ROLLS-ROYCE REBEL
by Charles Legge
Daily Mail
March 18, 2008 Tuesday
London
QUESTION Who was Nubar Gulbenkian and how many special cars did he
have built? NUBAR SARKIS GULBENKIAN (1896-1972) was a Turkish-born
Armenian petroleum magnate and bon viveur.
The son of Calouste Gulbenkian, a rich oil baron, he was born on the
Bosphorus but taken out of Turkey at an early age due to anti-Armenian
activity. Brought by his father to England, he was educated at Harrow
School, Cambridge University and in Germany.
Gulbenkian regarded himself as British and strove to live up to the
model of the English gentleman. A regular face on the international
playboy scene, he became noted for his eccentric life.
He spent his life in the pursuit of pleasure. ‘I believe in comfort.
I enjoy everything I do,’ he said. An impeccable dresser, he almost
always wore a monocle and a fresh orchid in his lapel.
His character was summed up when a university friend claimed that
‘Nubar is so tough that every day he tires out three stockbrokers,
three horses and three women’.
He liked big, fast, expensive cars and acquired a taste for
Rolls-Royces in the post-war years.
These were as flamboyant as he was. The first, called Pantechnicon, was
built in 1947 a Silver Wraith with modified bodywork by coachbuilders
Hooper & Co. It looked like a futuristic tank and Rolls-Royce was
not amused.
Gulbenkian’s next two cars also had a Wraith chassis but, again,
with adapted bodywork designs such as a four-door cabriolet and a
sedanca de ville (the latter featuring sage green lizard-skin trim).
Perhaps his most famous Rolls was a four-door saloon coachwork.
Intended for cruising the Cote d’Azur, this car had a transparent
Perspex roof with an electrically operated fabric inner blind to keep
the interior cool.
The woodwork and dashboard were trimmed in leather and it had a
speedometer fitted in the rear passenger compartment a hallmark of
Gulbenkian cars.
He also specified air conditioning, electric windows and a television
set. To top it off, he had a Lalique glass bonnet mascot of a
reclining nymph.
Gulbenkian had at least two more Rolls, but in 1965 he had built what
was to be his signature car a hackney carriage of his own design.
The front panels were more or less standard Austin FX4, but from
the windscreen back, it looked like a Victorian brougham with real
wickerwork panels. The driver’s compartment was open to the elements
and carriage lights were fitted either side, just in front of the
rear doors.
Gulbenkian liked the cab’s tight turning circle when he was being
driven around London. He once boasted: ‘It turns on a sixpence whatever
that is.’ Andre Smith, London NW12.
THE NAME Nubar Gulbenkian brings back many memories. It’s hard to tell
just how many cars were built for him, but I worked on all of them.
I was with Hooper and Co. Coachbuilders of Park Royal, who manufactured
them. Hoopers also had the royal warrant, which meant we built all
the royal cars.
I served as an apprentice and worked as a coach trimmer, trimming
interiors including seats.
Nubar was a giant of a man with a large beard, but we always found
him very polite and well-spoken. He used to have his cars designed
and made as one-offs, usually one every year.
One Rolls-Royce in particular springs to mind: we had to trim it in
green cloth with red piping and the instrument panel and interior
moulding were covered in lizard skin. The result was outrageous.
A year later, when his father died, he brought the car back and
asked us to replace the green and red seats with black because he
was in mourning.
I’m now 78, and I doubt if there are many of us left to remember all
the great cars we built.