Read I, recently, that a lady "must never be slutty, just a little nasty and always, ALWAYS, classy".
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| Caprice Kubheka, connoisseur of fine cars by day, trucker by night with his Vanden Plass Princess 4l R. |
"But what is this 'class'", asked a young niece (16). I was at a loss to define that mystical element that turns a woman into a lady until - eureka!, I drove past this racy version of the lady that had me head over heals for her in the flush of my youth - the Princess 4-litre R.
Now, the Princess I drove did not sport the R, had "only" a 3-litre engine and was already a grand dame with the cracks of 17 harsh African summers in her rosewood veneer... so what made her a lady?
Well, for starters, with those matronly lines, she was obviously never going to be slutty. But if you poked her go-faster petrol she always rewarded you with a lot of growl, pushing the needle effortlessly upwards and smoothly shifting into overdrive in all her gears. (I got a bit hot and bothered just typing this line.)
As for her class, I needed only to point a bunch of second-year students to these rosewood tables with silver cup holder inlays that fold out from the back of the front seats (see below). Proving there's hope for the future yet, these young men bowed in mute admiration. As for the 4-litre R seen here, this Princess really was a breed apart. To quote Martin Cannel and Craig Tiano in their "Brief History of the 4-litre R", the car is a jewel of 1960's British workmanship.
Being Brits they are of the opinion that "the Vanden Plas interiors are as comfortable today as any modern car," which is true for space, but I have to point out that cars' ergonomics have moved on a bit in the last 42 years.
Messrs Cannell and Tiano were on the money, however, when they claimed that the 3,909cc Rolls-Royce F60 engine "has performance and smoothness that unparalleled in any car of a similar vintage".
In perhaps the best example of misplaced no-sex-please-we're-British marketing, Rolls Royce intended for their 4-litre princes to be sold behind a Bentley badge to the young American executive of the 1960s. But that matronly body did not, as they say, compute with the visual needs of young American execs.
Only some 7,000 of these 4-litre R models were crafted between 1964 and 1968. Hence rust-free, well-preserved one like this one are getting scarce.
Today, men with an eye for a gal with class built into her bones recognise these cult coaches for the lady she is.
Such a man is Patrice Kubheka, who is the owner of not just this Princes 4L R, but also a Wolseley 6110, a 6160 and the 3-litre princess known for her, shall we say "fast" tail fins.
Kubheka, who trucks fuel for a living, rents his fine examples of English engineering out to chauffeur brides to their weddings. At just R900 (about 90 pounds) for local events in and around the Pietermaritzburg area, there is no cheaper nostalgia to be had this side of the planetoid Sedna.
Such a man is Patrice Kubheka, who is the owner of not just this Princes 4L R, but also a Wolseley 6110, a 6160 and the 3-litre princess known for her, shall we say "fast" tail fins.
Kubheka, who trucks fuel for a living, rents his fine examples of English engineering out to chauffeur brides to their weddings. At just R900 (about 90 pounds) for local events in and around the Pietermaritzburg area, there is no cheaper nostalgia to be had this side of the planetoid Sedna.
