"The Rolls-Royce Corniche was well-named. Few cars are better suited to wafting from Nice to Monaco along one of the three roads which share the car's name, and hug that dramatic coastline at different heights, looking down on the stunning azure bays around Villefranche and Eze."
"The Corniche's cachet has plainly not diminished much, but the 60-year-old engineering which underpins it is starting to feel its age, with weak brakes, vague steering and a general sense of reliable unreliability. The ancient V8 engines which powered them were always intended to be near-silent rather than sporty, so what I'm sitting in today - this electric 'restomod' reboot by Halcyon - seems appropriate, offering the modern equivalent of the effortless performance Rolls aimed for and addressing all the problems of a car of this age."
"The 1965 Rolls-Royce Shadow saloon on which the two-door Corniche was based was one of the marque's best and most successful cars - and it's rightly enjoying something of a moment with collectors and the Instagram car crowd. The fixed-head Corniche coupe version which arrived in 1971 was the purest expression of the Shadow's subtle, handsome, perfectly proportioned styling."
"If you made it - and I mean really made it - in the '70s or '80s you bought one, just like Paul McCartney and Frank Sinatra and Elton John did. It was a superyacht for the road and the ultimate automotive discretionary purchase: so popular with the elite that it stayed in production until 1995, 15 years after the Shadow on which it was based was replaced."
The Rolls-Royce Corniche is associated with scenic Riviera drives between Nice and Monaco, following roads that share the car’s name and offering views of azure bays. The two-door Corniche coupe was based on the 1965 Shadow saloon, with the 1971 fixed-head version representing the purest styling. The convertible gained the most attention and sales, becoming a status symbol among elite buyers and remaining in production until 1995. Over time, the original engineering aged, with weak brakes, vague steering, and reliability concerns. Halcyon’s electric restomod replaces the old V8 power with an EV setup aimed at delivering the effortless, near-silent performance Rolls intended, while addressing the car’s weaknesses and creating a personalized, unique build.
Read at Elite Traveler
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]