The sleek automotive aristocrats assembled in the dirt parking lot of the rustic Pleasant Park School might seem out of sync with their surroundings, but the gathering is part of an annual event to celebrate all things Rolls-Royce.
On Saturday morning, 10 classic Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles and their owners gathered for the local Rolls-Royce owners club’s annual “fox hunt,” a mix of motorcycle poker run, history quiz and scavenger hunt.
People stopped at the schoolhouse to look at the classic cars before the hunt began, snapping pictures and asking questions about the cars, their history and their mystique.
The hunt’s goal is for driver-navigator teams to wind through the mountain area ensconced in timeless motoring luxury. Guided by clues, the drivers follow directions to various landmarks and pick up pieces of a paper fox and the clue to the next destination.
Paper fox pieces were stashed at Tiny Town, the Hiwan Museum in Evergreen, Inter-Canyon Fire Department Station 2, the animal cemetery section of Evergreen Memorial Park, Flying J Ranch in Conifer and at Zoka’s Restaurant in Pine Grove.
Failure to gather all pieces of the fox, to follow the driving directions correctly or to answer any of the quiz’s questions could result in the porker of a prize: a ceramic pig.
The winner, meanwhile, has his or her name placed on a trophy and will devise next year’s motoring adventure.
The region’s club was started 20 years ago but folded due to lack of interest. Resurrected six years ago, the group has about 100 members in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. The regional group is part of the International Club for Rolls-Royce and Bentley Owners & Enthusiasts, according to president Jim Lobenstein.
“These are the prettiest sheet metal up here today,” he said.
Lobenstein, of Centennial, said people wonder who’s driving such rare and classic automobiles, and he considers their reactions amusing.
“They are so disappointed when I get out of my car and they realize I’m nobody,” he said.
He owns two Bentleys but brought his 1994 black Bentley Turbo R for the fox hunt. Lobenstein thinks there are only 200 of the cars in the three-state region.
“Some are hidden away, and you don’t see them for years,” Lobenstein said.
He points out that the club is for enthusiasts of the Rolls-Royce or Bentley, which originally were made by the same British company.
“You don’t have to have one of these cars; you just have to love them,” Lobenstein said.
Conifer resident Kurt Furger brought two cars for the show before the fox hunt — a 1926 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost and a fully restored 1929 Ford Model A Roadster.
According to Furger, the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is one of 1,701 cars produced by the company between 1921 and 1926 in Springfield, Mass. Furger is the car’s eighth owner.
Furger and his Silver Ghost toured Europe and Africa. After the Africa trip, the car was shipped home, and Furger picked it up in Newark and drove it back to Conifer. During the trip, the 400-cubic-inch engine got an average of 10 miles per gallon and needed a pit stop every 500 miles for an oil change and maintenance, a cross each Rolls owner has to bear.
Still, Furger said Rolls-Royce’s utmost attention to detail resulted in the “best car in the world.”
One doesn’t order a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley; it’s commissioned. They come with steering wheels on the right or left side, are hand-built, and have details that have disappeared from today’s mass-produced cars. But their maintenance can be complex.
Prices for a new car range from $150,000 to $400,000, and classic cars command six-digit sticker prices.
George Malesich of Denver owns an all-original 1961 Silver Cloud II with 51,000 miles and a speedometer that goes up to 120 mph, but said he hasn’t driven the car that fast.
When Malesich bought the car used, tucked into the glove compartment was a September 1960 Road and Track magazine that featured the ’61 Silver Cloud on its cover. Inside the magazine are ads for then-used Rolls-Royces for as little as $2,000 — cars that today would be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
“Back then the interest wasn’t there, so they sold cheap,” Malesich said.
Lobenstein laughingly said the distinction between the Rolls and the Bentley is simple: “One drives a Bentley, but one is driven in a Rolls-Royce.”
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