The show car, the surgeon, the boxer and the 1929 Phantom II 56 WJ. In May 2025, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks the centenary of the launch of the first New Phantom

The show car, the surgeon and the boxer

1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II   56WJ

1927 ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM I TOURER ASCENDS THE STELVIO PASS ON THE 2023 ALPINE TOUR

In May 2025, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks the centenary of the launch of the first New Phantom. Throughout its long history, the Phantom nameplate has been reserved for the pinnacle model in the marque’s portfolio – the very apex of excellence.

"One hundred years ago, Rolls-Royce launched the first motor car to bear what would become the most evocative and enduring nameplate in its history: Phantom. Through eight generations, Phantom’s fundamental role as the pinnacle Rolls-Royce motor car has always been the same: to be the most magnificent, desirable and above all, effortless motor car in the world – the very best of the best. In many respects, the history of Phantom is the history of Rolls-Royce: always moving with the times and its clients’ needs and requirements, transcending fleeting trends and providing the setting for the most remarkable executions of craft and artistry, all while resolutely refusing to compromise its core engineering and design principles. We’re proud to continue this tradition of excellence, elegance and serenity into the next 100 years.”

Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

The adventures of this once 'family' Phantom II began in 1929 in Scotland. Owned by a war hero and renowned surgeon before accompanying an athlete (my maternal grandfather) who made his money as a boxing coach as well imparting arcane instructions to an erotic dancer.

The first owner of this Rolls-Royce, built and exhibited at the Scottish Motor Show in 1929, was Sir Howard Bowdon, CEO of the renowned Raleigh Bicycle Company. He was the son of the international business tycoon Sir Frank Bowden, 1st Baronet. Howard was chairman and chief executive of this world famous bicycle company, originally founded as just a tiny business enterprise. Bicycling as exercise had saved his father's life - doctors had given him 6 months to live. He built a huge industrial enterprise from this experience. From 1930-34 he was Chairman of the British Olympic Association.

The car was then sold and was transported to Sydney, Australia in 1936, the second owner being a Dr Hugh Poate (1884-1961).  A resident physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he researched ductless glands. In 1908 he travelled to London and was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons.

Enlisted as a captain in the Australian Imperial Force from 1914, Poate spent much of his time during the war operating, amusingly earning the nickname 'Lightning' for his deft and swift surgical technique.

After the war, Poate conducted a successful private practice, chartering a Tiger Moth aircraft as a famous 'flying doctor' for his Australia-wide country medical and treatment tours. From 1936 he continued to enjoy his Rolls-Royce and in 1938 he became lecturer in postgraduate surgery and director of the surgical unit at Prince Henry Hospital.

Poate published a significant number of articles in medical journals and was considered an international authority on thyroid surgery. Knighted in 1952, he was a man of great integrity, committed to the highest standards in all he attempted.

My British maternal grandfather, George Mason, was born 1895 in Liverpool and became  the second Australian owner, acquiring the motor car in 1950. A 21 year old Rolls-Royce is regarded as just a youngster after all. I was certainly just a child when in a 'Brief Encounter' experienced my first family Rolls-Royce. The overwhelming impression has never left me!

Mason was a professional boxer and a Bantam Weight Champion of the British Empire. During the Great War he fought with the Gordon Highlanders in the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front. He was wounded twice but returned to action on both occasions. His wounds left a lasting legacy he successfully overcame.

After the Armistice he attempted to set up fitness centers in New York, far ahead of his time, but lost everything in the Wall Street crash of 1929. He also made some unfortunate Australian investments. 

Following these reversals, for some years he became the chief Physical Education Instructor on the luxurious Cunard liners that sailed from Southampton to New York. The R.M.S Berengaria (the pride of the Cunard fleet), R.M.S Mauretania and R.M.S Aquitania crossed the Atlantic in glamorous, leisurely style from Southampton to New York before our ubiquitous, uncivilized air travel. 

