A good example of the Long Wing design Nr. 99




















Car location
BethesdaHi Can we update the customer dealer page with this The Real Car Company Ltd The Real Car Company was established in 1987 by Ray Arnold & Ian Johnstone to specialise in the sale of early Rolls-Royce and Bentley. It was a hobby that 'Got out of hand'. Our interest in cars of the type that we now sell goes back to our childhoods, and ownership back to the 1970s. Gradually more cars started passing through our hands, and by 1986 we had decided to make a full-time occupation of buying and selling the cars that we love. We started with a single car (all we could afford) which we sold quickly, and before we knew it we had 4 or 5 on our hands! This was alongside another business (exhaust systems) that we were involved in at the time. In the spring of 1988 we gave up the other business, rented part of the premises that we still operate from now, and went full time. We started well in the boom years of the late eighties, which set us up well enough for us to ride the storm of recession in the years that followed. As the years went on the number of cars going through our hands increased gradually, we built up a workforce, and we now carry a stock of around 30 to 40 vehicles with nine of us here. Over the years we have gratefully received awards from the motoring press. We are always interested in acquiring cars of the type that we sell so if you know of a Rolls-Royce or Bentley for sale, anywhere in the World, particularly an early model, please let us know
2 Previous Owners, Cheerfully painted in red & cream to a high standard, with matching cream leather & red carpets (in the boot as well) this car is a good example of the sought after long wing design number 99, mounted on a Big Bore 4.5 litre chassis. The interior woodwork is particularly interesting, being quite plain in terms of the grain, but in 3 shades and with a tasteful satin finish. The car is very sound, with excellent door fits, etc, and is running well. We are currently preparing & servicing it, have fitted five new radial tyres, which suit the car very well, both visually and from a driving point of view, together with new tubes, ready for the road. We have also fitted a new stainless steel rear bumper and over riders, which are excellent! Invoices on file from earlier this year show remedial work, including a clutch overhaul, and together amount to over £10,000 having been spent. The original registration number, OTO 620, instantly gives the car a name! Chassis No. B455NY Reg No. OTO 620 Snippets: Lace & Wimbledon The first owner of B455NY was Stuart Kirkland Fletcher (1897/1963) who in 1915 at the age of 18 joined the RAMC and was posted to Mesopotamia, for his services in WWI he was awarded the Victory & the British Medal. The Fletcher family fortune was founded in the machines that they produced for the lace mills, a book on the Fletcher House of Lace has been written by S. B. Fletcher and will be with the car. One of his daughters, Helen Margaret, was an international tennis player, she started playing the game in 1945 as a righthanded player but after falling off a horse in 1946 & breaking her wrist she switched to playing left handed and became on the top lefthanded players in the world! In 1950 she played her first game in Wimbledon and by 1953 she was ranked No. 9 in the World Singles and Nr 2 in Great Britain. In 1953 & 1954 she beat Shirley Fry (ranked Nr 3 in the world) when they played on grass at Manchester. By 1961 B455NY was with Major Anthony Richard Carr of Bladgen House in Keevil. Blagden house was named after Roger Blagden (a clothier from Keevil) who in 1585 had purchased land from Thomas Jones, after Roger Blagden died in 1603 the estate remained in the Blagden family until 1807 when the last living blood relative, Miss Ann Dare left the estate to a distant relative John Chamberlaine who in turn left it to his married daughter Mrs Pooke & in order to accept the bequest her husband changed his name by deed poll from Pooke to Chamberlaine!! Although Blagden House was built in the mid1600s there are parts of it which can be traced back to the 1400s when it was owned by the wealthy clothier Lawrence Stephens. From the 1980s to 2016 B455NY was with Robert Belli of Virsac, France who being a carpenter had restored his parents travelling caravan in which he, along side his 14 siblings had been raised!