September 2019 Classic & Sports Car 133Y
ou know that the fortunes of a
previously underappreciated
model are on the up when the
fine definitions between the
variants acquire a fresh signif-
icance. All at once, a new
means of talking a particular
car up (or down) is suddenly at our fingertips.
For example, I didn’t know there was an unof-
ficial ‘Mk1A’ variant of the first chrome-bumper
generation of Corniche: a handful of right-hand-
drive cars built in ’75 and ’76 that look outwardly
identical to those produced since 1971, but have
improvements more associated with rubber-
bumpered post-’77 cars based on the Shadow II.
There was nothing new in this. Since the late
’60s it had been Crewe policy to test its latest
innovations on its most expensive coachbuilt
versions before rolling them out in the ‘volume’
model – 1979 Corniches, for instance, got the
new 1980 Silver Spirit-type rear suspension.
Sliding behind the wheel of this car, freshly
restored to an exquisite standard by marque
specialist Hillier Hill, the first thing you notice is
the Shadow II-style fascia and split-level air-
conditioning system, a combination first seen on
American-market left-hand-drive Corniches.
What you can’t see, under the graceful Mulli-
ner Park Ward two-door coupé body, are the
fully powered brakes (no master cylinder) and
Clockwise from main:
magnificent finish the
product of 18 months’
hard graft; remedial work
quickly escalated into a
full repaint; subframes
dropped for renovation