First Class Dining Saloon aboard R.M.S. Berengaria

The Imperial Suite aboard R.M.S. Berengaria

The Tiller Girls in 1926 taking a turn about the deck ensemble of R.M.S Berengaria. They were a long-running English dance troupe, known for their precision and synchronization, particularly the high kicks

Swordplay on deck - ladies in an unusual fencing match on 1st July 1923

One is the supremely beautiful Princess Ileana of Romania (1909-1991)

My grandfather, George Mason (standing centre in white), was physical education instructor on this vessel, the R.M.S. Berengaria and other Cunard liners 

(Getty Images)

Mason developed as a successful international coach in physical education at a rather elevated level, training among other notables the Prince of Wales ('Bertie'), his close friend the explorer Sir Earnest Shackleton, the famous American champion boxer Jack Dempsey and many other well-known but now forgotten champion boxers), the Oxford and Cambridge Olympic Track Team and practiced physical movement gestures with the notorious erotic dancer Maud Allan of Oscar Wilde Salome fame.

Maud Allan as Salome

The excellent salary and lavish gifts from his 'clients' placed him in a position to consider buying a much desired Rolls-Royce in the future. The more athletic passengers favoured boxing and exercise with a 'medicine ball' while crossing the Atlantic. The 'medicine ball, is a weighted ball whose diameter is about a shoulder-width. The size of a medicine ball is approximately 350 mm (13.7 in), often used for rehabilitation and strength training. In those days such methods were regarded as a properly ‘masculine’, fashionable and attractive way to exercise.

George Mason (Rt.) sparring on the RMS Aquitania

Mason made a great deal of money coaching at this high level. He was married to an English lady from Hampstead in London and they went on to settle in Australia where he ran a farm, a hotel and from 1950, this Rolls-Royce Phantom which he kept for 6 years.

During WW II Mason fought in Papua New Guinea with the Australian Army. He later worked profitably for Tattersall's Club, the lottery and gambling organization. Farming also occupied his time at a property near Penrith in New South Wales. He part-owned the Apsley Arms Hotel in Walcha, a small town 425 kilometres by road from Sydney at the intersection of the Oxley Highway and Thunderbolts Way..

As stated, the car arrived in Australia in 1936 and was first owned in Sydney by the aforementioned Dr Hugh Poate. George Mason was the second Australian owner, acquiring 56WJ in 1950, registration plate NSW AP-112. He bought the car from Dr Poate and ran the car for some six years. In the book Rolls-Royce and Bentley in the Sunburnt Country: The First Fifty Years of Rolls-Royce in Australia (Tom Clarke & David Neely) the car is last noted in Tasmania in the 1970s. Tom Clarke is sure this car used to have a de ville front portion (now sealed), and the rear landaulette portion that was also sealed. 

George Mason's 1929 Phantom II, chassis no. 56WJ with Thrupp & Maberly landaulette de ville coachwork photographed in the outback of  New South Wales around 1953

I discovered little in detail about his period of ownership except he often carried lambs in the rear compartment around his farm! Ill health precipitated the sale of the car some six years later to the mysterious Punjabi Mr. Doabi who was in the mining business. This industrialist carried heavy samples of rock in the rear compartment for mineral testing in laboratories! Australian Rolls-Royce motor cars often experienced a tough life. 

56WJ is illustrated in two photographs on p. 192 of Rolls-Royce : The Derby Phantoms by Lawrence Dalton and was displayed at the Scottish Motor Show of 1929. 

56 WJ at the 1929 Scottish Motor Show (The Derby Phantoms Dalton p.192)

                                            56 WJ (The Derby Phantoms Dalton p.192)

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Embracing the Phantom in 2025

Much more on the evolution of the Rolls-Royce Phantom is available here in an excellent historical essay:

https://www.press.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/rolls-royce-motor-cars-pressclub/article/detail/T0447467EN/rolls-royce-phantom:-100-years-of-perfection?language=en

also

PHANTOM GOLDFINGER MAKES PUBLIC DEBUT AT CONCORSO D’ELEGANZVILLA D’ESTE FOR NAMEPLATE’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

29.05.2025 PRESS RELEASE

     

HTTPS://WWW.PRESS.ROLLS-ROYCEMOTORCARS.COM/ROLLS-ROYCE-MOTOR-CARS-PRESSCLUB/ARTICLE/DETAIL/T0450474EN/PHANTOM-GOLDFINGER-MAKES-PUBLIC-DEBUT-AT-CONCORSO-D%E2%80%99ELEGANZA-VILLA-D%E2%80%99ESTE-FOR-NAMEPLATE%E2%80%99S-100TH-ANNIVERSARY 

