Quintin Komaromy

1927 Limousine by Caffyns GHJ72

GHJ72 was made for Mr Stanley F. Powell, a benefactor of Eastbourne College, Sussex. He placed the order on 5 February 1927 with Caffyns of Eastbourne for a price of £2,025. Caffyns, a provincial motor body builder had just been appointed the official Rolls-Royce retailer for Sussex.

The Caffyns body has an unusual curved division, two occasional seats, and telephone to the Chauffeur. The chassis was the first 20hp with the outside steering arm and 0.7 inch steering box developed on the experimental Twenty 11 G lll.

Powell sold the car May/June 1935 when he purchased GYH52, a Rolls-Royce 20/25 Barker Saloon.

When Quintin’s father purchased the car in 1972, the engine was well worn and was later found to have a bent crankshaft. Travel up hills necessitated going up in reverse because oil poured out of the engine on to the clutch, but it did win the class prize at the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club 1974 Stowe meeting for “The Car Most in need of Restoration”.

In 1977 Caffyns, to celebrate their 50 years as a Rolls-Royce Retailer, agreed to refurbished the body and interior to the original colours of brown and beige whilst my father rebuilt engine with weekly trips to Rolls-Royce at Hythe Road to meet with Ron Haynes and John Fasal to locate many of the missing parts. Both axles, the brakes and most of chassis had worn badly and were rebuilt. New radiator and aluminium cylinder head were later fitted. The wheels which were 19 inch in 1972, were rebuilt to the correct original 21 inch.

The car has been on several 20hp Club rallies in UK and France but for most of the time it has been used for short journeys and seldom got hot, probably because of this, after only 20.000 miles the engine was again stripped down and rebuilt  prior to going on the RREC 2015 Grand Alpine Tour when it performed faultlessly throughout the 2000-mile rally and has never once failed to proceed in the last 50 years.

The car has been in ownership of the Komaromy family for 52 years and is now maintained by Quintin Komaromy.