1970 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow DropHead Coupe MPW ONE OWNER Convertible Phantom

1970 Rolls-Royce Corniche Silver Shadow DropHead Coupe by H.J. Mulliner Park Description

1970 Rolls-Royce silver shadow drophead coupé by H.J. Mulliner Park Ward

One owner automobile, private party, with clear California title.

This 1970 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, H.J. Mulliner Park Ward Drop Head coupé was built to special order. Solid exotic burl-wood trim throughout interior (not veneer) power windows, power steering, cold factory Frigidare air conditoning, power convertible top, factory power disk brakes, hydraulic self leveling rear end, CD player, full factory leather interior including power seats.

Mulliner Park Ward starting building the car in 1969 with Serial Number DRH----- and finished it in 1970. The automobile took a crewmonthsto hand build this spectacular automobile. It is fitted with some exceeding rare options, including many components later incorporated into the Corniche. For practical purposes this car could be considered the last MPW Drop Head or the first Corniche ever made! There were approximately 500 MPW Drop Heads built but I understand only three transitions vehicles were produced, all RHD.

The car was bought new in England by a Rolls Royce enthusiast, who at the time, was an intercontinental United Airlines Pilot. The car was eventuallyimported by the ownerto California and brought into EPA and National Highway Safety Standard compliance. The car has been owned by one person since new and has spent most of its life in a temperature controlled garage in Pebble Beach, California.

The car has recently undergone a renewal. The investment exceeded $20,000.00 on mechanics, electrics, and hydraulics. The interior of this car, the leather, the carpeting and woodwork, are all ORIGINAL and in excellent shape. The leather has been professionally re-dyed. The only thing that is not original Rolls Royce factory is the alternator.

It has traveled approximately 200 miles since it was completed and the car drives wonderfully! Special attention was given to the car to keep everything factory original. The brakes, the air conditioning, and the power seats function as they should.

The original MPW Drop Heads, with chrome bumpers and SU carburetors are the most sought after and collectable of the late model Rolls Royce. This is quite likely the best example to have been put on the market in decades. The car Includes the original Owners Handbook, numerousrecords, and technical books.

Recent service includes Full hydraulic system service including new factory accumulators, full system flush, new front brakes, new front brake lines, new tires, and fresh oil change and filter. The Rolls also has a New alternator, new spark plugs, new factory water pump, and recoring of the radiator.

A compression test of the 8 cylinders rendered the following psi.

1 180 5 180

2 175 6 180

3 180 7 180

4 175 8 175

Tan and brown, matching brown convertible top, original tan leather interior. Comes with all original owners manual, service records for last 30 years, Rolls Royce tool set, as well as original tire jacks and tools.

Finished in, two complimentary shades of Tan/brown, with tan leather interior. Extremely rare and all original.

About the Corniche:

The Rolls-Royce Corniche is a two-door, front-engine, rear wheel drive five-seater manufactured and marketed by Rolls-Royce as a coupé and convertible from 1971 to 1995.

Manufacturer Rolls-Royce Ltd (defunct 1973)

Engine 6.75 L L410 OHV V8

The Corniche was a development of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, with the two door variants of that model marketed as the "Silver Shadow Mulliner Park Ward two door fixed head coupé & drop head coupé" from 1966 until when the Corniche name was applied. The exterior design was by John Polwhele Blatchley. The model was assembled and finished in London at Mulliner Park Ward as continuation of the 1965 Silver Shadow coupe and 1966 drophead, with the Corniche name applied in March 1966. The Corniche was also sold as a Bentley, though that model became known as the Continental in 1984.

The first car with the Corniche nameplate was a 1939 prototype based on the Bentley Mark V and never produced because of the onset of World War II.

The Corniche nameplate stems from the originally French and Italian term for a coastal road, especially along the face of a cliff.

Rolls Royce began marketing the Corniche in 1971, having registered the name in the 1930s. The original Corniche was a prototype based on the Bentley Mark V featuring coachwork by the Paris firm, Carrosserie Vanvooren.The single car undertook 15,000 miles of endurance testing in Continental Europe before being blown up by a bomb at Dieppe while waiting at the dockside to be shipped to England.

The Corniche, was available as coupé or convertible,used the standard Rolls-Royce V8 engine with an aluminium-silicon alloy block and aluminium cylinder heads with cast iron wet cylinder liners. The bore was 4.1 in (104.1 mm) and the stroke was 3.9 in (99.1 mm) for a total of 6.75 L (6,750 cc/411 cuin). WithTwin SU carburetors.

A three-speed automatic transmission (a Turbo Hydramatic 350 sourced from General Motors) was standard. A four-wheel independent suspension with coil springs was augmented with a hydraulic self-levelling system (using the same system as did Citroën, but without pneumatic springs, and with the hydraulic components built under licence by Rolls-Royce), at first on all four, but later on the rear wheels only. Four wheel disc brakes were specified, with ventilated discs.

Notable owners of Corniche include: Aristotle Onassis, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Liberace, Dean Martin, Zsa Zsa Gabor, David Attenborough, Dick Emery, James May and billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.