Rolls Around the World 2007: 1 - Almost Ready

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

In 2004, the year of the centennial of Rolls Royce, Mr. Peter Lind of the Rolls Royce Owners Association went to a tremendous amount of effort to put together an around the world rally of Rolls Royce cars. Various Rolls Royce owners expressed interest, but as the date approached most withdrew, so the event was cancelled. I have regretted not "going it alone" as a one car rally ever since.

Last June I started to put together an around the world trip, as this year is the 50th anniversary of my car. The first route was to be across Canada, around Britain, across Europe via Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Dalmation Coast of Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Australia, New Zealand and home. An enormous amount of work was done by the various agents of Bestway Tours in Vancouver - who have put together many of our trips to exotic places.

Routes were finalized, hotels and guides selected, insurance lined up, shipping organized and permissions arranged for the car. At that crucial time, it seems the Canadian government declined a visa for a high-ranking Iranian, who reciprocated by stopping visas for Canadians through the embassies of Iran. Without Iran there was no practical southern route, so it was back to the drawing boards.

Over the last several months the current tour came together, dragged kicking and screaming into reality thanks to the help of some old travel acquaintances and from some amazing new contacts. Belarus came together quickly once I tracked down Vladimir and Natalia Padalko of CentreKurot in Minsk. Natalia was my guide the last time I was in Belarus and Vladimir is deputy director of the company. Mongolia was organized by Chi Pham of Bestway Tours through their Mongolian agent Uyanga Dashdavaa, in her usual efficient manner.

Green card insurance for Europe proved a challenge. The company who had insured the car when it was in Europe in 1994/1995 were no longer in business, and no company that came up on the internet could do the job. Sally Nelson, a friend and fellow traveller in England, burned up the phone lines trying to find someone without success. Finally, through the Rolls Royce Owners Association I reached Phil Dunne of Hagerty Insurance in Silverstone, England and he quickly assured me that he could handle the insurance with no problem. They are handling insurance for the currently running Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, a re-enactment of the original 1907 race.

Russia and China provided serious problems. I wrote to over a dozen Russian travel companies requesting the services of a guide, assistance in route planning and hotel bookings. Only two replied. One was not very interested, and the other insisted on a chase vehicle with SWAT trained police due to the high incidence of road crime in Russia - something I assume scared off the other agencies. The price of the Russian portion with chase vehicle - almost $50,000 - scared me off.

During this period I had been in contact with Andrey Karloff, the Managing Director of the Russian Automobile Society. He provided a complementary membership, offered a police escort to get through Moscow traffic, parking in Red Square and the contact numbers of the branches of the Society in each of the cities in which we would spend a night. Their extensive branch network included all but two of our overnight stops.

When the high priced agency refused to do anything without the SWAT team, I asked Andrey if the trip could be arranged through the Russian Automobile Society - and he answered YES. He arranged required Russian and Belarus car & health insurance, invitations that resulted in visas from the Russian Embassy in Costa Rica, hotels and he has agreed to join us at the Belarus border to ride all the way to Mongolia.

In China, several agencies simply said it was not possible to bring a single car into the country. This was very discouraging, as the other parts of the trip had been basically organized by this time, and without China there was nowhere to go from Mongolia except back. In desperation I looked up the web site of the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, found their contact email, and Philip Young replied right away from England in spite of being incredibly busy with the details of this major motoring event.

In the meantime, I had also emailed Rolls Royce China. The Director, Marion Lu, and the General Manager, Jenny Zheng, replied promptly. They immediately went to work to help me solve my problem. Philip gave me the name and contact information of the company doing the paperwork for the Peking to Paris, CSITS (China Sea International Travel Service). At first it was very frustrating, as my emails were not getting through, so back to Marion Lu at Rolls Royce who phoned Lifeng Liu, the Managing Director of CSITS, and she said yes - we can arrange everything. The arrangements are not easy. It is necessary to import the car, license it for China, get registration and insurance, arranging definite itineraries, a guide and get a resident Chinese drivers license for me. Thanks to Philip's introduction and the helpfulness of the very "can do" business women at CSITS and Rolls Royce, the paperwork is under way.

THE CAR The "1957 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud I" was delivered to its first owner by Jack Barclay Ltd. in London, England on August 23, 1957. It was then black, changing later to duo grey and eventually to the current brown and tan. After two subsequent owners in England it was moved to Penticton, BC, Canada in September of 1973. I bought it from a car dealer in Victoria Canada on July 6, 1990. It had been traded in, and was in desperately poor condition - ripped upholstery, sad woodwork and barely functional mechanics.

Graham Prior of Crystal Service did a brilliant engine rebuild, the transmission was rebuilt and upholstery redone, all in Victoria. By now Marilynn and I had moved to Costa Rica, so friend Pat Clark and I made a summer trip out of driving it from Victoria to Miami. The following year it was shipped to Rotterdam, in Holland, and Marilynn and I drove it through a large number of European countries before taking it to England and the Rolls Royce plant at Crewe. After 3 days they gave me a detailed list of what was needed to make it right. It wintered that year at an English mechanics shop, where it was given a thorough going over.

The following year we drove through all the Eastern European countries, Turkey and the Greek Islands, sending it back to Miami from Athens, Greece. In subsequent years we would drive the car for a month or so in the summer, criss-crossing North America, ending at a Rolls Royce dealership where we would leave the car with a list of things that needed to be done. The car never let us down. After several years the car settled in Victoria, Canada, where I have used it for transportation on our annual 6-week visit each year. Mechanic Ron White has done a great job of looking after it each winter, taking his time to rectify any small problems.

It will now face its greatest challenge, as we head off on Monday, June 18 to cross Canada, and then ship the car to London, England where we will drive for two weeks looking for any mechanical difficulties. We will spend three days at the Silverstone Classic car races at the invitation of Phil Dunne of Hagerty Insurance, and then be guests of Mr. Paul Cartwright of Rolls Royce for a tour of their new facility, built after the purchase of the rights to the Rolls Royce automotive name by BMW.

From England we will take the Chunnel to France, drive through Belgium and Holland, cross Germany, Poland, Russia and Siberia, pass through Mongolia and finally cross China to send the car home from Shanghai.

I hope you enjoy following along on our latest adventure.