Silver Rolls-Royce loses its sheen in Sharjah parking lot

Parked seemingly abandoned by a roundabout, the car looks pathetic, slowly rotting.

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There is perhaps no name in motoring more famous than Rolls-Royce.

The company is known around the world for making cars that represent the pinnacle of luxury.

Kings and queens, sports stars and multimillionaire businessmen have owned Rolls-Royces during the company’s 100-year history.

It is thought that 70 per cent of all Rolls-Royces made are still roadworthy.

In Sharjah, there is a Rolls-Royce whose miserable fate could hardly have less in keeping with the grand traditions of the marque.

Parked seemingly abandoned by a roundabout, the car looks pathetic, slowly rotting.

It is a Rolls-Royce that turns heads for all the wrong reasons.

The car, thought to have been made in the 1980s, is sitting close to a roundabout near Sharjah’s Central Market.

When it rolled off the Rolls-Royce production line in Crewe, England, its silver paintwork would have shined brightly.

Today, however, it is dull and cracking and even rusting. And it is covered in dust.

A hubcap is missing, the car’s Dubai licence plate is out of date and only one windscreen wiper remains — and that is turning brown. Two tyres, white-rimmed as is the tradition for Rolls-Royces, are going flat.

Philip Hall, a member of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club in England and chief executive of the Henry Royce Memorial Foundation, which preserves the Rolls-Royce archives, said he was sorry to hear of the car’s plight.

“It’s a great pity because many hours of dedicated work will have gone into this car. You would never see a car like this abandoned in the UK, but it’s not that unusual to hear of cars from this era being dismantled,” Hall told Gulf News from his offices in Northamptonshire, England.

“They are complex motor cars and they can get into a state where it costs many times their value to get them running again. It can be cheaper to scrap them and buy a new one.

“In the United Kingdom, you can buy a good example of a Rolls-Royce that is 20 years old for about £10,000 [Dh70,000]. If you have to start replacing bits and pieces, £10,000 won’t go very far. This doesn’t apply to the older Rolls-Royces. They are rarer and more valuable so they get restored,” Hall said.

There is, however, a ray of hope for the car.

Pinned to the one remaining windscreen wiper is a note that could, against the odds, offer an eventual salvation. “Hi. I have accidentally misplaced your number. Please call me again regarding the sale of your RR. Thanx, Rizoan.”

As yet, it seems, the note remains unanswered.

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