Rock 'n Rolla

[Ray Singh]

After waatching Oz and James drink to Britain on BBC2 this evening, i decided to have a look at Rollers. Proper retro british car.

Seen these beuties on PH....



Details here: www.pistonheads.com/sales/687629.htm

and this gem, hows about an armoured Roller? Made for the governor of the bank of england, presumably in better times.......



Details here: www.pistonheads.com/sales/781120.htm

I want this car so much it actually hurts.

Can anyone do me a favour? Put a set of TSW Holsten wheels on this using Photoshop don't forget to liberally use the lowering stick.......



Right I'm off to the bathroom, with a copy of these pictures........

[garry01]

i gotta topless rolla turning up at work this week for restoration and color change, might be interesting.

[akku]

I keep having interesting thoughts about these, and the later model Spur etc.

You may have issues finding wheels to fit as IIRC the PCD is something mad like 6.25" or something... Something tells me in my deep dusty memory they have same PCD as early Land Rovers

[popuptoaster]

cheapish to buy but massively expensive to buy parts for when i was looking at purchasing one for irreverant mods.

[retrowagen1234]

theres one sorta layed up near me. well outside the house in gold with no hubcaps. just needs dropping and driving... keep trying to convince the girlfriend to buy it for me the rear hubs look like early lockers off a landy so maybe same axle? or near

[lae]

My girlfriend lives down the road from a roller dealer in bournemouth, I'm always oggling the cars in there, the guys recognise me now from all the time I've spent staring as I walk past

I'd love a Corniche...

The noise it made on the TV program was awesome, it was a really distant low rumble. I was lucky enough to drive an e-type (used to work in a garage and it needed driving a 15 mile round trip to pick up the owner!), had the same kind of noise (although in all honesty it was curse word to drive)

Problem with cars like this is that they're now cheap enough for most people to buy, but there's no way most people can afford to maintain them, so they just degrade.

[jettadeluxe]

Jan 14, 2009 1:51:33 GMT lae said:

My girlfriend lives down the road from a roller dealer in bournemouth, I'm always oggling the cars in there, the guys recognise me now from all the time I've spent staring as I walk past

I'd love a Corniche...

The noise it made on the TV program was awesome, it was a really distant low rumble. I was lucky enough to drive an e-type (used to work in a garage and it needed driving a 15 mile round trip to pick up the owner!), had the same kind of noise (although in all honesty it was curse word to drive)

Problem with cars like this is that they're now cheap enough for most people to buy, but there's no way most people can afford to maintain them, so they just degrade.

Is that the Bentley/Roller servicing place just a few doors up from Tigran at the top of Winton?

[popuptoaster]

I think the rear suspension is really complicated and expensive to fix and breaks quite a lot, brakes can be dear possibly as well, been a while since i looked into them, and they rust terribly, i'd look for a clean one and fit it with air bags and a yank V8 which should get rid of the expensive failiure points.

[Ray Singh]

Ive seen this and am salivating at the prospect.....
written off tho the seller asking for more details etc.

[retrowagen1234]

Just took some pics of the one sat up near me. ill get some pics up of it tonight

[2woody]

I'm one stage ahead of you - I have a '83 Mulsanne Turbo.

paid £4050 for it from ebay, and have got much more than I would have expected for the money. Yes, the parts are REALLY expensive, and maintenance isn't easy, but in essence it's a '60s saloon, which can be fixed in the normal manner.

Hydraulics and rear suspension is actually very simple, it's just that there's lots of it - don't confuse technical complexity for "amount of kit".

On the parts front, expensive means over £100 for a suspension bush for example. I would advise that if you aren't prepared to buy the parts that are necessary or aren't prepared to maintain perfectly, then you really shouldn't be looking at one. There is a bit of a law of diminishing returns here - eventually the motor car gets owned by someone who scrimps on the maintenance, which de-values the vehicle so that it falls into the scope of someone with less budget, who scrimps further, and so on. What I'm really saying is that you have to be prepared to break this cycle.

In the last year, I have replaced many "servicing" items and done a complete front suspension and subframe swap, as well as to uprate the suspension to "Turbo R" spec, and all of that's cost about £1250.

I am planning to convert it to fuel injection, add a big charge-cooler and convert to 4-speed transmission. There may also be some further suspension mods on the way ( Mind you, I do think that lowering a vehicle should be punishable by summary execution ! )

I might also be forced to look at aftermarket wheels - even though I really hate any aftermarket wheel, getting tyres to fit is a real nightmare.

BUT overall it is the most excellent form of transport yet devised and I would advise anyone to go for it now before we all have to repay Gordon's loans.

[tigran]

Jan 14, 2009 13:18:07 GMT @jettadeluxe said:

Jan 14, 2009 1:51:33 GMT lae said:

My girlfriend lives down the road from a roller dealer in bournemouth, I'm always oggling the cars in there, the guys recognise me now from all the time I've spent staring as I walk past

I'd love a Corniche...

The noise it made on the TV program was awesome, it was a really distant low rumble. I was lucky enough to drive an e-type (used to work in a garage and it needed driving a 15 mile round trip to pick up the owner!), had the same kind of noise (although in all honesty it was curse word to drive)

Problem with cars like this is that they're now cheap enough for most people to buy, but there's no way most people can afford to maintain them, so they just degrade.

Is that the Bentley/Roller servicing place just a few doors up from Tigran at the top of Winton?

Have to have drive past that place like 5 times a day. It's like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. Some stunning cars in there - the most stunning a mk2 red escort, ooooof!

[Ray Singh]

2Woody - Any chance of some pictures of your car? Sounds nice.

I used to own a 1989 911 carerra 3.2. It ate through my wallet at a rapid rate of knots. I spent around £5k on maintainance in the 1 year i owned the car. But i appreciate the comments about the costs.

[lae]

Jan 14, 2009 14:50:00 GMT tigran said:

Jan 14, 2009 13:18:07 GMT @jettadeluxe said:

Is that the Bentley/Roller servicing place just a few doors up from Tigran at the top of Winton?

Have to have drive past that place like 5 times a day. It's like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. Some stunning cars in there - the most stunning a mk2 red escort, ooooof!

Yip that's the one, Silver Lady Services. If you ever see a G reg black corolla crawling past with someone's head peering out the window, that's me.

[jettadeluxe]

Jan 14, 2009 16:14:00 GMT lae said:

Jan 14, 2009 14:50:00 GMT tigran said:

Have to have drive past that place like 5 times a day. It's like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. Some stunning cars in there - the most stunning a mk2 red escort, ooooof!

Yip that's the one, Silver Lady Services. If you ever see a G reg black corolla crawling past with someone's head peering out the window, that's me.

My (old) garage is just around the corner.

I'm shortly to relocate to the Retro Rides Secret Underground Bunker though.

[Harold Ramp Bumface Fandango]

So what sort of money could a decent, MOT'd and useable Mk1 Shadow be had for do we reckon? I'm feeling plenty of love for them.

[gotwood]

This one was in a local scrapyard wearing an MGB GT as a hat a few years back ...



I did manage to save the grab handles which were a direct replacement for the ones in the Polo ;D

( my apologies for the poorly scanned pics )

[garry01]

this turned up today at work, restoration and color change, and he wants it black ! was hoping for white the easy option, never mind , the fun starts tomorrow.

[Ray Singh]

Rat look Rolls Royce. Thats the coolest thing ive ever seen. I'll pee in my pants when i see the completed pictures.....
Why is one headlight missing, is it the J drifting look :-).?

[garry01]

the customer has done his best to strip it out, but seems to have given up and leave the rest to us, just so long as we aint gotta fit it back up .