Rolls-Royce Camargue: a Latin makeover

By Martin Buckley

| 14 Jan 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Rolls-Royce Camargue: a Latin makeover

Perhaps the most controversial Rolls-Royce of the post-war era is the Camargue, now 50 years old and a car that can lay claim to many superlative facts and ‘firsts’ for the marque.

It was the first post-WW2 Crewe production styled by a foreign coachbuilder – Pininfarina was so chuffed to get the job it took a reduced fee and a token £1 royalty on each Camargue sold.

It was the first Rolls-Royce constructed to metric rather than imperial measurements, which caused some head-scratching in Turin.

It was the first of its make to have a bonded-in ’screen, curved side glass, electronic ignition and fibre-optics, although that last item only featured on the front marker lights.

The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s welcoming front seats feature fold-out armrests

At £29,250 on its March 1975 launch, it was twice the price of a Silver Shadow, 50% more than a Corniche and £8000 more than even the Phantom VI limousine.

The Rolls-Royce Camargue was the world’s most expensive production car for much of its production run, but by 1986 it was £9000 cheaper than the £93,000 Corniche convertible.

Following the company’s 1971 bankruptcy, the motor-car division of Rolls-Royce needed to stand on its own and make money; amazingly, its cars never had really been profitable.

Resoundingly, the Camargue was a statement product: a statement car for the international rich who wanted a Rolls-Royce that was more fashionable and fun.

More importantly, it was a statement of the firm’s faith in its new-found independence.

Pininfarina's two-door take on the Silver Shadow gave Rolls-Royce a new flagship

Crewe MD David Plastow, conscious of the huge premium nearly-new Shadows could command over list price at the time, had a hunch that a new style, definitively separate from the Shadow and with a dramatic price-tag, would boost sales.

And so it proved: output peaked at 98 cars a year in 1980, a figure that is put into context by the fact that each Camargue took six months to create, with 150 miles of road testing before customer delivery.

There were 1000 man-hours in the body, and just fitting the rear seats could take a week.

The flat body panels, combined with the complex nature of the welding and jig work required to get door gaps and locks to line up, meant the Camargue was not an easy car to make.

‘The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s air conditioning was as powerful as 30 domestic fridges and a match for the systems in American luxury cars’

As a builder of showroom traffic in the USA, the $90,000 Camargue was a masterstroke, boosting sales of Silver Shadows by 42% in the first year because it made the four-door look like a bargain.

The USA was the Camargue’s strongest single market, with 146 finding homes there, including 12 last-of-the-line special editions in white with red leather, built to celebrate 80 years of the marque in North America.

Beginning with a pair of Phantom IIIs, Pininfarina had a long association with Rolls-Royce, producing one-off designs for private clients.

Having recently done a Bentley T1 for the wealthy industrialist James Hanson, it was engaged by Crewe in 1969.

Pininfarina was not granted totally free rein over the Rolls-Royce Camargue’s design; Crewe stipulated a protruding radiator

Sergio Pininfarina tasked a young Paolo Martin to work up designs for the Rolls-Royce board and styling department to assess.

A two-door Shadow MPW donor car (the Corniche still had not been launched) was shipped over from Crewe.

Its underpinnings were harvested and the project was completed in six months once the shape had been agreed on.

Six variations were created, and it was left to Paolo Martin – who said the job took him just three months – to decide on the final dimensions.

Crewe’s only instructions were that the new car, codenamed Delta, had to be roomier inside than the two-door Shadow and that no liberties were to be taken with the detail design of the radiator, whose rear edges had to stand proud of the bonnet.

Rolls-Royce toiled over the Camargue’s fit and finish

It was originally envisaged with a black panel under the side windows, and Fiat 130 Coupé-style rectangular lights were mooted until it was realised these would not be compatible with North American regulations.

Crewe was content, though, to sanction pull-down doorhandles, unique tail-lights and Martin’s specially created interior.

The UK took 136 examples, attracting famous names such as Shirley Bassey, Bernard Manning (although, like Barry Sheene, both may have acquired them secondhand) and, yes, Jimmy Savile, who bought a new one.

Looking through the list of original owners in this country, Rolls-Royce Camargues tended to be bought by corporations rather than individuals.

The Camargue was almost fitted with rectangular headlights, but Pininfarina stuck with circular lamps to appease North American regulations

They may have appealed as tax-avoiding purchases when the very wealthy were being punished by a high-tax government.

Generally, you had to be a sheikh, a sultan or another form of oil-rich potentate to afford a Camargue.

The Shah of Iran owned two (the first left-hookers), and the Middle East, unsurprisingly, had a healthy appetite for these cars, with 75 delivered.

Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped and murdered by the Red Brigades before he could take delivery of his Rolls-Royce Camargue.

