Her Excellency: Resurrecting a 1953 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith
- Michael Lempert
- May 2
- 14 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Most people have never driven, or even been a passenger in, perhaps the world’s most iconic luxury car: a Rolls-Royce. Exclusivity is rather the point of owning a Rolls-Royce. Past company slogans include “Trusted to Deliver Excellence” and “Like Nothing Else on Earth” (the present-day tagline is a moderately more humble “Inspiring Greatness”). I don’t often encounter these cars out in the real world, even as someone who specializes in helping people sell unusual cars. I was pleasantly surprised in the fall of 2020, when my father called me and indicated that a co-worker’s family was in need of help deaccessioning some of the antique luxury cars from their late grandfather’s collection. I agreed, having no idea what condition the cars were in. The family provided only one dated picture of each machine: a 1980 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II, a 1958 Bentley Continental sedan, a former award-winning 1941 Lincoln Continental V-12 Convertible, and finally, a massive 1953 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith coach. The last, which is essentially a personal limousine, quickly became my favorite of the lot.
My brother Sam and I had only recently formalized our time spent helping friends and family with their cars into a proper business in August of 2020, which we established to help people purchase, sell, transport, maintain and restore their classic and special interest cars. Having only a few months experience at the time, we were not entirely sure where to begin with such a huge task. My experience with Rolls-Royce cars could be counted on one hand at the time, and the collection in question was spread out in various garages, largely dormant for the 15 years since the family patriarch had passed away. We decided the best first step was to bring with us a much more experienced and knowledgeable mechanic/collector for proper assessments.
Rolls-Royce cars can be extremely valuable, but they can also be extremely expensive to maintain and repair. The models that bring in high prices often have some special history or feature custom specifications that really set them apart. Consequently, the collector market is all over the place. On one end, there exists a handful of rare million-dollar special cars, and on the other, the overwhelming majority of deferred-maintenance sometimes-driveable classics that would easily bankrupt the unsuspecting buyer.
There is simply no such thing as a cheap Rolls-Royce; they are either beautiful, because someone has spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping them beautiful, or they are not beautiful, because they require even more attention and money to facilitate a return to their original splendor. There is very little middle ground when it comes to Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles. This 1953 Silver Wraith, however, was exactly one of those somewhat rare, almost-roadworthy, good-condition but not extraordinary cars. That was exciting, because that meant that when it came time to sell, we’d be offering one of the less expensive (relative to the market) examples, but that it would be in better condition than most its less-expensive competition. In other words: it would be a rare “good deal” Rolls-Royce.
On 17 December 2020, Sam and I met our friend and lifelong mechanic Scott Riter at one of the family’s storage buildings in Herkimer, NY, and looked over the 1958 Bentley and 1980 Rolls-Royce, parked two bays apart in a large garage filled with extra building materials, car parts, and a speedboat. We then moved to the second site, which was a large historic home on top of a hill overlooking the golf course of the country club the family once owned. The garage doors raised to reveal the 1941 Lincoln and 1953 Rolls-Royce side by side, with both large black dust-covered cars nosed into narrow garage bays. The Rolls-Royce and Lincoln were accompanied by a miniature Ford Thunderbird child’s car, and a 1993 Peugeot 405Mi16 5-spd (the Peugeot was a surprise car we didn’t know was hiding in the third bay).
My first impression was that the 1953 Rolls-Royce looked like a relic from Wayne manor that Alfred had stashed away and then forgotten about in the chaos of Gotham under siege. As it turns out, that’s the aura this car gives off pretty much anywhere it goes - it could stop in front of a coffee shop, and the entire block would suddenly look like a set from a Batman film. The gloss-black and chrome-trimmed exterior is accented by a deep red leather interior, with matching red wool carpets and real wood veneer on almost every hard surface. It is a high, imposing car, and the flowing fenders convey the same sense of movement as a woman confidently sweeping across the room with a dress flowing behind her. If that sounds even vaguely familiar, it’s not a coincidence: the Rolls-Royce mascot “Sprit of Ecstasy” that, for about 100 years, graced the bonnet of Rolls-Royce cars as a cast metal hood ornament. The Spirit of Ecstasy is a sculpture of a woman leaning forward with cloth billowing in her wake.
We went through every detail of the car. A few minor dents and marks on the body turned out to be the only exterior cosmetic damage, aside from the tiny blemish where the sagging hinges allowed the massive rear “suicide” doors to open too far and chip the paint. The only part missing on the entire car was the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament, which on this particular model ought to have been the Spirit down on one knee, with her limited clothing flowing behind her (the later ornaments are standing and bending over, rather than kneeling). The family used to park this Rolls-Royce at the entrance of their golf course for weddings and special events to welcome guests, and perhaps inevitably, some misbehaving children unscrewed and stole the ornament off of the car. The children probably did not know that the hood ornament itself is often valued between $500 and $1,500 depending on the casting, sometimes more. For many years, each ornament (also called a ‘mascot’) was made to order by the wealthy owners who commissioned the cars. Sadly, it’s a very challenging part to replace.
