this swishest of British summer events. This particular example is from 1961.
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Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith
The car is from 1959, but the looks are suggestive of a car born before the Second World War. In fact the Wraith was born just after it. Stately is the word here.
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Porsche 356A Cabriolet
This car makes a nice change from all the uber-posh cars, though the 356 still manages to brush up just fine in this company. This is the car that put Porsche on the road to success. First produced in 1948, 76,313 were produced up to 1965. This one is from 1958.
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Porsche 356A Cabriolet
A very stylish and different way to attend this glamorous event.
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Ferrari 488 Spider
Ferraris were not in great abundance at the Ascot car park – but we heartily approve of any convertible in the British summer.
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Bentley Bentayga
After all the classic and vintage Bentleys in the Ascot car park, it’s no surprise to see their spiritual successors show up as well in the shape of cars like this W12-powered Bentayga. Since launch in 2016, the car has quickly become one of the biggest selling Bentleys ever.
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Rolls-Royce Phantom VII
As mentioned, BMW had to start from scratch when it acquired the right to sell cars under the Rolls-Royce name in 1998. Its first all-new model, the Phantom, arrived in 2003 and was an artful execution, rightly restoring the title of ‘best car in the world’ to Rolls, decades after it last held it.
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Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow
The ‘Shad’ as some Rolls owners tend to know it, is Rolls’s biggest-ever selling model, shifting 30,057 between 1965 and 1980. It was the first Rolls to get a unibody structure, as opposed to body-on-frame. Power for this later model example came from a 6.75-litre V8.
Its success has been its own worst enemy, as there are arguably too many around, meaning the model has largely resisted the rise in classic car values seen elsewhere, and ambitious restorations tend not to be economic.
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Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII
Having scored a home run with the original Phantom of 2003, BMW is doing it all over again with its latest Phantom, unveiled in 2017. It updates the essential look of the previous car, but packs it full of new technology on a new Rolls-only platform it shares so far only with the new Cullinan SUV.
It’s certainly on course for success – it’s only the second recipient of a full 5-star score in Autocar’s rigorous road test so far in 2018.
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Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG
Does this very German, very powerful take on the practical off-roader work in the car park? Parked up next to a gazebo dishing out pink champagne, yes we think it does.
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Bentley R-Type Continental
Is this the finest car in this finest of car parks? We think it might be. Effortlessly beautiful, it was a clear influence on the Continental GT, the first Bentley produced under Volkswagen ownership in 2003.
This is a 1953 model; only 207 cars were made between 1952 and 1955, and this rarity has ensured all survivors are very valuable – and for good reason we reckon.
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Rover P5B V8 Coupé
Far from the rarest or most valuable car here, is this at least the coolest one? The Rover’s burly good looks are always a winner for us, as are those alloys which probably looked outrageous in period but are today just delicate and dainty. The regal colour makes it feel very much at home here too.
Although termed a Coupé, it has four doors, but this model had a lower roof line than the standard saloon model, which was to find favour with British prime ministers including Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher.
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Land Rover Defender
For many Brits, the Defender is still the only SUV that counts, despite it now being out of production and a new one still a year or two away. This particular example is an X-TECH variant, sporting special alloy wheels and trim details that help this utilitarian car nonetheless look the part among all the glamour.
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Rolls-Royce Camargue
The Rolls-Royce styled by an Italian design house, Pininfarina. Its looks divided when new in 1975, and continue to do so today. This factor probably contributed to it notching up just 531 sales in 11 years on sale, though the fact that for much of its life it was the most expensive production car you could buy may have also played a part.
This is an early model, from 1976; it has just 7000 miles on the clock. An oddball, but still great to see.
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Jaguar E-Type S2 2+2
While Autocar crowned the E-Type the most beautiful car ever in our most recent survey on the subject, we can’t say the title also applies to the 2+2 seater variant. The 2+2 emerged in 1966 to satisfy American requests for something a bit larger and more practical than the original. The wheelbase was extended as was the roofline, and its reception was mixed. Still, a cool cat for this posh parking lot.
All 2+2s featured a 4.2-litre straight-six cylinder engine.
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Aston Martin DB11 V8 Volante
After a long period of producing seemingly the same two cars in a myriad of different confectures, since it arrived in 2016 the DB11 has brought Aston bang up to date again, and returned it to making money as well. A stylish drop-top for the British summer, and many of us here prefer this V8 variant to the V12 version, truth be told.
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Bentley Continental R
This classy coupe was built from 1991 all the way to 2003 – thus surviving long enough to be indirectly replaced by VW’s first Bentley, the Continental GT. It was fast, expensive, and vast – 5342mm (210in) long. Its surprise reveal at the 1991 Geneva motor show upstaged the unveiling of the technological tour-de-force that was the W140 Mercedes S-Class.
Power came from a turbocharged version of the familiar 6.75-litre Rolls-Royce V8.
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Aston Martin DB6
Produced between 1965 and 1971, power came from a 4.0-litre straight six cylinder engine, producing around 282bhp. 1788 were made. Last but not least: a spot of effortless cool for the Ascot car park.
PHOTOS BY JED LEICESTER
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