Hooper may be out of business, but our DC is there to serve

If you thought that Rolls- Royce was only coachbuilt by long-winded and very English sounding ‘bodybuilders’ with names like H J Mulliner Park Ward or Gurney Nutting or James Young & Sons
somewhere in that little island off the coast of Europe, think again. And when you’re at it, add a name.

A short one that goes DC Design. No, DC isn’t doing a proto for that aristocrat of a carmaker, but has made a one-off that features that Parthenon grille topped with that Spirit of Ecstasy. And what’s more it has been made – in India – and exported back to that little island. Off the coast of Europe.

To get the historical facts correct, this isn’t the first time that a RR has been coachbuilt in India: a Madras-based company, Spencer, built several bodies for RRs in India. But none that we know of were ever exported back to the blighty. DC’s RR was a comission by an UK-based client, Ashok Tandon.
The car that you see here started its life as a humble (if we may be allowed to call a Rolls humble) Silver Spur that had seen some use in the UK before it made that long trip to the docks of Mumbai. The makeover, as you can see, has been, er, a not-so-humble one...
Of course, you have to be rich and, er, a little bit zany to want something like this done to your Roller. Someone whose tastes were in line with P Daddy perhaps.

Of course, it is sacrilegeous, the quintessence of Rolls Royce tradition be damned. The gullwing doors with its rakish trapezoidal greenhouse could almost be very supercar-like. But the design is, come to think of it, so very 'in your face' and arrogant that the Spirit of Ecstasy could begin to stand for something very different, and very illegal.

The finalization of the design took quite some time (almost over a year), but once the final sketches were ready, DC Design finished the car in well under six months. As all DC Design cars are completely built by hand, from those hand beaten panels right down to the meticulously crafted interiors, the process is long and cumbersome.

The front of the car still manages to look like a modern RR with projector lamps and that Parthenon grille (though with the grille surround in body colour) with the Spirit of Ecstasy sitting atop. Details like the wing mirrors, which are from the original Silver Spur, have been retained to give the car identity. But the rear is, to say the least, uncenventional. Or is it? There have been some fastback designs on some post-war RRs, along the lines of the Bentley Continentals. Yet, given the historical justification, it is bound to be controversial. Very supercar-like, two triangulated arrows-like lamp combos run a complete array
of LED lights.

A strict two-seater, with most of the original Rolls-Royce interiors, barring a few trim bits, the car, despite its red leather, still feels like a traditional Roller on the inside.

Externally, those huge chrome wheels could very well be considered understated if you happen to be wearing a white tuxedo that provides glimpses of a bare body within, a big-ass top hat with pink feathers and… you get the picture. The car is a mixed bag of design metaphors and manages to do what its owner wanted to do, which is to shock people with its brashness. A supercar that dropped the soap in some up-market carwash. More importantly, the car has been quite a hit in London and is very much in demand for video and film shoots!
Whatever, it is unique and distinctive, with an altogether new identity. So roll over Park Ward, Hooper ort Windover, and tell everybody the news. RR has a new coachbuilder, far away from blighty, and one that turns tradition on its head.