  

https://www.press.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/rolls-royce-motor-cars-pressclub/article/detail/T0449925EN/the-rolls-royce-phantom-at-100

The English Way - This outstanding article by Grzegorz Grątkowski is a fine example of the directive 'Only connect' by the renowned English writer E.M.Forster

At present we are drowning in so many horrendous events under a threatening umbrella - the immeasurable suffering of a brutal European war, the horrors in the Middle East, worldwide financial instability, technological private surveillance, famine, religious conflict. 

However, as a creative, cultural corrective to these dark shadows, do read this outstanding article recently written by the Polish CCC member Grzegorz Grątkowski. 

In the great days of the  Casual Car Club (CCC) over many years, we met for dinner to have classic car discussions, conviviality over a glass of wine and an informative  automotive lecture. This was featured in either the privacy of the  Moniuszko Salon or Słowacki Salon at the Bristol Hotel in Warsaw. Grzegorz occasionally gave exceptional lectures there. It is such a sad reflection on our commercially focused times, so insensitive to the establishment of traditions, that mounting such altruistic events has become so financially unfriendly.

The immortal English writer E.M.Forster wrote a directive of profound depth

'Only connect'

This writer accomplishes this suggestion in a cultured, artistic and instructive manner. Do read !

Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire, England

The English Way              

Grzegorz Grątkowski

In life there are things known and things unknown

William Blake

There are, in the world of motoring, things rare and exotic and there are things astounding with their sheer cost or technological prowess. However, there aren’t many that you could label as having no equivalent at all. One of their kind in an absolute way. Such as Rolls-Royce’ radiator cowl.

Innate landscape genius

Englishmen have worked diligently and long so that many among their products or solutions can hardly be mentioned without irony, at least beyond almost endless borders of the past Empire. Like monetary system with pound divided into 20 shilling, the latter into 12 pence (remembering that 5 shilling equaled one crown, and a pound plus one shilling equaled a guinea – trivial, isn’t it?). Cold and hot water taps lurking at each other from opposite corners of a washbasin. Knobs placed centrally on doors. Guillotine windows with just a single sheet of thin glass. Well, practicality is one thing, but British talent has gone to great lengths to also excel in the area of amenities meant to be pleasurable. Such as sweaters of Shetland wool (you’d rather get scratched by a wild cat), cuisine specialties including porridge’, marmite or puddings, or the looks of a Leyland Princess.

Stourhead. The best of England: the art of landscape gardening

And yet, there has been a field where Britons, supported by their peculiar climate, history and habits, have achieved serious greatness. It is the art of gardening, the Capability Brown of composing landscape parks and shaping the landscape in general. Enjoying an opportunity to have agricultural goods brought from overseas, they never had to chop their pastoral province into thickly cut potato ridges. They were free to make green Kent and sunny Surrey, picturesque Wiltshire and undulating Somerset resemble one vast landscape garden. And boy, have they done it! Local pathways curl jacketed with hedgerows and field stone walls, and even when they needn’t be curvy due to land sculpture, curvy they are all the same, as dictated by confines of estates, much older than any span of tarmac. So you venture along, looking at clumps of trees as they fluidly arrange into background farther and farther afield, while herds of horses and white-bleached corral fences suggest you can drive from Reading to Chester and beyond through one never-ending stud. And about the only barriers dividing that total garden into smaller stretches are rivers – just as curvy, hemmed in greenery and so atmospheric that you’d eagerly swap your car for a canoe to cover what remains of your distance along their steady, tranquil current.

Power – sufficient

A habitat like that had to influence a character of vehicles engineered around, including motor cars. One of apt responses to the British B-roads were powerful, convertible Austin Healey, where no tin box isolated you from the live nature passed by. Featherlike, nimble Lotus were another, as were unmistakably English Triumphs; low-silhouette Jaguars with their impressive braking abilities and gallant DOHC inline-sixes, as well as raw and wild-natured TVR defying their drivers with “beware or die” challenge. All very well, however, was there ever any car that matched the scenery taken directly from John Constable’s paintings better than Rolls-Royce? Just look as it glides along at leisurely pace, raised like a ship above the edge of shrubbery, dignifiedly swaying on road bumps, if any – as it does every Sunday upon its way from the mansion to a golf course, every Wednesday to a club in Westminster; in an alleyway, under an arched gate, next to a belfry overgrown with ivy.

Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

It’s perfectly relevant that an engine power of such a vehicle, rather than with a specific HP figure, was just referred to as sufficient, with the top speed figures also being ignored. It was never about any limits – instead, it was about reserves. It was meant to roll along stately, proud and assured of its capabilities. Should it only chose so, he could stand perfectly still and still achieve the same effect, as then England would start slowly moving back around it, as if dragged with screeching harbour ropes from far-away foggy Plymouth.

Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire, England

And it was that environment where its owner used to be born and raised. An English garden – such as Kew and Stowe and Stourhead, Blenheim and Chiswick, Croome and Wilton, dozens if not hundreds of other ones – was tame and obvious scenery for a gentleman; the image of what the country had most precious and beautiful to offer. That reality was both present and important in culture: because the English landscape garden used to influence estate parks all over Europe – in terms of the concept and even specific themes and motifs, it was copied in Munich’s Nymphenburg and in Wörlitz; in Czech Lednice and Hluboka, in Polish Arkadia or Łazienki, in Russian Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo, to name only few. Along with its integral component: a Greek temple, diminished to a scale and a role of a park pavilion. An eye-catcher to diversify nature with an accent of small architecture, placed in a carefully selected spot where shapes of greenery, curtains of trees, surfaces of meadows and shimmering ponds could be perfectly pinned together, as if with a brooch, by a four- or six column portico, crowned with a triangular pediment. That, however, was not directly borrowed from Ancient Greece – rather than that, it came filtered through late Renaissance Italy, via 16^th Century Palladian architecture, well known to the British dilettanti, travelling in Veneto to visit one villa after another.

Villa da Porto Pedrotti near Vicenza, by Andrea Palladio, 1554

And so, that’s where the motif comes from. That is, albeit as a concise and simplified summary of an intricate, picturesque story, both the source of the form and, at the same time, an origin of the idea of Rolls-Royce radiator grill. The shape which hardly evolved for over a hundred years since 1906, and even today remains recognizable, despite having been tilted from perfectly vertical and having obtained rounded edges in 2013 Wraith model. When a Rolls-Royce, a gentleman’s car par excellence, floats ahead at a stately pace, as indeed it should, what it carries high in the front is – perhaps not a temple portico, because there isn’t any religious context therein – but of course a true visual emblem of its native country: a park pavilion straight from an English landscape garden.

Here are links to two excellent and engaging dinner lectures given by Grzegorz at the Bristol Hotel, Warsaw. There are many others by other members buried in the historic record of the CCC that fuel nostalgia. Do scroll though www.casualcars.blogspot.com as I have resuscitated much recently. 

Does entropy apply even to car clubs ?

https://casualcars.blogspot.com/2018/01/ccc-christmas-dinner-bristol-hotel.html

https://casualcars.blogspot.com/2013/12/dinner-at-bristol-hotel-warsaw-monday.html

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) and his Ferraris - not only an immortal Chopinist. Also Herbert von Karajan, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Andy Warhol and their cars

 

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)

 

There is little need for me to introduce Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, one of the greatest pianists and musicians of all time. 

I have been listening to a remarkable live recording of a concert he gave in Warsaw in 1955. His Bach/Busoni Chaconne from the Partita in D minor No.2 BWV 1004 is surely one of the greatest ever recorded. Michelangeli's  knowledge and command of the piano as an instrument was unequaled, permitting his soul and ours to take unhindered flight. His total identification with the music, his majestic 'Olympian' and 'Apollonian' playing has often been described as 'unearthly' even to the point of bordering on the cold classicism of a perfect Athenian statue.

I once heard him play Debussy and Beethoven many years ago in the Royal Festival Hall in London, performing on two distinct Steinway concert grand pianos, one for each composer, individually tuned and prepared by himself. His hearing was acute. Dressed totally in black - dark, poetic, possessed, cadaverous and brilliant - occasionally dabbing his brow with a black silk pocket square. I was with the conductor of the great Hallé orchestra of Manchester, Sir Mark Elder, and we were both astounded at this memorable musical occasion, deeply etched into memory.