We spent about 2 hours discussing the history and details of the car before we departed for Rochester, where we regrouped and issued the appraisals to the family. It was going to be months before our preferred shop in Rochester had an opening to take on a project with a giant question mark hanging over it: we didn’t know the last time the car had been on the road, so it was impossible to know how bad the damage was from years of stagnation even when the body and interior presented very nicely. There was one additional complication: a consequence of its unique history, it had never been registered in the United States. The former owner had driven around upstate New York displaying the British tags the car arrived with from England. In fact, those tags are still on the car (although it has since been properly registered in New York). As it happens, the wealthy former owner was simply known by all local law enforcement, so they never bothered him as he drove around town in his right-hand-drive luxury coach on British plates!
The late Robert Jay Castle, who passed away on 24 April 2008 at 79 years old [1], purchased Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith chassis WVH103 on 4 November 1968 from Frank Dale Limited Rolls-Royce & Bentley Specialists in London, England. The Frank Dale company evolved into Frank Dale & Stepsons, which is still operating in England as a globally recognized source of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars, parts and service [2]. Mr. Castle had built a very successful business by 1968, beginning with a single Ford dealership in 1949 when he was only 20 years old (the youngest dealer of Ford cars in the United States at the time).
Castle was a thriving 40-year-old businessman at the time he purchased the Silver Wraith. He paid £2,000 “as tried and tested” per the receipt ($4,800 in 1968, or roughly $44,000 in 2025 dollars) for the elegant monster, and then kept the car in storage in England. The Castle family would use it when they traveled there for business, which his daughter Ivy remembers they did with some frequency. Ivy recalls traveling around the countryside in the huge car, driven by the same chauffeur Mr. Castle hired each time they visited. The car had immense sentimental value to the family, and was so loved by Mr. Castle that he eventually brought the car to the United States. This is a Rolls-Royce private coach though, so no shipping container would do; the Rolls was loaded onto the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner on 26 June 1975 in Southampton for a sum of £375, and sailed to New York City en route to its future home of Herkimer. Herkimer was where Castle had headquartered his many businesses, which had expanded to include real estate development among other enterprises, and his campaign headquarters for what was ultimately an unsuccessful run for congressional office. Castle had the support of his friend Robert Kennedy at the time, who is rumored to have ridden in some of the other cars in the family collection for political parades before his untimely death.
There is no such thing as an “average” Rolls-Royce. In the era of the Silver Wraith, all models were still hand-built with bodies by various coachbuilders, so no two are identical. Throughout the company’s history, many models were custom-built to owner specifications, referred to as “bespoke”. However, as far as these extraordinary cars go, this one is fairly straightforward. WVH103 is a 1953 Silver Wraith 5-passenger sedan, with a glass-division panel between the driver and rear compartment, pull-down curtains for the rear windows, suicide doors, and coachwork by Mulliner. This example features two massive standalone headlamps perched on the fenders, at a time when many less conservative manufacturers (and even some Rolls-Royce/Bentley coachbuilders) had begun to integrate lighting into the body. It is finished in gloss black with a red leather interior with thick red carpets, and aside from a radio and wooden tray tables, it has no special interior features (an 8-track radio was added later).
WVH103 is powered by engine V102H (the original and standard straight-six cylinder plant that served all Wraiths of this vintage). Inside the engine compartment, one notable feature is a corded flashlight built into the firewall to provide light for the driver in the event of evening mechanical trouble.
The Silver Wraith was the larger of the two Rolls-Royce selections that year, and the proportions of this car make it appear much bigger than it is, although it is still relatively large: 17’-7” long, 6’-3” wide, and an imposing 6’-0” high, weighing in at approximately 5,200-lbs. Although that is gigantic for tight English roads, in the United States it is roughly the same length as my 1963 Chevrolet Bel-Air sedan, which is a good 12”-18” shorter than the upper model Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Buick cars from the same era.
A few months after our initial visit to the car, we had a commitment from Scott that he would have availability to take in the car at the mechanic’s shop to begin assessing what was required to get the car back into operational condition. Once we had the green light from Scott, I did something I had never had the opportunity to do before: I assembled a proper extraction team, and we hit the road for Herkimer a second time on 16 May 2021. My brother drove his truck, with me in the front passenger seat, and in the back, another friend sat with our talented photographer Bailey DeLelys (IG: @baileythecoolguy) and discussed bicycles for most of the two-hour drive to the garage where the Rolls was stored. Bailey captured a spectacular set of images of the rescue operation. Once we had the garage entry clear, Sam rigged up a tow strap to the rear axle, and started pulling, while I sat in the driver’s seat to steer, and the team helped guide us out of the narrow garage without clipping bushes sticking out on both sides.
