1938' Rolls-Royce 25/30

*** Please note: The vehicles included in this auction are not available to purchase from Brightwells before the sale.***

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This car will be sold at the Brightwells Classic Car Auction Online commencing at 10am on Saturday 13th February 2021 and finishing Thursday 18th February at 7pm along with many other classic vehicles, some at no reserve.
For more pictures and a full description, please visit www . brightwells . com and click on ‘Classic Motoring’. Please get in touch if you wish to enter your own vehicle.


1938 Rolls-Royce 25/30 Windovers Limousine

Estimate: £3,000-5,000

Believed ex-Scottish Motor Show car; matching numbers; original Windovers coachwork; last driven 50 years ago; barn find in need of full restoration or good basis for a special, perhaps?

The policy of selling ‘chassis only’ cars meant that Rolls-Royce had little control over the bodies fitted to their exquisitely engineered cars, leaving the choice of coachbuilder to an increasingly affluent (and ostentatious) client base. It became a constant battle to keep up with the soaring weight of ever-more opulent body styles, a problem only solved through designing more powerful engines and revised gear ratios.

It was for this very reason that the delightful and delicate Rolls-Royce Twenty was succeeded in 1929 by the altogether more robust 20/25. Sharing many components with the similarly-sized Bentley 3.5-litre, it too was further upgraded in 1936 when the capacity of the engine was increased to 4,257cc and renamed the 25/30.

The new 25/30 was fitted with synchromesh on third and top and powerful mechanical servo brakes produced under license from Hispano-Suiza. Contemporary road tests commented on the exquisite precision of all the controls, the entire absence of mechanical noise and the uncanny smoothness of the ride - one saying that the car behaved so beautifully that it was difficult to drive badly.

This particular Rolls-Royce 25/30 (chassis number GMP 65) wears formal limousine-with-division coachwork by Windovers of London (body number 6057). Of the 1,201 25/30s built in total, 69 had Windovers coachwork and it is believed that this very car was exhibited by them at the Scottish Motor Show and used as a demonstrator before being sold to first owner R Levin Esq in April 1938.

It was then owned by a lady who ran Smartwear Ltd, an upmarket fashion outlet on Oxford Street. A buff logbook shows five further owners in the Leeds/Halifax area between 1950 and 1967 when the car moved to Stafford where we are told that it was put to work as a taxi. An old tax disc shows that it was still on the road in 1968 although it seems that it was laid up shortly after this date and has not turned a wheel since.

Being offered here as a restoration project at a very modest guide price, this rare survivor appears to be complete and still retains its original coachwork and engine (number D24E). Documentation includes the aforementioned buff logbook, an owner’s handbook, a service manual and a Castrol lubrication guide for Rolls-Royce models from 1928 – 1939.

For more information contact James on the details below or email using the button below

Reg No: ELH 617
Chassis Number: GMP65
Engine Number: D24E
Engine Size: 4257

Documents
Buff logbook; owner's handbook; service manual; Castrol lubricant guide

Estimate: £3,000-5,000