These character traits made him curiously and uniquely gifted in his penetration of those uniquely emotional, inaccessible aspects of Chopin, seldom engaged or touched by lesser mortals. His refined,  poetic recordings of the G minor Ballade, the F minor Fantasia or the B flat minor Scherzo are formidably expressive, replete with the untranslatable Polish emotion of żal in his inspired phrasing, nuance, rubato and glorious tone. The mazurkas are a kaleidoscope of shifting colour, intimacy, timbre, simplicity and rhythmic independence of the hands.The sensuality of the B flat minor Sonata, the affecting delineation of the Polish melancholy of death in the Marche funèbre, the deeply moving cantabile of  grieving reflection, the miraculous legato and the unsettling writhing of the disinherited mind in the contrapuntal web of the Presto.  

But his elegant musical genius is not what I wish to discuss in this reflection. What could  I possibly add to what has already been hyperbolically written by numerous critics far more gifted than I ?

Herbert von Karajan and his cars

Many of you will know my fascination with classic cars, an obsession that runs alongside my musical life-blood. Many great musicians and artists have been equally fascinated, as human beings often are, by speed, inspired design and distinguished, fast motor cars. Michelangeli was one, the great German conductor Herbert von Karajan was another. He used to drive home in exceptional Porsches so fast that farmers brought in their animals lest they stray onto the road. 

Herbert von Karajan, the legendary Austrian conductor, was not only known for his mastery in music but also for his passion for luxury cars. Over the years, he owned an impressive collection of high-performance vehicles, reflecting his taste for precision and elegance. Here’s an overview of Karajan’s relationship with cars:

His Love of Driving

Karajan was an avid driver who valued the artistry of engineering and speed. He often compared conducting orchestras to driving powerful cars, emphasizing control, precision, and a sense of freedom. Driving became one of his key hobbies and a way to relax away from his demanding musical career.

The Ferrari Connection

Karajan had a particular fondness for Ferrari, owning several iconic models:

• Ferrari 275 GTB: This classic sports car, renowned for its beauty and performance, was a highlight of his collection.

• Ferrari 365 GT4 BB (Berlinetta Boxer): Known for its mid-engine design, it reflected his love for cutting-edge automotive technology.

Karajan was famously photographed with some of these Ferraris, further cementing his image as a man of refined taste.

The Porsche 959

One of the most notable cars in his collection was the Porsche 959, a revolutionary supercar of its time. Karajan was one of the first customers to receive this model, showcasing his affinity for rare and innovative vehicles. He admired its advanced engineering, including its all-wheel drive and cutting-edge aerodynamics.

Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz

Karajan’s collection wasn’t limited to sports cars. He also owned luxurious models like Rolls-Royce and high-end Mercedes-Benz vehicles, reflecting his preference for comfort and sophistication in certain settings.

The Symbolism of Cars in His Life

For Karajan, cars were more than just machines—they were symbols of his personality:

• Precision: He appreciated cars for their meticulous engineering, akin to his approach to music.

• Speed: Karajan often spoke about his love for speed, seeing parallels between the energy of a fast car and the dynamics of music.

• Elegance: His choices, from Ferraris to Rolls-Royces, echoed his preference for elegance in both his professional and personal life.

A Man of Dual Worlds

Karajan’s love for cars and music bridged two worlds: one of artistic creativity and the other of mechanical brilliance. He was known to drive his cars on the winding roads of the Alps, finding inspiration in the landscapes and the thrill of the drive.

