the company was bought by Rolls-Royce and thus body design could at last be fully integrated with the needs of the chassis. Ev would be at his most active in the interwar years when great changes swept through both chassis and body construction.


BIG PROJECTS From the early 1920s, Ev was concerned with the bodies fitted to experimental cars. He did not have formal coachbuilding qualifications, but Ev’s draughtsmanship ensured that his ideas could be interpreted by coachbuilders. By the late 1920s, however, Ev had moved into the full design of coachwork. He worked closely on two designs for Continental Rolls-Royces that secured his lasting reputation. The first was the EX series of Phantom Is, just four cars with sporting open coachwork of which three had special body frames built using aeronautical techniques. This was followed in 1930 by


Opposite: The scale drawing for the proposed 26EX, dated 10 April 1930 and initialled by Ev. “N.Sch.” is thought to refer to Norfolk, from Royce’s time there during 1909–12, rather than the Company’s North London depot in Cricklewood, called “N”. Above: Ev’s colour rendering of Phantom II Continental 26EX, dated 22 June 1930 (courtesy of the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation)


the Phantom II Continental experimental car, 26EX, notionally built for Royce and which Ev designed with his hallmark flared wings and ultra close-coupled coachwork. Barker of London, the Company’s favoured coachbuilder since 1905, was entrusted with this first car. It was painted pale saxe blue with coatings of iridescent pearl lacquer filled with herring scales, yielding an oyster-like finish. Interior woodwork was sycamore, the leather also a saxe blue. The sunroof was a recent Hooper design in which the front roof sides pivoted up to allow the sunroof panel to slide. The result was magnificent. Even so, Ev had not long before foreseen


the end of traditional coachwork. His article “Why the classic coachbuilder may fail”, in Motor Body Building, August 1927 (p. 170), noted that contemporary coachbuilding was still an art and a craft, whereas motor body building was a branch of engineering. In 1928, Ev was instrumental in having Rolls-Royce introduce a body subframe for the 40/50hp, but in the event it was the chassis rather than the body that needed more rigidity. Ev was acutely aware of overseas advances and could see that British coachbuilding would be left behind. In September 1930, Ev and a Company


driver, Amster, took the car to Biarritz in France so that the Company’s Spanish agent,


PASSION 063


Don Carlos de Salamanca, could promote the car from his villa there, Villa Anglet. In fact, it was to be shown at the concours d’elegance, driven by Donna Pomposa Escandon de Villavieja, daughter of the sportsman Marques de Villavieja who was a relative of Salamanca’s, accompanied by Archduchess Margarita (who is difficult to learn of today). The car swept the board and won the Grand Prix d’Honneur, rounding off an epic time for Ev. It was this period in the 1920s that saw


the Company and Ev take a greater interest in “windage” or better body forms, which led to streamlining, as well as chassis and body weight. In addition, he improved the appearance of several models with better bonnet and radiator shapes, and improved dashboards. All of these would be issues for Ev for the rest of his working life.


BACK WITH THE FACTORY Ev’s rural idyll came to an end in April 1933 with the death of Sir Henry Royce. He moved to London to continue his coachwork liaison work from the Company’s offices in Conduit Street, Mayfair, although his family home was at Edenbridge in Kent. This was a difficult period for Ev because he had met resistance to some of his ideas at the very moment when some defective bodies emerged on the new


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