Vintage Rolls-Royce 25/30 wedding car
In my quest for finding the quintessential vintage wedding car, I found some truly stunning wedding vehicles. To my mind, beautiful Bentleys and Rolls-Royce wedding cars, make the perfect bridal carriages, especially for a classic English wedding. I discovered some lovely examples, but then I found this 1936 vintage Rolls-Royce 25/30 Park Ward. Kindly loaned to me for an afternoon’s photoshoot and available for wedding hire from iChauffeur Wedding Cars. I was keen to find out if it was as good as a wedding car as it looked.
There is something immediately special about this particular Rolls-Royce. Made before the outbreak of World War II. Before the dark clouds of war cast a shadow over the world and of course the British Commonwealth. At the time it was made, Rolls-Royce had the best car in the world award firmly locked away in it’s considerable trophy cabinet. This Rolls-Royce has a certain elegance and charm that only seems to grace cars from the Bentley and Rolls-Royce stable. Even by these standards this particular Rolls-Royce is a cut above your typical English mustard. Three score and ten years after it was made this Park Ward is still breathtakingly beautiful.
Flowing lines and large round headlamps give the car a characteristic common with other cars of the era. Yet, even looking closely at the paint work. I would swear that it had just been finished with a good polish yesterday, and definitely not seventy odd years before. The rear seats are a little worn in places, but that all adds to it’s authenticity. There is a privacy screen too, which can be wound up so you can share intimate moments out of ear shot of the chauffeur. There is a rear clock and a vase for flowers, which is a nice touch, especially as a wedding car. There is a folding sunroof, which will make a sunny ride to and from the church even more special.
Technology may have moved on from 1936. But even the latest Rolls-Royce Phantom hasn’t moved that far forward from this 1936 example. The Phantom is more reliable, and can handle ‘funny’ fuel a little bit better, but for a vehicle of this age, this 25/30 machine has a very quiet engine. Helped partly by the low RPM at tick over, but astonishingly quiet all the same.
The Spirit of Ecstasy radiator mascot that has adorned many a Rolls-Royce since 1911 is electronically altered in the Phantom, but the chauffeur of the 1936 Roller would have to unscrew it for safe keeping. When this car was made, Rolls-Royce only made the running gear. The coach work was then added later. In this case by Park Ward of London. Founded by William M. Park and Charles W. Ward in 1919, Park Ward became one of Rolls-Royce’s premier coach-builders. In 1933 Rolls-Royce bought a stake in the company.
1936 was the year the Supermarine Spitfire first took off. The legendary World War II fighter plane was also powered by a Rolls-Royce engine, The Merlin. The first examples suffered from poor reliability, but Henry Royce devised a plan to make them unbreakable. He took random Merlin engines off the production line. Then ran them at full power till they broke. Dissected the remains to find out what part broke first, then redesigned the weakest link. In this way the Merlin became pretty indestructible.
By modern standards the Park Ward wedding car is not as reliable as a modern car, but this wedding car comes complete with a chauffeur who is an award winning Rolls-Royce trained mechanic! The car is not really suitable for city weddings, because it can be prone to overheat if stuck in a jam. But for a suburban church wedding this is as English as it gets. For a romantic and wonderful ride to your wedding venue, climb aboard this vintage Rolls-Royce wedding car for a truly fitting and memorable experience.
Many thanks to iChauffeur for the loan of this beautiful wedding car. Learn more about this vintage Rolls-Royce wedding car.
