LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - This year, Rolls-Royce is celebrating the 110th anniversary of the inception of its goddess-like muse, the Spirit of Ecstasy.
The bronze sculpture of a woman in a gown that flows behind her like wings first officially adorned the front of a Rolls-Royce coach on Feb 6, 1911.
Subsequently moulded in everything from 24-carat gold to frosted crystal, the figure has withstood more than a century beautifying Britain's most prestigious luxury cars - even the more obscure ones such as the Rolls-Royce Camargue (pronounced as Kar-Marg-hard-G, said a Rolls-Royce spokesman).
More than anything, this car requires her to act as a badge to alert the onlooker that this, too, is a Rolls-Royce, even if it is not quite as handsome as one might expect.
If one has not heard of the Camargue, do not not feel bad. This reporter had not heard of it until a friend recently started texting photos of one that he wanted to buy.
The Camargue is not regarded as the best-looking Rolls-Royce. Many have said that, at the very least, it is the worst-looking Rolls-Royce ever.
Which is unexpected, considering it was designed by Pininfarina's Paolo Martin. It has long, flat body lines across its sides, like a Volvo wagon from the 1990s, an over-elongated hood, and a roof line tilted at the rear at what can only be described as a neck-twisting angle chiropractors must love.
"It looks rather as though Farina has tried to bend the very handsome lines of his Fiat 130 Coupe design around an over-large Rolls-Royce radiator - and failed," the editors of MotorSport Magazine wrote in a scathing review in 1975.
"From the front, the overhang of the bodywork beyond the wheels reminds us of a rude photograph in the South African Grand Prix programme of the derriere of a very fat man astride a very small motorbike."
Time has not lessened the bile of the attacks. One 1981 Camargue listed for sale on Bring A Trailer as a "tweaked Pininfarina" earned comments describing it as "ghastly" and urging potential buyers to "bring a mallet".
Mr Johnathan Klinger, car insurance company Hagerty's vice-president of car culture, put it rather more diplomatically: "Overall, we don't receive many inquiries on the Camargue."
But despite its untraditional Rolls-Royce aesthetic, the Camargue presents a unique chance to own a rare Rolls-Royce that costs less than its better-known kin. While a decent Corniche from the 1980s can cost US$85,000 (S$114,560) and a top-notch Corniche from the early 1990s costs US$175,000, you can find a Camargue in daily driving condition for closer to US$30,000.
The Camargue was named after an idyllic lake region near the French Riviera. It was Rolls-Royce's flagship sedan at the time of its launch in 1975 and, with a base price of £30,000, the most expensive production car in the world.
The Camargue shared a platform with Rolls-Royce's Corniche and Silver Shadow. It was powered by the same 6.75-litre, V-8 engine and three-speed transmission as the Shadow, although the Camargue was more powerful.
The Camargue offered many industry firsts: It was the first post-war Rolls-Royce designed by Italy's Pininfarina and the first of the marque designed in metric dimensions; it was the first Rolls-Royce to feature a slanted grille, inclined at an angle of 7 degrees; and it was the first vehicle to offer dual-zone air-conditioning.
Insurance quotes for the vehicle on Hagerty's website more than doubled from 2019 to 2020, while the average price of one in excellent condition is US$47,440 (S$63,840), up 2.3 per cent in the past 12 months.
"Their values are as good - or even slightly better - than money in the bank," said Mr Klinger. What's more, the average sale price for the best examples at public auction has crept up from US$54,000 in 2015 to US$64,350 in 2020.
