5/16/2007

Not just any old Rolls Royce...but Grace Kelly’s
By Don Klein

If you happen to see a Rolls Royce tooling around town these days it is not the possession of some visiting royalty, even though it was once owned by her serene highness, the princess of Monaco. In case the title escapes you, that was another name for Grace Kelly, the American actress who married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, in April 1956.

"It's fun to own," claims Martin Groff, a local builder who purchased the classic vehicle two years ago from the ailing mother of one of his customers. "The woman who owned it was going into a nursing home and her daughter asked me how she should go about selling it. I offered to buy it," he said.

Mr. Groff, a well-known builder and real estate broker in Ocean Pines with offices on Cathell Road, did not own a car of his own at the time. "All my vehicles belong to the company, Martin Groff Construction," he said.

He keeps the Rolls Royce in a large van to protect it from the elements and curious people and rolls it out on those occasions when he uses it.

It is true to all that has ever been said about a Rolls Royce with a handmade wooden dashboard, leather seats and door interiors, plush carpets and even pull down trays for those in the back seat to work on or nibble on snacks while riding to destinations. Riding inside is an experience of sheer comfort. The Rolls lives up to its reputation as giving the feel of gliding when it is on the move.

The exterior is the height of fashion in elegant golden brown and black two-tone livery with the famous vertical grill topped by the equally famous "Flying Lady" hood ornament. But it is not something Mr. Groff expects to keep hidden all the time.

"It only had 37,000 miles on it when I bought it," then he asserted, "I bought it to drive it." He cannot wait to get the air conditioning repaired and expects to retrofit the vehicle with seat belts "so I can transport people in it."  On rare occasions when he takes it shopping, people stop him and ask if the Rolls is authentic.

Mr. Groff says he paid in the mid-$30,000 for the Rolls when he purchased it in 2005 from the woman in Westchester, NY. It is a 1961 model Silver Cloud, V-8 which was owned by Grace Kelly when she was a princess. Ms. Kelly married Prince Rainier five years before the Rolls Royce was built.

"I spent another $10,000 to put it into driving shape," he said, "I needed to fix the carburetor and the brakes and it needed extensive engine work."  He did not know how often the Rolls Royce had been operated being 44 years old when he bought it. Repair work was done at a shop in Selbyville, called Shea's Automotive. "You cannot get parts easily, but they are available if you know where to look," he claimed.

He plans to drive it to Washington soon when he goes to his three-year-old granddaughter's birthday. In the meantime he has used it sparingly around the Ocean Pines area.
One of the big surprises, Mr. Groff said, was the large number of Rolls Royce owners there are. "I was amazed at the size of the Rolls Royce Owners' Club, Maryland Chapter," he noted. "I'm probably going to take out a membership."

A Lancaster, PA native Mr. Groff, who has been in business here for 28 years, has built, by his count, "more than 900 houses." He started out as a mathematics/computer teacher in Washington, DC. He came to this area as a salesman for Boise Cascade when Ocean Pines first started in the early 1970s.

He uses the Rolls Royce on occasions when he goes out to dinner nowadays and drives it to special events, like the veterans’ benefit sock hop held in April at the 707 Bar and Grill on Old Bridge Road in West Ocean City.

There is one big problem: It's an expensive car to drive at today's gasoline prices:  "The Rolls gets only 8 to 10 miles to the gallon," he admits with a sigh.

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