Churchill’s restored Rolls is worth £250K
Winston Churchill
After rotting in a garage for decades, the 1923 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce, used by Britain’s wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, has been restored to its former glory — and it’s now worth £250,000.
Churchill used the car to give driving lessons to UK’s first female MP, Lady Astor, on a Kent estate. The vintage motor also served in the Second World War as a recovery truck and gained international fame in hit TV series The Avengers.
During the war years, its back end was cut off to convert it into a recovery truck with a mini crane bolted on to the chassis for the auxiliary fire and ambulance service in Manchester.
And in the 1960s, the Rolls appeared in 18 episodes of the Avengers as the car of choice for English gentleman character John Steed. During the series, the car had a steak cooked on engine and a ladder smashed through the windscreen.
But after the show the Rolls was forgotten about — and sat deteriorating in a Sussex garage until earlier this year. It had been purchased for just £200 in the early 1950s by the grandfather of Tania Turner, from Sussex.
He spent £2,000 on restoring the vehicle, but sadly left it in his garage for decades before passing it on to Turner and husband Andy. They enlisted the help of classic car expert Charlie Tope to return the Rolls to the open road.
Turner said: “A friend had his old Alvis restored by Charlie and we thought he would be the ideal person to tackle the Rolls. She looks absolutely fantastic — better than new.”
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