Introduced in March 1971, the Corniche was a revised version of the Mulliner, Park Ward-bodied two-door variants of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and Bentley T-Series saloons, themselves notable as the Crewe factory's first unitary construction cars.

In Corniche form, Rolls-Royce's well-tried 6.7-litre V8 produced around 10% more power than standard and proved capable of propelling the car to a top speed in excess of 120mph with sports car-rivalling acceleration to match.

The model proved a major success for Rolls-Royce; periodically revised and up-dated, it remained in production well into the 1990s, the last (Convertible) examples being delivered in 1995.

For much of the time that the Corniche was in production, a Bentley was regarded as little more than a slightly cheaper alternative to a Rolls-Royce.

This famous marque had yet to re-establish its reputation as maker of some of the world's fastest and most exciting sports saloons and Grand Tourers, a process that commenced in 1...