Now in its 52nd year, and as tradition dictates, the RREC (Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club) Concours and Rally took place under more leaden than silver clouds over the weekend of 18/19 June, at Rockingham Castle.

As well as an ordered and shiny platoon of specialist, restorer and dealer marquees displaying their best efforts, rare vintage models in polished brass or brushed aluminium, fragrant woods and engines running silently on factory chassis, the parts and memorabilia stands added colour and texture to an annual event which attracts Rolls-Royce owners and enthusiasts from all over the world, from Germany to Switzerland, Scandinavia and even Australia.

Trevor Baldwin, RREC Director and Chairman of the Annual Rally Event, estimated that at least 25% of the public came from the other side of the Channel. The percentage reflects a similar split in the makeup of the club’s membership.   

The weekend’s schedule was organised around morning seminars - of both a technical and marque-bonding flavour - and the Bonhams Rolls-Royce auction on the Saturday, with the Concours, judging and award-giving ceremony taking place for much of the Sunday.

There are some 10,000 Rolls-Royce club members world-wide and a large proportion of that, owners and passionate lovers of the marque alike, parked in one of the rows and rows of neatly signposted categories of models, from the relatively humble Silver Spirits to the majestic Phantom I and II and Silver Ghosts.
Bespoke coachwork ranged from ‘The Best Car in the World’ (the famous lightweight London-to-Edinburgh Silver Ghost) to an early Rolls-Royce 20hp (The Silent Motor Car) chassis with a ‘Pullman’ body by one of the two recommended Rolls-Royce coachbuilders, Barker – the other being Hooper, the royal coachbuilders.

Even a traditional, old-fashioned brand such as Roll-Royce is allowed the Pindaric flights of fancy in the choice of detail: a delightful Lalique-looking Spirit of Ecstasy mascot on a Silver Ghost turned out to be a Hoffman design worth some £2,500. Visitors admiring the Phantom I models on display spotted the open-mouthed dragon topping the horn of one of them.

Perhaps appropriately, for a club event of such an international flavour, the overall winner was a Gamble of Belfast-built 1910 Silver Ghost, with a Roi des Belges body style. The Irish contingent was celebrating both during and after the event as the trailer and its load, both on Gaelic plates, disappeared into the sombre lights of a late afternoon.