[ITSv40]

All this R-R/Bentley discussion reminds me of an incident 20 years ago.

We had organised a private visit to a stately home in the next village to us and in order to minimise disruption to our hosts agreed to all arrive at the same time. In order to facilitate this everyone arrived at our's for coffee and then drove the short distance in convoy. Parking for 15 cars on our drive was a bit tight, but we managed it . Now I had just finished block paving the courtyard in front of the garages and used that to park several cars - new paving, Rolls-Royce cars, what could possibly go wrong!

The event was the first for a new member who had recently joined the club. He arrived in the scruffiest white Shadow 1. Recently poorly resprayed with filler very visible along the skirts. He was like a pup with two tails regarding his purchase, 'It's a Roller, mate and only cost me thruppence ha'penny'. Needless to say that was one of the cars parked on the pristine block paving. Coffee was served and we all went off to the stately home. White scruffy car drives off and leaves an oil slick on the paving of six inches in diameter. A quick scrub with degreaser didn't remove the stain and I subsequently had to lift the affected blocks and replace. The car hadn't stood there for more than 45 mins.

The owner came to several club events and turned out a thoroughly decent chap, but his ownership didn't last long, he soon got very disillusioned with his purchase and sold it on. Over the years I have seen so many disillusioned owners who didn't experience the ownership enjoyment they were expecting.