Once it was finally out of the garage, the Rolls saw daylight for the first time in about 15 years. I then shared our plans for the car with Ivy while Sam got the car situated on the trailer, and we set off back home. We made one brief stop for burgers and hot dogs alongside the largest and most grandiose car that has maybe ever been parked at a Five Guys restaurant.
Upon our return to Rochester, I stored it at my home garage for several weeks while we waited for a bay to open up at the shop. In the first few hours of the car arriving, neighbors passing by started coming over to ask about the big car in the garage with the giant headlights. Several of them had never encountered a real Rolls-Royce coach before, let alone a right-hand drive example with European plates. It quickly became a neighborhood highlight, with people coming by asking to see it every few days.
On 4 June 2021, we got the call from Scott and dropped the Rolls off at the shop. It quickly became clear that the car really didn’t need much to be roadworthy again. Within a period of weeks, and with a spending cap of $5,000, there was significant progress. The Rolls advanced from a tired and derelict car to a running, driving, stopping, steering, almost fully functional machine. About 30 hours of labor were invested; the fuel tank needed to be cleaned out, the spark plugs,fuel pump and filter replaced, the brakes cleaned and adjusted, the battery and fuel pressure regulator repaired, and the carburetor removed and thoroughly cleaned. The front hydraulic brakes would still need replacing, but just the rear mechanical brakes alone would stop the car with surprising ease. I came over and drove the car around the parking lot comfortably, and began documenting it to prepare it for sale. On 02 October 2021, the shop hosted a major annual fundraising event, and the Silver Wraith was on display front and center, adjacent to a 1930 Cadillac V8 Coupe. We spent the evening of the fundraiser proudly showing off the car and relaying the “barn-find-to-roadworthy” story, but even the many people who loved the car admitted it would be a gargantuan task to maintain as an owner. Even in operational condition, a “project” Rolls-Royce can be difficult to re-home, but as fate would have it, a buyer came to me before I even had an opportunity to list it formally.
Within a few weeks of the car coming back to life, and while Scott and his team continued to sort through the remaining minor issues to get it ready for sale, a local collector and friend stopped by my house to drop off a car. My friend saw the black 1988 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur in my driveway. He all but demanded that I sell it to him. I told him it had already been sold, but that he would probably enjoy a less-fussy older model with fewer electrical nightmares, and less complex braking and transmission systems - and I had just the car. He immediately expressed interest in the Silver Wraith, and came to look at it with his father, who picked it apart in detail for almost an hour. In the end, he purchased it for his private use. To my surprise, the day he showed up with the check, he and his father arrived in one car - a Tesla Model S with no trailer. I advised them (truly, I nearly begged) not to drive it home, given that the front brakes were still not functional, but they insisted - and within a week or two, I’d been informed that he had driven it nearly 500 miles, still on only the rear brakes!
In the absence of a proper Spirit of Ecstasy mascot, the new owner sourced a hood ornament that more accurately reflected the less-pampered and much more playful modern experience of this luxurious coach in the hands of a collector who very deliberately drives it frequently: my friend securely fastened a rubber duck on the bonnet where the old metal hood ornament would have been. The rubber duck proudly leads the car while the new owner casually cruises around town in a machine that we all thought might have seen its last days on the road following an extended period of neglect. One of the fringe benefits of selling a car to a contact we already know is that we have the great pleasure of seeing the car being enjoyed from time to time. In the summer of 2024, we delivered a Mercedes to the new owner of the Rolls and he surprised us by showing up to meet us in the Rolls, in Kingston, NY - which is a four-hour drive from home!
More recent photos of the Rolls-Royce under the care of it's new owner after a long-distance drive to Kingston, NY from Rochester, NY - note the rubber ducky hood ornament! (Photo by Michael Lempert)
The Silver Wraith is, to date, one of the most involved projects we have pursued, and required over a year of work, research, and coordination with the restoration shop to very carefully assess and perform a limited scope of work in order to return the car to service without bankrupting the family (no easy task on a Rolls-Royce). It was extremely satisfying to stand outside on a beautiful, warm day in the fall 2021 and watch the new owner drive away in the massive, dark, handsome British luxury coach. We consider the rescue of this Silver Wraith one of our greatest triumphs to date, and a testament to a phrase I find myself repeating excitedly with every new charge: Machines Don’t Die.
Mike Lempert | The AnachronIst
AnachronIst Classic Cars | Rochester, NY
2025.05.01
P.S.: Special thank you to our friend and photographer Bailey DeLelys for his awesome set of images capturing our rescue. Additional thanks to the extremely knowledgeable Scott Riter for his help identifying and carrying out repairs to get the car back on the road.
Additional photos by Bailey DeLelys:
Additional Photos by Mike Lempert:
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