Just Arrived

Rolls-Royce MPW 2-door Saloon - FSD 830

Chassis:  CRH2774

Some cars arrive quietly, blend into the workshop queue, and wait patiently for their turn.

This is not one of those cars.

Fresh in is this 1967 Rolls-Royce Mulliner Park Ward 2-Door Saloon — which, depending on how deep into Rolls-Royce lore you are, is either “an early two-door Shadow” or something far more interesting indeed.

Because before there was the Corniche, there was this.

Back in the mid-1960s, Rolls-Royce launched the Silver Shadow: modern, technically ambitious, and hugely important for the company. But while the standard saloon sold well enough, Mulliner Park Ward decided to do something rather clever with it. They took the Shadow platform, removed two doors, lowered and reshaped the roofline, stretched the proportions just enough, and created what became one of the most elegant cars Rolls-Royce had produced in years.

Not officially called a Corniche yet, of course. That name wouldn’t appear until 1971.

But make no mistake — this is the car that became the Corniche.

And honestly, you can see why people got excited about them then, because they still stop you in your tracks now.

The proportions are gorgeous. Long bonnet, delicate pillars, that beautifully restrained roofline, and just enough chrome to remind you this was still a Rolls-Royce at heart. They somehow manage to look formal and glamorous at the same time.

This one is finished in metallic light blue with a deep red leather interior, which sounds slightly brave on paper but works remarkably well in person. Very period. Very expensive-looking. Very much the sort of specification that suggests somebody ordering it originally had strong opinions and several houses.

Inside, things become slightly more complicated.

Beneath the collection of loose trim pieces, detached bumpers, and assorted parts currently travelling inside the cabin, you can see the interior has started showing its age. The red leather is dry and cracked in places, worn in the way old Rolls-Royce leather tends to when it’s spent a few decades being alternately admired and ignored. The lacquer on the woodwork is also doing exactly what lacquer from the 1960s always eventually does: lifting, peeling, and cracking away from the veneer beneath like old sunburn.

None of it especially shocking. Just honest age.

Condition-wise, it’s going to need some work — but importantly, it looks like the right sort of work.

The body appears fundamentally decent, which matters enormously on one of these. The engine, however, is currently contributing very little to proceedings beyond occupying space. It doesn’t run at present, although we’ll be giving the car a proper once-over in the coming days to establish exactly what it needs.

Then there’s the bumpers.

For reasons currently unknown, both are sitting inside the car rather than attached to it. Which does make unloading slightly easier, if nothing else.

Still, even as it sits, this thing has presence.

And we already know it’s going to generate interest.

These early Mulliner Park Ward cars occupy a very special corner of Rolls-Royce history now — hand-built, rare, and hugely significant to the evolution of the brand itself. They represent the moment Rolls-Royce realised the Silver Shadow platform could become something far more glamorous, more exclusive, and ultimately more iconic than anyone had originally planned.

Which brings us neatly to this one.

Before we dive into it ourselves, if someone wants to get in early and take on a genuinely special project, we’ll be looking for around £12,000 as it stands.

For a hand-built pre-Corniche MPW coupe with this sort of rarity, style, and potential, that feels like a rather exciting opportunity.

And truthfully, we don’t expect it to hang around for very long.

For further details, please contact:

Email: andy.beaman@flyingspares.co.uk
Direct Dial: +44 1455 299903