What Were They Thinking? Michelotti's Vignale Rolls Royce
"The Ugliest Roll Royce Ever?" -- That was the title of a 2001 piece on Motor Trend magazine's web page. Well, maybe. But there might have been a few that were worse. The cited car was a 1954 Roll-Royce Silver Wraith with a custom body by Italian coachbuilder Vignale completed in 1955. The designer was the well-known Giovanni Michelotti who later designed production car bodies for Triumph. Being a custom bodied automobile, its design features were influenced by Vignale's client. Some of this is mentioned here on the Bonhams auction web site in reference to its 2014 offering at Quail Lodge in California. What might be important is that he was an American. Which suggests that he wanted the car to have 1954-vintage American styling features. Gallery The car was on display for a while at the Blackhawk museum in California's Bay Area. That is the source of this and similar images below. The "ugly" bit is the front end design that features t...