One of just 25 battery-powered Rolls-Royce toys produced in 1988.
Earlier this year, Rolls-Royce officials pulled the plug on the 102 EX project, a prototype battery-powered version of the maker’s big Phantom sedan. But a couple decades back, 25 electric Rolls were produced.
Not that you’re likely to see them on the road. The nearly 5-foot-long, hand-built battery cars were toys, commissioned by the Holland Group of Companies of Kent, England, and meant to celebrate the dealer group’s 25th anniversary serving Rolls-Royce.
“They gave the commission to The Little Car Company who specialised in building specialist miniature cars for the wealthy,” notes Antiques of Sussex, a British auction house that has acquired one of the exclusive toys and plans to put it on the block.
In its day, the working model was a “very expensive toy,” the auction house notes. Hand made from wood, brass and steel, each of the 25 had an electric motor that could be put into forward or reverse. The toys featured working brakes, side and head lights, a claxon, a fire extinguisher, real Connolly leather upholstery and whitewall “tyres.”
They even came with an official looking tax – or registration – stamp just like the ones likely found on the family’s real Rolls-Royce.
A small lead-acid battery tucked into a rear compartment could be charged up when the kids weren’t on play dates or other manner of upper-class activities.
The brass plate on the model that Antiques of Sussex is planning to auction shows it to be the 11th of 25 child Rolls-Royce cars to be produced. The original price was 2,000 pounds sterling – about $3,400 at the time.
The auction house is offering an advance sale at 8,950 British pounds, or $13,875.
The battery-car is by no means the only toy Rolls ever produced. A search of eBay shows there are a variety of toys celebrating the marque’s regal heritage, including a 1:43 scale replica of the Rolls-Royce driven by Auric Goldfinger in the classic early James Bond film.
But the auction house is betting that the elegant handwork of the battery-powered model will appeal to those one-percenters who might want to prepare the children for the duties – and perks – they’ll experience later in life.