How old am I?

[Cliff Beer]

You guys will probably think this is a bit silly.....and that's probably about right.

I've always wanted a Rolls Royce. They're visually impressive cars, and the engineering and build quality is just phenomenal. The chrome is all triple plated, for example, so the chrome fittings are all like new even 30 years later.

I bought one. It was the right combination...just what I was looking for....black on tan, one-owner car from new, southern cal car from new. Bought new by an orthopedic surgeon in Beverly Hills - the doc was the go-to guy for celebrity professional sports stars' injuries in southern cal for many years. Wonder why a ball game ticket for you and each of your family members is $50 bucks per?

In 1983 this car cost the equivalent of a decent house...same as a new Rolls today (about $475,000). Yikes.

It's kind of an old guy's car, but whatever, I'm not 25 any more....

 

[Richard]

Cool car Cliff. What a find. Doesn't look like it needs anything in the way of repairs. Should be a great car for you and the family. Richard

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Congratulations, a nice buy.

 

[geoff]

From a GT40 to a Rolls your very old

 

[Ron Earp]

Cool! Malcolm here on the forum has had experience with a Rolls as he owned one too at one point. I don't remember a lot about it other than some parts on the car were raided from other manufacturers. I recall him needing some lifters and Rolls lifters were like $3XX each, but they were common GM lifters that could be had for $12 each if you knew what was going on.

The family was just at the BMW museum a couple of weeks ago where they had a huge Rolls focus on the upper level. If you're interested in RR you'd have loved it.


What engine is in your Rolls?

 

[Marcus]

"The chrome is all triple plated, for example, so the chrome fittings are all like new even 30 years later."



Fantastic car. So it still got its original paintwork etc.?

 

[Jack]

Very nice Cliff, congrats!

 

[Cliff Beer]

Thanks guys, appreciate the thumbs up here. It was a bit of a plunge buying the car as it's not something you can just park in the corner of your garage and forget about. It's a huge car...and parts are expensive and she needs maintenance, all that stuff.

Thanks Ron, yup, I'm going through all the tech stuff and trying to figure out what stuff might need to be bought through a rolls dealer, and what can be bought at NAPA. Just yesterday I went to NAPA for some spark plugs and such and just asked them if they happened to have a cap and rotor for it....yup, $40 bucks later I had a nice cap and rotor. The dealer price for a cap and rotor.....$300 bucks. Hhhhhmmmm....

It's a 6.8 litre engine, so it's huge. Beautiful engine, all aluminum (steel liners), very nice looking piece. Trouble is, it only makes about 240hp. Huh? Seriously? Seven litres and it only makes 240hp? That thing should be making 400hp+. What did they do to it, put valves in it out of a lawn mower? Now I'm thinking I need better heads, Edelbrock inlet, webers, stainless cross-X exhaust, etc........hhhhmmm...sound familiar?

I'll post a few more pics later on today. It sure is fun to go riding around in with my kids. Took the gang out for an ice cream run yesterday with the top down, and they were squealing with delight. Looked in the rear view and could see ice cream dripping down onto the seats and carpet though......damn kids.....

 

[40 Bud]

Nice car Cliff. It kind of goes with the lake view.

 

[Jack]

Hey Cliff, a small block iron Chevy W/gearbox is an inexpensive option. I actually had a neighbor with Rolls/Bently and no driveline and severe underbody rusting. Went to a wrecking yard and found a Chevy pickup truck chassis and all was well. Not too much fab work either. The braking system on that Rolls can be a nightmare, check it out.

 

[Larry L.]

Cliff - GOOD FOR YOU!!! You found your dream car AND WENT FOR IT!!! i'm happy for you, sir!!!


... now if I could only find my 348, tri-power, 4-speed, '59 Impala!

 

[Jack Houpe]

Guess we are both old, I've owned 2 Bentley's. Great looking car Cliff.

 

[Randy Farnsworth]

Corniche I presume...

 

[Randy V]

Nice car Cliff!

There's only a handful of cars built in the early eighties that were worth having.. That's one of them... :thumbsup:

 

[Mike Tanner]

Nice car Cliff! Your wife probably likes it better than the mistress in the garage since it can actually haul the entire family to get ice cream! Some of these older Rolls and Bentleys can be real buys for fantastic automobiles; congratulations on the new addition to the garage!

 

[Ron Earp]

T
It's a 6.8 litre engine, so it's huge. Beautiful engine, all aluminum (steel liners), very nice looking piece. Trouble is, it only makes about 240hp. Huh? Seriously? Seven litres and it only makes 240hp? That thing should be making 400hp+. What did they do to it, put valves in it out of a lawn mower? Now I'm thinking I need better heads, Edelbrock inlet, webers, stainless cross-X exhaust, etc........hhhhmmm...sound familiar?

..