 Andy Warhol and his fascination with Rolls-Royce

Andy Warhol's Phantom III Shooting Brake (3CP134)

Andy Warhol's Silver Shadow II

François Cevert, the French Formula 1 team-mate of the champion driver Jackie Stewart, was also a classically trained concert pianist who played Beethoven sonatas in his paddock caravan before Formula 1 races and the French writer Albert Camus was tragically and absurdly killed in a Facel Vega in 1960. Even Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, winner of the most recent International Chopin Competition in Warsaw is a champion go-cart driver and dreams of taking up Formula 1.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and his fascination with Ferrari

Michelangeli was born in Brescia. He assures us his family was of 'Slavic' Croatian ancestry. This was the Italian town where the immortal road race known as the  Mille Miglia originated in 1927 and was last run in 1957. In many ways it had been inspired by the far older classic Targa Florio. He studied to be a doctor but abandoned this career for music. He was a pilot in the Italian Air Force during WW II and loved flying. His association with Brescia and fast cars would have made a Mille Miglia fascination and addiction almost inevitable. It is rumoured he may have taken some part in the April 1953 race in a Fiat Parisotto 750 Sport. Many legends abound around such escapades .... 

These discoveries gave me extraordinary excitement, enhancing the image of an immortal pianist who had also been a pilot and shared my passion for rare, fast cars. I seem to have inherited this trait from my great-uncle, the Australian concert pianist Edward Cahill (1885-1975). He owned an Alvis Speed 20 and later in life, during WW II, drove a Type 57 Bugatti around Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) after charity concerts for interned troops and international exiles. In his biography I had written:

Eddie had one curious interest seemingly at odds with being a classical musician. He was interested in motor racing, had even done a little in Australia and arranged to visit the Brooklands circuit over Easter. He felt a connection between the two forms of risk- taking – one with Liszt at the limits of the keyboard concertizing and the other at the 'ten-tenths' limits of a fast car on a race track. The adrenalin rush that resulted from the proximity of an accident, of danger, stimulated his rather neurotic temperament. A moth attracted to the flame. (The Pocket Paderewski - Michael Moran , Melbourne 2016) pp.73-74

In her remarkably detailed book on the artist Michelangeli written by his pupil the Polish pianist Lidia Kozubek, (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli as I knew him - Peter Lang GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, 2011) we learn much of his personal characteristics apart from his sublime pianism and musicality. Although one of the highest-paid pianists, he lived rather a frugal life of great generosity and often gave to charitable causes. You really should read it for a fuller more balanced picture of this extraordinary man.

Kozubek quotes the Italian author and journalist Grazia Livi who writes in Epoca : 

'...the one luxury he does allow himself  - perhaps on account of an overwhelming desire to get the better of reality - is a particularly fast and powerful car. (Michelangeli enjoyed living dangerously).' p.13

Kozubek regarded him as a Renaissance man, such was his versatility and extensive knowledge of diverse spheres of art, science and life.

As a good host, Michelangeli made a point of adding variety to the daily round, appreciating as he did the regenerative powers of relaxation for  a tired mind and body. He would take us on outings to beautiful Italian towns - to visit an ancient monument, a museum, or antique dealer's (he was an expert on antique furniture) or simply to a good supper in some especially fine location, of which of course there is no shortage in Italy. Always an added attraction of such trips was riding in Michelangeli's car, often at a giddy speed of over 100 miles miles per hour! - and regardless of whether it was day or night. When travelling alone on the Italian motorways, he would do up to 150 miles per hour. He was a very able, sure driver, and fast driving appeared to unwind him.

Michelangeli was also a pilot:his friend the Italian conductor Ettore Gracis  mentions that he had some 300 flying hours behind him. Sometimes he even borrowed a plane and flew to a concert being held in some remote town far away. (p.14)

Below are some of the cars Michelangeli owned and drove. He had had a passion for Ferrari and was a 'Saturday friend' of Enzo Ferrari himself (the day reserved for special friends) and is mentioned in his biography. Michelangeli is also mentioned in the obituary of the great coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti (1920-2011) who created some of the most beautiful Ferraris.

The Italian coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti, who has died aged 91, was responsible for the bodywork of some of the most beautiful sports and racing cars ever built – a series of Ferraris created between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s: the 750 Monza, the Testarossa, the 250GT and GTO, the Lusso, the Dino 246 and the California Spider. These cars were bought by the type of customer who helped establish Ferrari's glamorous reputation: the film director Roberto Rossellini, the playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, the conductor Herbert von Karajan, the actor Marcello Mastroianni, the Shah of Iran, the pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, ex-King Leopold of Belgium and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

(Guardian Obituary 24th November 2011 of Sergio Scaglietti, Italian coachbuilder, born 9 January 1920; died 20 November 2011)

Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) at the entrance to the Ferrari factory

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli with his Ferrari 250 GT short-wheelbase Coupé - one of the greatest, most exciting of all Ferrari road cars for the gentleman weekend racer

(possibly manufactured 1958 with coachwork by Pininfarina)

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli with his Ferrari 330 GT 2+ 2 Coupé (1964-1965)
No doubt he bought a 2+2 to accommodate his fearless pupils!