The steering is light and the ride is soft but controlled, even when pressing on, contrary to the Rolls-Royce Camargue’s billing as an effortless luxury conveyance

At 26¼in, its grille, inclined backwards by 7°, was the widest yet fitted to a Rolls-Royce, and the car had a breadth 3½in greater, and sat ¼in lower, than the Shadow-based two-door saloon it was intended to replace (the fixed-head Corniche stayed in production until 1980).

Rolls-Royce had been working on a split-level air-conditioning system since the 1960s, and it made its debut in the Camargue.

Costing the price of a new Mini to build, it was as powerful as 30 domestic fridges and a match for the systems fitted to American luxury cars.

The Camargue came in a unique range of colours and had a special type of soft ‘Nuella’ hide specially developed for it by Connolly.

The first 176 Rolls-Royce Camargue bodies were created by Mulliner Park Ward

Weighing in at 5175lb, it was the heaviest of the Shadow-based cars, hence Crewe’s decision to employ a power-boosting Solex four-barrel carburettor on its 6750cc V8 for the European market; twin SUs were retained elsewhere for emissions requirements.

The Camargue was the first Rolls-Royce with side-intrusion bars, and the firm was proud that the car was so strong that only one example was needed to complete America’s crash-compliance tests.

With a 60° windscreen rake, the Camargue was more slippery than a Corniche or a Jaguar XJ6.

The body was built up on a modified Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow platform made out of small pressings, first by Mulliner Park Ward in London (the first 176 cars, in the newly acquired former Triplex glass factory), then Motor Panels of Coventry.

But in both cases the drivetrain, subframes and electrics were installed in Crewe.

The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s Pininfarina styling marries subtle Italianate inputs with an unmistakably imperious Crewe profile

In total, 534 Camargues were built between 1975 and 1986; taking into account prototypes and experimental production cars, 529 were delivered to customers.

Silver Shadow II-style rack-and-pinion steering was fitted after the first 126 cars; when a further 81 examples had been built, revised Silver Spirit-style rear suspension and mineral-oil, high-pressure hydraulics were phased in.

The 1975-’77 cars are known as the 10,000 series, the 1977-’80 cars are referred to as the Shadow II-based 30,000 series, and the 1981-’87 cars are the ‘VIN’ series.

Steve Prevett’s 10,000-series Camargue was built in 1976 but not despatched to Scottish dealer Grassick’s Garage of Perth until 1977.

‘Generally, you had to be a sheikh, a sultan or an oil-rich potentate to afford a Rolls-Royce Camargue’

Like many early Camargues, it was exported to the Middle East, only to return two years later for £18,000-worth of factory remedial work before going to its next owner in 1979.

It then went through a succession of corporate custodians, a nightclub owner and finally a Bristol gentleman in the brothel business.

He stored it for 15 years until it finally emerged at a Cotswolds classic car dealership, which is where Steve’s wife, Andrea, spotted it for sale in 2015.

The Prevetts had ELP 6J recommissioned by marque specialist Chris Moroney and enjoyed using it on everything from shopping trips to a trouble-free tour of Italy, taking in Lake Como.

The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s 6750cc V8

The body was basically sound, but a couple of years ago it became apparent, because of rust around the rear window, that some metalwork was going to be required; a subsequent bare-metal repaint turned into what amounted to a restoration, including returning the leather to its original colour, re-veneering and much more.

It shares garage space with a Citroën SM, and Steve is quite clear that, while he enjoyed his Aston Martin DBS V8, he prefers driving the Camargue.

Elegant from some angles, clumsy from others, the Rolls-Royce Camargue is as arresting a sight today as it was 50 years ago.

Luckily, Cobalt Blue flatters the shape, because the Camargue is perhaps the most colour-sensitive car ever made.

The Camargue’s grille was the widest yet seen on a Rolls-Royce

It slightly overwhelms its rear track in pursuit of added interior width, yet I like the way the roof flows into the rear deck and the airy feel of the crisply chiselled glasshouse.

This super-luxury two-door Rolls-Royce is a rare example of the American-market version (at least in my opinion) being better looking, without the spoiler and the foglights, but the bumpers are cleanly executed, as are all the other details.

It’s a shame plans for a revised front end, incorporating quad rectangular headlights moved out to the edges of the wings, did not come to fruition.

The aluminium-skinned doors are long and heavy, and you feel as if you could slip into the inviting individual rear seats almost without tipping the massive front chairs forward.

The Camargue’s centre console, with a panel of warning lights

For a two-door car, rear legroom is huge, but the rear windows don’t open, presumably because of the superb effectiveness of the air conditioning.

The seats, like almost everything else within the cabin, are special to the Camargue.

