It's a deliberately tatty old Rolls with a Chevy V8. Need we say more?
A heart-attack inducing (at least among the owner’s club) remaster of a 1958 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud sporting an underskirt upgrade, Chevy LS7 V8 and Brembos. There is patina. There are surprisingly period-correct and remixed details, and the knowledge that all is very much not as it seems. Not so much a sleeper as a full-on street coma.
One of Top Gear’s favourite peddlers of the fine line between art and insanity: Jonathan Ward of ICON. It’s another of his ‘Derelict’ projects (this one from a few years ago), where, in true restomod style, genially careworn old things are stuffed full of 21st century goodness. But where Ward’s other series-production restomods upgrade much more than just the mechanicals (see the ICON Bronco, and Toyota FJ-series lines), the Derelicts maintain their more chafed appearance, wearing sunburn, scratches and age-related marks as badges of honour. The Cloud in question is no different - from the outside, it looks largely standard - badge bar below the front grille and all.
A lot. In-keeping with Ward’s attitude that he loves the look of the old, but ‘has no patience for archaic mechanical experiences’ and noting that the Silver Cloud, in stock form, ‘drives like a truck with sponges for shock absorbers’. The remedy is extensive: the chassis gained independent front suspension and a four-link rear, custom CNC’d wheels covering modern Brembo brakes. There’s a 550bhp GM LS7 stuffed in the front, giving a perfect 50:50 weight distribution, coupled to a GM 4L85E auto.
It has stainless everything else, from exhaust to brake lines, an entirely new electrical system, upgraded LED lighting all-round and even a modern gun locker inveigled into the boot area. Even the seats maintain a period look while sporting memory foam innards, and the gauges and switchgear are modernised for accuracy, but retain the original - restored - faces. There’s also a good deal of contemporary convenience - stuff like cruise control and an air-conditioning system that actually makes things cooler. The original air-con involving asking the chauffeur to crack the quarterlights and loosening one’s collar.
Just the one. Although this is only one of Ward’s series of interesting old things re-animated for the modern age. Head over to icon4x4.com to check out some of his other projects.
There are no official figures, although if you take into account that an original Cloud of this vintage weighs roughly 1,900kg - despite its size - and it originally would have only produced something like 177bhp. With three times the power and more sophisticated suspension, one would expect the ICON Cloud to perform more like a modern hot hatch than a venerable old Rolls. It still has the aerodynamics of Salisbury Cathedral, though.
POA. And if you have to ask, and all that. This much bespoke costs money.
Because Jonathan Ward is our kind of weird. He maintains that these things are rolling sculptures, and insists that the Derelict series was conceived so that people would actually get out and use these things and not have to worry about £100k paint jobs and passer-by jealousy vandalism. It’s also about making exciting old shapes that don’t require too much intellectual commitment to actually get out and drive - the Silver Cloud is now ‘just a car’ - albeit much faster.
The lizard badge on the bonnet is Ward’s personal icon. And the Cloud won several awards at the SEMA show in 2017, and was subsequently invited to compete at the Las Vegas Speedway in the Optima Top Street Car Challenge… which is incongruous if nothing else…
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