FEATURE CAR ROLLS?ROYCE SILVER WRAITH HOOPER SEDANCA
You might think that with various highly personalised Rolls-Royces in his life, Nubar Gulbenkian would have cherished them above all other transport. But which of his cars is featured as a sketch on the back cover of his memoires? The dust jacket of Pantaraxia: An Autobiography (Hutchinson, 1965) depicts none of the above, but rather an Austin FX4 taxi modified by FLM Panelcraft with a brougham-style body, carriage lamps and wickerwork covering on the exterior panels. Perhaps he liked it for its silliness, perhaps because it was unique – after all, plenty of people had Rolls-Royces with eccentric coachwork – or perhaps because it was the most practical for London use. Gulbenkian’s famous remark on the car went thus: ‘It will turn on a sixpence – whatever that is.’
Nubar Gulbenkian was the son of ‘Mr Five Per Cent’. His father, Calouste Gulbenkian, was known for the extraordinary deal that guaranteed him 5% of the proceeds ofan extravagant foreign potentate. His family was Armenian and though he divided his time between Paris, London and the South of France, he was educated at Harrow and Cambridge and regarded himself as British. He also held an Iranian passport, which came in handy during some cloak-anddagger wartime adventures. After the war ended, Gulbenkian settled down in his flat near the Ritz with his third wife, and began to enjoy himself.