Replacing the 250 GTE, the 330 2+2 was Ferrari’s second attempt at a 4-seat Grand Tourer. Michelangeli clearly took more than one pupil as a passenger according to Kozubek. The car was often criticized for its distinctive dual headlights which was a feature of the body designer Tom Tjaarda. Not long afterward Ferrari reverted back to the single headlight treatment for the road-going model.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli at the wheel of an MG MGA (1955-1962)

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli leaving his Jaguar XJ6 or perhaps XJ12 (1968-1973)

The 1967 Rosso Corsa Ferrari 330 GTC by Pininfarina, VIN 10215, once owned by
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

(Photographs from the 2015 auction catalogue sale by Fantasy Junction in the US)

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Sergei Rachmaninoff and His Cars

Sergei Rachmaninoff, the famed Russian composer and pianist, had a well-documented love of fast and luxurious automobiles, especially after emigrating to the United States following the Russian Revolution. His imposing figure and tailored attire standing beside a gleaming luxury car added to his image of dignified grandeur.

Love for Cars

Rachmaninov developed a deep appreciation for automobiles in the 1920s and 1930s. He was particularly fond of large, powerful, and elegant vehicles, which matched his tall, aristocratic presence and refined tastes.

Notable Cars He Owned

• Cadillac V-16 (circa 1930s): This was one of the most prestigious American cars of the era. Rachmaninov owned a custom-built Cadillac V-16, which was known for its enormous engine and smooth ride. He even had a personal chauffeur.

• Rolls-Royce: There are accounts suggesting he also had a Rolls-Royce at one point, possibly during his time in Europe or the early years in America.

• Lincoln: He also reportedly owned a Lincoln, another high-end American brand.

Symbol of Status and Escape

For Rachmaninov, cars weren’t just transport — they symbolized freedom, modernity, and perhaps a form of escape from the anxieties and displacement he experienced after leaving Russia.

[From https://www.facebook.com/legendarymusicians2020]

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At present we are drowning in so many horrendous events - the immeasurable suffering of a brutal European war, the horrors in the Middle East, terrifying earthquakes, murderous crimes, worldwide financial instability, technological private surveillance, famine, religious conflict, gender reassignment, misogyny, celebrity culture and not to forget the lingering long-term effects of the Covid pandemic that are still with us. 

However, despite all this, I offer you a link to my own cars collected through a lifetime of genuine love for exotic machines alongside my passion for the physical transcendence offered by Chopin's music. I hope you will not find me presumptuous or conceited, but I would like to share with you the extremely modest connection I imagine I have with Michelangeli. 

Certainly you would not wish to hear me play Chopin, Scarlatti, Debussy, Beethoven or Galuppi on the piano...so it's motor cars!

I assure you there is no unacknowledged 'slavery' lurking here except my own as an author bent over a desk for far too many years!  Oh I could write a book assessing our present so-called 'woke culture' of censorship, 'sensitivity readers' and the contentious nature of colonialism.

I feel one now has to somehow fight psychologically to remain optimistic and hopefully empathetic in the face of these severe contemporary moral reversals, cruel wars and social decline. 

One struggles in some desperation not to feel guilty for managing, even enjoying, one's 'normal' life in the face of such horrors. Many now find exotic cars simply a lucky, vain and narcissistic 'escape' or merely 'indulgence' rather than a delightful redeeming vice of civilized life. 

For the classic car enthusiast, reality is not like that at all, life being the complicated matter it is...Do read Françoise Sagan's Essay 'Speed'  in her book of essays With Fondest Regards.  She was another artist who was an aficionado of fast cars. 

My own modest collection and history with classic cars - far superior than listening to me attempting to play the piano or harpsichord !

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/cars/a-man-moon-remarkable-car-adventures-michael-moran