Michael Caine’s Rolls-Royce to go under the hammer with a top estimate of £150,000
Not a lot of people know that it was his first car
A Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow formerly owned by the actor Michael Caine and with a fascinating history attached is set to go under the auctioneer’s hammer in March with an estimate of between £100,000 and £150,000.
The black 1968 Silver Shadow Drophead Coupé was The Italian Job star’s first car. One of just 506 Silver Shadow dropheads finished by coachbuilder Mulliner Park Ward between 1967 and 1971, it was purchased new by the actor in London in 1968.
Caine is said to wandered unkempt and unshaven into the well-known Jack Barclay showroom on Berkeley Square bearing a shopping list that read “milk, bread, newspaper, cigarettes, Rolls-Royce.”
Ushered off the premises by a salesman who believed Caine was a timewaster, the actor walked to another Rolls-Royce dealer, H.A. Fox on Dover Street where he found the Silver Shadow; a car that had been taken into stock after the playwright and screenwriter, Terence Rattigan (The Winslow Boy, The Yellow Rolls-Royce) cancelled his order for it.
Not having his own driving licence, the 35-year-old rising star of sixties hits such as Zulu and Alfie found it was much cheaper to employ a chauffeur than pay the exorbitant premiums demanded by insurers for a new Rolls-Royce on L-plates.
It is reported that the actor subsequently took great pleasure in cruising slowly past the Jack Barclay showroom proffering two fingers towards the salesman who head earlier sent him packing.
The car also features extensively in the 1969 documentary ‘Candid Caine’, though the actor didn’t hold onto his Rolls-Royce for very long — it was sold two years after he bought it to the well-known London restaurateur Jack Leach, owner of the Gasworks restaurant in Fulham.
Leach kept the Silver Shadow for 43 years until his death in 2013, the car having become a familiar sight around Fulham and Chelsea.
Since being acquired by a new owner, the car has undergone a full restoration costing tens of thousands of pounds.
Damian Jones, senior motorcar specialist at H&H Classics, said: “Appearing in more than 160 films across seven decades, Sir Michael Caine is a true British icon, so it’s a pleasure to be able to offer his very first car for sale, which in itself is another great British classic.
“From its original purchase by Sir Michael, and its subsequent 43-year ownership by infamous Gasworks restaurateur Jack Leach, the car’s history is truly captivating and one which I’m sure will delight and fascinate the new owner.”
The Silver Shadow goes to auction at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, on March 15 — exactly a day after the 90th birthday of its first owner.
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