Pininfarina penned today’s Nice Price or No Dice Roll, although many argue that it is not the design house’s best work. Despite that, we will have to see if this classic Roller’s price tag works for us.
Someone once said that when it comes to performance, there’s simply no substitute for displacement. I believe the speaker was American. While generally accurate, that sage snippet of wisdom doesn’t take into account jet turbine engines. These small but mighty burners of nearly anything with BTUs can produce enough power to move even massive aircraft through the skies. Sticking closer to the Earth, one also provides power to the 1976 Bradley GT we looked at last Friday. That oddball car was listed in the ad as not being roadworthy, and without any way to reverse other than an incline, it wouldn’t prove practical if it were. Along with the jet’s noise and the likelihood of having to serve tiny bags of peanuts to passengers while in transit, that proved an insurmountable hill for the car’s $18,900 asking price to overcome. In the end, it flamed out in an 85 percent No Dice loss.
Driving a jet-powered car may offer spectacle, but what if your lifestyle demands something less garish and brash? Perhaps instead, you seek to emanate an air of civility and culture. Or maybe you’re just super bougie.
Whatever the reason, this 1983 Rolls-Royce Camargue offers that ability to stand out, even within the luxury car crowd.
Rolls introduced the Camargue in 1975 as the brand’s range-topping model. Built on the same platform as the existing Silver Shadow and Corniche models, the Camargue was notable at its launch for its features, its price tag, and, mostly so, for its styling.
This was the first Rolls-Royce model since World War II not to have been designed in-house. Instead, the big car’s design was entrusted to Italy’s Pininfarina, where designer Paolo Martin was assigned the task of making the Camargue a bold styling statement.
The result is a car that shows familial ties to other of Martin’s works at the time, most notably to the Fiat 130 Coupe. That styling, however, doesn’t really translate well to a car of the Camargue’s size and dimensions and has long been considered the model’s biggest weakness.
The car’s appearance also impacted peoples’ interest in paying the Camargue’s stratospheric price. At the time of its launch, it was the most expensive production car on the planet. To maintain the model’s exclusivity, no Bentley version was ever offered.
There are a number of other firsts for the Camargue to tout, including being the first Rolls to offer dual-zone climate control in the cabin and the first model not to have a perfectly vertical grille with its Spirit of Ecstasy-topped Parthenon grille canted forward at a jaunty seven degrees.
This Camargue is one of only around 530 built over the course of the model’s 11-year production run. Being from near the end of that span, it enjoys most of the running changes made to the model over time, including the adoption of Bosch fuel injection and an updated independent rear suspension. Feeding power to that rear end is a 6.75-liter OHV V8 engine with a GM-sourced three-speed Turbo-Hydramatic transmission acting as the intermediary.
According to the ad, that drivetrain has whispered this Camargue over a modest 45,000 miles. The exterior shows well, wearing cream-colored paint and an abundance of brightwork. Chrome plating on the alloys is an unwelcome bit of garishness, but the car otherwise offers a stately and imposing presence.
The cabin, awash in Connolly leather and Wilton Wool carpets, shows a bit more evidence of the car’s age. That expensive leather on the plush driver’s throne is splitting on both the backrest and the squab, while down below, it appears that the carpet has faded from its former glories.
The seller doesn’t provide us with any information as to the car’s mechanicals, save for the mention of it wearing a new set of tires. These aren’t just expensive cars to buy; they are also very pricey to maintain, in some cases requiring specialized tools for their upkeep. As such, it would take a dedicated individual to own and maintain a car of this nature. In this Camargue’s case, it would also take someone with $60,000 lying around, as that’s the asking price.
Ponying up that much gets the clean-title car and the smug self-satisfaction of driving something that is rare and, to be honest, not traditionally attractive. What’s your take on this slightly oddball Rolls and that $60,000 asking? Does that seem like a fair deal for so rare and storied a car despite the limited info in the ad? Or is that just too much for this Rolls of the dice?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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