PIII Chassis number 3AZ138 may not be the most famous of Rolls-Royces but is probably the most infamous. 

The car started life as a Hooper limousine and spent time in the US before returning to the UK body-less and languishing in a field until, in 1973, it was bought by one of this country’s most famous and charismatic Motor Engineers, Charles Amherst Villiers. 

Charles was born in 1900 and is best known for supercharging the Birkin Bentleys that, as WO predicted, were not to be reliable. In R-R circles he is better known for designing and building a small running board mounted engine and supercharger for Jack Kruse’s PI. Birkin got 108 mph out of it at Brooklands and Dorothy Padgett owned it for a time. It’s now in Australia. He also painted portraits of Ian Fleming and Graham Hill and these are in the National Portrait Gallery. They were completed in the early sixties when he and others were designing the BRM V8 Formula One car that Hill was driving. It later won a World Championship. CAV was a lifelong friend of Ian Fleming which is why Bond’s car, in the earlier books, was a supercharged 4.5L WO. 

While the PIII rebuild was under way, some work having been done, CAV met up with senior R-R personnel and was able to persuade them to take on and finish the job at their expense in exchange for use of the car for publicity purposes. It was to aid the launch of the new Bentley Mulsanne Turbo in ‘82. This included fitting and testing turbochargers to CAV’s design and, according to the papers of the day, building it to a standard that would enable it to win a concours event like the RREC Club annual Rally. 

It all went disastrously wrong and CAV sued R-R for not completing the job or doing it properly, the story appeared in all the major newspapers (see below) and he won the case. However, although it was a humiliating disaster for R-R, poor CAV was dead before the court ruling and was succeeded only by an unwell daughter. It was a sad end to an illustrious career. 

The 11th King of Malaysia then purchased the car in 1999. HRH Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah we understand loved it but was not aware of its history and sadly died rather young. His third son HH Prince Tenghku Abdul Samad Shah who now owns the car had done some research and was fascinated by this extraordinary story and so asked us to rebuild it for him, as it had never run properly. The Prince was inordinately fond of his father and therefore wishes the car to be what R-R were not able to make it; a concours example of one of the company’s most enigmatic products, a suitable memorial to a very special relationship cut short by a cruel act of fate. 

Alpine Eagle have completely disassembled the car and the rebuild is now under way, Turbo chargers are not going to be used, the overdrive has been removed in favour of a higher axle ratio. The original differential was rusty and parts of the chassis had been so badly butchered that not only were many new ones necessary but also a second hand chassis had to be robbed to get everything as it should be. We cannot say who is to blame for this work since several companies were involved and standards were lower then anyway; all we can say is this one was pretty bad. 

The body has had to be altered to get the doors to fit properly, a smaller, contemporary rear window has been fitted and some new panelling. The wings are to be remade to look in proportion to the body and the interior is to be pure Gurney Nutting and not seventies R-R/CAV. 

The engine was in a poor state, the liner heights were wrong and although the area where O-rings seal them in the block had been sleeved and re-machined, they were off-centre so the liners were higher one side than the other. The work is a real challenge and that is what we like most. When it is finished, the car will be a Royal blue with honey trim and roof covering with complimentary veneers. The wings will be larger, deeper and more elegant. 

We are extremely proud of this commission and will ensure that our work lives up to or exceeds our esteemed customer’s expectations. We’ll build a truly wonderful car.