The padded headlining is a typical Pininfarina touch and the treatment of the wooden cant rails is very similar to the Fiat 130 Coupé, while the aircraft-style cladding around the recessed switchgear, warning lights and ventilation outlets still looks classy.

Once inside, you are conscious of the extra width compared with a Silver Shadow, and the all-round vision is excellent.

The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s substantial switchgear

Taking in the commanding view along the bonnet, all that you touch and operate has a smooth yet solid action, and this makes the Camargue a restful and reassuring place to be.

The windows work silently, the air conditioning has already decided on the appropriate climate and the smell of the leather is glorious.

In many ways the Camargue is the most pleasant to drive of all the Shadow-era Rolls-Royces.

The barely audible engine has massive torque for authoritatively silky acceleration that is enough to give this big car a confident feel in traffic, but it is not so aggressive that occupants – or onlookers – are alarmed.

The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s smooth gearchanges go mostly unnoticed

Once ‘D’ is selected on the electric quadrant you forget about gearchanges – you can’t feel them any more than you can hear the wind rustling around the door apertures.

When you get used to the light – but not vague – steering, it is possible to drive the Camargue ambitiously up to a limit set more by a requirement not to become conspicuous than by the limits of the car.

The brakes are superbly powerful and predictable, and the self-levelling ride is soft but not sloppy.

You can hear the tyres working quite hard on most surfaces – Rolls-Royce never got to grips with this in the way Jaguar did – but the essential balance of this supple-riding car and its resistance to understeer and body roll up to quite high limits is impressive.

It is as happy to hurry as it is to cruise or potter.

The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s widened back end boosts cabin space for rear-seat occupants

The idea of a Bentley incarnation of the Camargue was considered (they were tested with Bentley grilles prior to the launch), but the model was not a return to the Bentley Continental market.

In a post-Fuel Crisis world of blanket speed limits, 120mph in total luxury was deemed sufficient.

The emphasis was on effortless comfort, with speed only an element as far as it made life for the driver more pleasant, rather than being an end in itself.

It was not intended to be a hardcore driver’s car, but a personal luxury environment for those Rolls-Royce customers who drove themselves.

And in that the Camargue succeeded.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Steve Prevett; WD Wins

The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s warm reception

The Rolls-Royce Camargue’s Sicilian launch event provided a dramatic volcanic backdrop

The Camargue was launched in January 1975 in humid Sicily, to best demonstrate Rolls-Royce’s world-beating, split-level air-conditioning system, two months before its public release.

It was a week-long event, first for the press and then for dealer principals.

A set of 11 right-hand-drive cars was shipped to Sicily to be sampled by the international motoring press; a correspondent for a foreign publication managed to get swiped by a lorry, but the Crewe management had predicted this situation and had already prepared an award for ‘the first person to have an accident in a Camargue’, which David Plastow presented during one of the lavish evening dinners.

Colin Grassick was a 24-year-old dealer principal dispatched from the family Rolls-Royce dealership in Perth.

Grassick’s Garage had been a main dealer for the marque for as long as – or maybe even longer than – Jack Barclay.

Rolls-Royce shipped 11 Camargues to Sicily, but not all made it home unscathed

“I think we went the week after the press,” says Colin, now retired. “I remember the route was quite restricted, and they didn’t want people driving the cars too far up into the mountains for fear of the Mafia, although nobody took much notice.

“It seemed a much bigger car than a Silver Shadow and obviously got a lot of attention, although I thought it was quite restrained for an Italian design.

“I sat next to Sergio Pininfarina at the dinner in a beautiful hall, with Mount Etna rumbling in the background. I still have the menu signed by him.”

Colin did his apprenticeship at Crewe in 1968 before joining the family firm, which held a Rolls-Royce franchise from 1927/’28 until the 1990s.

“We sold a few Camargues, including Steve Prevett’s [our featured car] – which apparently went back to the factory due to paint issues – and one that was sold after the ’81 royal wedding to a customer who wanted ‘the most expensive car available’.

“It had a TV, a cocktail bar, the lot. The invoice was for £110,000.”

Factfile

Rolls-Royce Camargue

Sold/number built 1975-’86/534
Construction steel monocoque, with aluminium panels
Engine all-alloy, ohv 6750cc V8, single Solex four-barrel carburettor
Max power/torque not disclosed
Transmission three-speed auto, RWD
Suspension independent, at front by double wishbones rear semi-trailing arms, self-levelling; coil springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering power-assisted recirculating ball
Brakes powered discs, vented at front
Length 16ft 9½in (5118mm)
Width 6ft 3in (4950mm)
Height 4ft 8½in (1435mm)
Wheelbase 9ft 11½in (3035mm)
Weight 5100lb (2313kg)
0-60mph 9.6 secs
Top speed 120mph
Mpg 11-15
Price new £29,000 (1975)
Price now £90,000*