Who made the engine? is it truly a RR engine, or is it based off of a big three engine design?

You might have to take a use what you have approach if the engine design isn't common. Port the heads, install larger valves, have a cam ground for it, and so on.

 

[Cliff Beer]

Hi Ron, yup, it's a bespoke RR engine. What's funny about it is that it's uncannily similar to a big block chevy engine in design and displacement (6.9 liters is the same as a 427) - very much like the big block in my old '73 suburban. It's all aluminum and has modern bosch injection and all that stuff but at the core it's pretty much just like a BB chevy - a single cam right down the middle of the V with pushrods in the valley for each cylinder. It even sounds like a big block.

I'll say one thing, this old rolls is built really, really well. Everything fits really well, the materials used are first rate, and she's as solid as a Sherman tank. Very impressed. She needs some brake work though....and it's going to be a handful as it's a complex system. For example, the front discs actually have two calipers on each side, one on the leading edge and one on the trailing edge. The vented discs are about an inch and a half thick. Wow. Parts costs are a big ouch though.....

 

[roaldin]

A story I was told as a teenager - a friend's uncle found an old vintage era Rolls in the bush locally ( this sort of thing is/was reasonably common where I am - more on this later). He rescued it and while doing so discovered it had a broken axle. He had no luck trying to find one so he wrote to RR who promptly sent him a new one at no cost with a note saying "Rolls Royce axles do not break". I really hope it was a true story.

On the subject of salvaging cars like that: I have a friend with a collection of many old cars, all rescued by two people over the years. It is amazing.

If you love your car then I am with you; who cares what others think?

Re' 240bhp - RR were building for refinement, smoothness, class, elegance etc, adequate power was all that was required to get his lordship from A-B in the manner he deserved...
Makes sense really. All about the purpose.
Better than the 180bhp 400ish CI yank tank a friend of mine had - gutless AND as far from refined as I am. Wish I could remember what it was... Just remember driving it - slooooooow...
A cammy, barking Roller? Does Sir require that I shudder?

An aside:
I have driven a few modern cars recently that purport to have 400bhp plus, including a Ferrari, but the traction control etc turn them into complete slugs - seriously, what is the point? 700bhp but 150 gets to the road... Built for brochure racers I guess.

Tim.

 

[Cliff Beer]

A story I was told as a teenager - a friend's uncle found an old vintage era Rolls in the bush locally ( this sort of thing is/was reasonably common where I am - more on this later). He rescued it and while doing so discovered it had a broken axle. He had no luck trying to find one so he wrote to RR who promptly sent him a new one at no cost with a note saying "Rolls Royce axles do not break". I really hope it was a true story.

On the subject of salvaging cars like that: I have a friend with a collection of many old cars, all rescued by two people over the years. It is amazing.

If you love your car then I am with you; who cares what others think?

Re' 240bhp - RR were building for refinement, smoothness, class, elegance etc, adequate power was all that was required to get his lordship from A-B in the manner he deserved...
Makes sense really. All about the purpose.
Better than the 180bhp 400ish CI yank tank a friend of mine had - gutless AND as far from refined as I am. Wish I could remember what it was... Just remember driving it - slooooooow...
A cammy, barking Roller? Does Sir require that I shudder?

An aside:
I have driven a few modern cars recently that purport to have 400bhp plus, including a Ferrari, but the traction control etc turn them into complete slugs - seriously, what is the point? 700bhp but 150 gets to the road... Built for brochure racers I guess.

Tim.

Hi Tim,

I wouldn't be surprised if that story was true....RR seems to take a lot of pride in their cars and the build quality is superb.

Yup, there were some 400ci+ GM cars in the 70's producing less than 200hp...and getting about 12 mpg at the same time....that's just plain bad engineering....

Totally agree regarding modern f-cars and the "driver's aids"/traction control. I think the real reason those devices are on those cars is so that rich old guys (who can afford a new f-car) who are poor drivers can actually drive the car without embarrassing themselves. In other words, the new f-cars make a really poor driver look pretty respectable on the track by way of lots of electronic wizardry...just a way to sell a bunch more cars to rich guys who really don't have the skill to drive such a car unassisted....that's just plain pathetic. For somebody who does have some balls and some skill it mutes the experience down to the lowest common denominator....which can make for a mediocre driving experience....

 

[colin artus]

The Rolls V8 is entirely their design and is a cutting edge design for 1955! It's designed for smoothness and longevity. The low output is a consequence of very low compression, low cam lift/duration and small valves. Despite that some aspects of the engine are impressive; 8 bolts per cylinder, forged steel crank with individual bolt on counterweights, forged aluminium main caps, forged rods and all front drives by helical gears. Some aspects are downright strange; the lifters are fitted in seperate bolt on cast iron housings and there are no oversized piston sets, it's new liners and slugs or nothing.