Sir Michael Caine's First Car, a 1968 Rolls-Royce, Seeks Redemption

The gangster is real, the posh automobile dealership from the capital of the U.K. is also as honest as it gets, and the following chain of events is historically accurate.

One morning, an Antarctic-level cool British movie star decides he absolutely needs to go shopping. In "swinging sixties" fashion, he jots a grocery list on a piece of paper. You know, the usual: milk, razor blades, newspaper, bread, Rolls-Royce, eggs, toothpaste, nothing out of the ordinary.

The actor is Maurice Mickelwhite, but you'll best recognize him under his screen name Michael Caine – one of the most outstanding performers ever to honor the art of filmmaking with his talent. So, one morning, the 35-year-old movie star casually decides he has enough of London's public transportation and buys a car.

The story is full of twists and plots, making it even more big-screen-like. First, Michael Caine was 35 then, but didn't have a driver's license. As ludicrous or downright suspect as it may seem to certain readers, it was pretty standard for the time and place of this series of events.

Just as today, in 1968, there was no requirement to own a driver's license to purchase an automobile – it only takes money to do it. Lots of money if that vehicle happens to bear the badge of one of the world's most renowned luxury brands.

In 1968, a convertible Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow coupe cost over ten thousand pounds sterling. Translated to Lyndon B. bills, that's $25,000. Would it help to put it next to a Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado from the same year? The V8-powered American was priced at around $6,600, almost a quarter of the high-ranking V8 Brit's label.

Nonetheless, money was not an issue for Caine. Cool as a high-ranking gangster, he walks into a dealership and nonchalantly asks to buy a car. This is where the plot intensifies, as the dealer was also British and very much used to affluent customers. His new client-wannabe had a lowly attire and a matching allure – nothing to make much of a good impression on the seller.

Without pompous ceremonial, Caine was promptly invited to step outside and remain there (political correctness and other third-millennium etiquette musts were far from their social lethality of today). Lacking a car (but overdosed on a freshly-inflicted and utter desire to have the last say), the actor improvised spectacularly. He went straight to the closest Rolls-Royce dealership and swiftly purchased the first available car.

As fate would have it, it was a 1968 Silver Shadow with bodywork by Mulliner. A splendid two-door soft-top, the 1967-launched model became the British movie star's very first automobile. True to his low-life origins and gangster past, Caine paid a second visit to the first dealers with his brand-new acquisition and shared his impressions with them.

For the sake of his Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire rank, we'll say that brief but highly descriptive finger language was involved during Caine's comeback. Having paid his dues, he was then gently driven off.

That's right; he employed a chauffeur to drive the Rolls. The insurance for a novice driver of a Rolls-Royce was so outrageously high that it was cheaper for the actor to pay someone else to take care of the pedal-and-steering business.

He kept the car for two years, and in 1970, he sold it to an acquaintance of his – a restaurant owner with infamous London mob and royalty ties. At this point, it would be best to explain the gangster references to Sir Michael Caine.

By his admission, he was a genuine gang member after the Second World War, a proper cockney ruffian, but only to benefit from the protection. It wasn't the break-the-law type of company, just an organized society of young men trying to get the best of life in the ill-famed South London. Granted, none of the members would shy away from a fight – if the opportunity presented – but they weren't looking for one.

Cockney by birth, actor by trade, knight by merit – Michael Caine sold his first Rolls-Royce (after a chief two-year ownership) to a notorious man of the London underworld. This person (rumored to rub elbows with the Kray twins and other mafia figures) held the automobile in possession for the rest of his life, until 2013.

Bought by the current owner in 2018, the drophead Rolls-Royce benefitted from a complete overhaul – mechanical and aesthetical – which brought it to its current state.

When new, this limited-series convertible – only another 505 were manufactured during the four-year production of the model – came with a 6.2-liter overhead-valve V8 and an automatic transmission. Ironically, the three-speed gearbox was supplied by none other than General Motors, and the car's almost legendary ride quality was mainly due to the Citroen-licensed self-leveling suspensions.

Although colossal by European standards, the Roller was tiny when scaled up to New World's finest. At 203.5 in | 5,2 m long, 71 in | 1,8 m wide, and 59.8 in | 1.51 m tall, with a wheelbase of 119.5 in (three meters), the exclusive British leisure automobile was almost a foot and a half (43 cm) shorter than a same-year Eldorado Caddy, and 8.9 inches narrower (27 cm).

As far as the engine specs go, the Rolls-Royce relied on 200 hp (203 PS) and 470 Nm (347 lb-ft) of torque. Now, because it is a Rolls-Royce and because it spent its life in Europe, the quarter mile, zero-to-whatever, and top speed numbers are as appropriate here as chewing tobacco at a Buckingham Palace banquet.

Fine leather, noble wood, soft lambswool carpets – Cockney-Caine spent Her Royal Majesty's wallet-sized portraits as if they were going out of fashion. For the car's price, a pretentious buyer could have quickly reserved the exclusive (and not at all affordable) company of an Aston Martin DB6 Volante and a Ferrari 330 GTS. At the same time.

Between 2013 and 2018, the Rolls-Royce was retired in storage. However, the next buyer – who still owns the automobile – invested close to £100,000 (almost $121K) in a complete restoration. The odometer claims 59,000 miles (95,000 kilometers) – not proven, but highly probable to be correct.

The renovation kept close to the original build sheet – black exterior over magnolia leather, a single headrest (for the passenger, the driver didn't get in the least pampered), and even a just-for-show license plate reproducing the initial one from the Caine years. The autobiographic documentary "Candid Caine - A Self Portrait of Michael Caine" from 1969 features the car extensively (watch it below).

The 2.1-ton soft-top two-door Rolls-Royce is now offered for sale again, and the expected price is somewhere between £100,000 to £150,000 ($121,000 to $181,000, at the time of writing exchange rate). The auction is held on March 15 at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire. That's all the way across the Atlantic, in England.