Simon & Chloe Tindall

1926 Park Ward Tourer GUK50

GUK50 was off-test on 1 June 1926 and delivered to Park Ward for fitting an open tourer body, specified as a "sporting 4-seat tourer" and that the coachwork should weigh just 6½ cwt .  The first owner was Sydney Dunbavin Hollingsworth, a wealthy insurance broker.  In November 1933 it was sold to Norman William Sayer, an industrialist.

After WWII, GUK50 had 10 owners in 11 years, including Eric Lubbock Liberal MP, and a member of the TATA family.  Finally in 1956 it went to twins Michael and John Elles-Hill: they used the car a lot.  In 1958 the last Debutantes Ball was held at Buckingham Palace and the twins drove down The Mall in GUK50 holding a placard saying "Goodbye Dear Debs"  The Elles-Hill brothers were rarely out of the news and the car featured appropriately with them.  In 1959 they drove to Switzerland  and over the Simplon Pass into Italy, and in 1960 they drove to Venice and back with no problems.

In the early 1950s the original engine G1173 had been replaced by G414 from a 1922/1923 20hp, 73A9.  (According to correspondence between Michael Elles-Hill and Hugh Keller of Paddons Brothers, Paddons had the original G1773 but it was "in need of major and costly restoration")  In 1959 another replacement engine U2J was fitted, from a 1929 20hp GLN30.

As with many Rolls-Royce cars, GUK50 resided in California from 1960 to 1998 when it returned to England.  It had two owners until Simon and Chloe Tindall bought it in May 2015. 

At one point in its early life it had its steering wheel cut through to open up one quarter of the circle, see the old photograph.