One of the fiercest automotive arguments must surely be: what is the coolest car of cinema or TV?
And indeed the contenders are many.
Frequently leading the list is James Bond’s tricked-out Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger. Others would plumb for the De Lorean DMC-12 in Back to the Future. Then there’s the Pontiac Firebird from Knight Rider – and was there ever a more quintessentially Eighties TV series? – and naturally the Ford Mustang 390 GT from Bullitt. The list goes on and on, and I can already hear you ruing the exclusion of your own personal favourites. But for me the debate is over.
Ever since a recent visit to the Sandton-based, specialist dealer PL Motors, I’ve rekindled my love of older Bentleys and Rolls-Royce motorcars – and when I say “older” I mean those machines dating back to the days before the Germans got their hands on this, the most British of institutions.
Anyway, the other day I was trawling through the back catalogue of my mind for files marked “Rolls and Bentley” when I stumbled across one marked “Elton John.” Then I remembered. Way back in the Eighties I’d seen a music video of Sir Elton’s Nikita with the singer lounging in the rear of a Bentley or Rolls-Royce drop-top, which I couldn’t quite remember. One quick google search later, I came across the music video.
As fans of Eighties trivia might know, the chart-topping song (and the music video) describes Sir Elton’s infatuation with the eponymous Nikita, a striking GDR borderguard with “eyes like ice on fire.” In the video she’s played by one Anya Major, but the real star is Sir Elton’s car – a Tudor Red, 1985 Bentley Continental DHC.
This is a badge-engineered version of the Rolls-Royce Corniche DHC, which was produced from 1971 to 1996. It was essentially a convertible version (also available as an FHC for a shorter period) of the Silver Shadow, although it far outlived that car’s production life.
And whether in Corniche or Continental guise (in which it was only briefly produced) it was an achingly elegant machine.
Witness Sir Elton reposing in the back of his (it was actually his own personal car) as he uses it as rather envy-inducing transport to approach an Iron Curtain border post and you’ll surely agree that no car of the big or small screen ever looked quite so regal, quite so beautiful, and quite so able to whisper the word “money.”
With good examples of Bentley Continentals or Rolls-Royce Corniches going for anywhere between R800 000 to R1,2-million and more, these elegant conveyances, that so sum up everything that’s right about capitalism, are far too expensive for a journalist to even aspire to.
But, please, watch the Nikita music video and tell me if you too aren’t inclined to put one of these machines at the very top of your dream fleet list.