Rolls-Royce 20/25 1929 - Windovers Landaulette GXO48 4-Door

A delightful, early 20/25 with traditional, tall, upright coachwork, very stately, but fresh and cheerful in very nicely carried out primrose paintwork with tan leather interior, attractive veneers, and excellent headlining and carpets. In fact, the car is very fresh and clean throughout, inside and out. The car has some appealing vintage features, such as two-way divided windscreen, a 'porthole' communication window to the division, a lovely set of instruments, P80 'bullseye' headlights, 'Windover patent' slimline bumper front and twin bladed quarter bumpers at the rear, a full set of wheel discs (also Windover's own) and a very 'characterful' trunk on the rear. We have just completed an engine overhaul, which included new main and big end bearings, new pistons and little ends, timing case bearings, etc, and a clutch overhaul while we were at it, giving the car new lease of life. Correct, attractive and smart, offered newly MoT tested. The last owner very effectively turned the car into a 'Darling Buds of May lookalike', and we have included a Lledo model of it to complement this. Chassis No. GXO48 Reg No. GE 8697 Snippets: Rugby Union, Civil Engineer & Football bootsThe 1st owner of GXO48 was Sir David McCowan (1860/1937) of Park Circus Place, Glasgow who between 1880/84 played international Rugby for Scotland and was capped 10 times, he later became President of the SRU in 1928. His career was that of a senior partner with William Euing & Co, specialists in Marine Insurance. In 1889 David married Gertrude Cargill whose father David Cargill in 1886 had founded Burmah Oil Ltd and remained as their chairman until his death in 1904. It would appear that within a few years GXO48 had been sold to Sir Frederick Llewelyn Palmer (1862/1934) who worked for the civil engineer Sir Alexander Rendel and was seconded to the East Indian Railway Company in the capacity of assistance engineer. Whilst stationed in India he was responsible for the construction of the Moghalserai-Gaya line which took over 4 years to complete and included the Sone Bridge which at the time was the 2nd longest bridge in the world with some 93 spans of 100ft. Frederick returned to the UK in 1909 where he became chief engineer to the Port of London Authority working on both the Albert & King George V Docks. During WWI he was consulting engineer to the Air Ministry & his international works included Port Churchill for Hudson Bay River, Montreal Terminal, the harbour at Haifa and the new Zambesi Bridge. In 1907 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire and in 1930 Commander of the Order of St Michael & St George for his contributions to engineering. Sir Palmer lived at Crowhurst Place which was previously been home to Consuelo Vanderbilt, 9th Duchess of Marlborough after her separation and subsequent divorce from the 9th Duke. During the 1990s GXO48 was with V. A. Lovelock who applied for a patent for various sporting gear including a headband and a football boot cover which consisted of a band that wrapped around the sweet spot of a football boot thereby increasing the friction between boot and ball and hopefully allowing the ball to strike with greater accuracy