DUCHESS CARS

   Eleanor
 

Our ‘Spirited Lady of Ecstasy’ is called ‘Eleanor’ and she is a 1973 V8 6.75 litre Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Mark 1. She was built and plated on the 10th of January, that year, and registered on the 1st March, for a Client in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has a Silver Mink roof over a Caribbean Blue body.

Duchess Cars purchased ‘Eleanor’ on the 2nd of April 2009, after she had spent the last 6 years living outside: the last owner covered only 260 miles in 2½ years, in which she did not move for the last 15 months of that time. The original Connelly Hide leather interior was a dark blue/grey and was looking rather worn and tired after 36 years of service. She had several leaks in the window seals and suffered degradation of the upholstery, door linings and carpets with the cold and damp conditions, at her previous owner’s premises, on the edge of Dartmoor.

The first order was to get ‘Eleanor’ ready for the MOT, which she passed with very little work needed. The brakes were seized and required stripping and refurbishing along with the handbrake mechanism and cable. 2 new pipes soon sorted out the leaks on the gearbox cooling system. Testimony to the great English engineering of Rolls Royce is the fact that she did not require any welding repairs to any part of her structure.

The original plan was to re-upholster the interior in the same dark blue/grey but, upon advice, chose a bright and airy Powder Blue with all the piping and door detail finished in Pearl Grey. The upholstery work was carried out to a very high standard by Dave Nichols Upholstery of Plymouth. All other repairs, renovation and cleaning was completed by my Fiancée and I and ‘Eleanor’ was ready on the 26 June 2009.

As the car has an ‘L’ suffix on the registration plate, we named her ‘Eleanor’, (Elle for short), at the beginning of May. Some six weeks later we were very surprised to learn that the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ statue, (which had been commissioned by Rolls Royce), was sculpted by Charles Sykes and first appeared as the Rolls Royce mascot in 1911. The inspiration for this was from a previous sculpture, that Lord Montague of Beaulieu commissioned, in 1908, to adorn the radiator of his 1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, which became known as 'The Whisper'.

The Whisper sculpture was of a young woman in a silky fluttering robe with a secretive forefinger held to her lips. It is widely believed to have been modeled by the London-based secretary and mistress of Lord Montague and her name was, Eleanor Thornton.

It is said to represent a love not to be talked about, a secret to be kept.

To this day, only the Montague family and the Royal Family have 'official' permission to use a non-standard radiator mascot on their Rolls Royce Cars.

Montague

Our alternative/additional car is called 'Montague' and is a straight six 2.8 litre Mercedes Benz E Class 280. The original owner purchased it directly from the factory in Stuttgart, Germany and drove it back to the UK. 'Monty' has a white exterior and the upholstery is finished in a mid-blue textile fabric.

With reference to the story of Eleanor Thornton and Lord Montague, we decided to stay with this theme and that is why we chose to call the Mercedes 'Montague' (Monty for short).