When John Waite and his wife Nicky took a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands, they contacted a fellow member of the Rolls-Royce Owners Club (RROC) who lives on Maui – and before you could say "Silver Cloud," the Waites were being whisked around this South Pacific paradise in their friend's Phantom One.
"It was wonderful," says Waite, president of the British Columbia region of the RROC, a continent-wide organization with more than 7,000 members, headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Penn. That cross-border status makes the Rolls organization unique among car clubs.
Which leads to question number one: Does belonging to the RROC immediately establish your bona fides as a member of one of the most exclusive fraternities in the world?
"A Rolls-Royce has always cost as much as a house," says Waite, "and a new Rolls today would likely put you back half a million dollars." Being a Rolls owner is not for the economic feint of heart.
Across the country, Wayne Caverly, president of the St. Lawrence region of the RROC, disagrees.
"A lot of our members don't really have that much money," Caverly says. "But it was always their dream to own a Rolls-Royce, or a Bentley, so that's what they've done in their retirement, and now spend their time driving around the countryside in it and having fun."
But Caverly's club colleague, Diana Wall, a British ex-pat, begs to differ. "Let's face it, you have to be pretty middle-class and up to own a Rolls," she says. "Just maintaining it is expensive. Most of our members have a number of automobiles and their Rolls is just the 'play car.' Most of them only drive them to club events."
Wall's Rolls saga is a metaphor for the over-the-top dimension of being a Rolls owner.
"My 1988 Silver Spur is the first car I ever bought," she says. "And I only bought it because its former owner was Canada's greatest artist, Jean-Paul Riopelle."
Wall attended an estate auction of the artist's possessions, including a Rolls, at the Montreal Ritz where she bought it on impulse. Her grandfather had owned a car rental company in England and she grew up with the legendary marque. But now she owned one, and now what?
"I recall going to a dealership on Decarie in Montreal about some issue with the car and they advised me to contact the RROC for help," Wall says. She did, and before long, she was a member of both the international, and regional clubs. (You can't join a local RROC without being a member of the international organization.)
"I'm fairly typical," Wall says. "You join for practical reasons – help maintaining the car – and stay for the social aspects."
The 2015 calendar of the St. Lawrence region of the RROC is a non-stop social whirl. Among the highlights: a July 4 extravaganza at Morrisville, N.Y., where an American couple will host their Canadian Rolls confreres in an event that befits Rolls' luxe status.
"Our hostess will have eight to 10 enormous marquees spread across the estate," Wall says. "A marquee just for the Rolls and Bentleys. Another for dancing. Another for drinks. Another to watch Independence Day fireworks. It's amazing. And costs a mint."
But Wall also leverages her Rolls for good works. Not long ago, she chauffeured her Silver Spur for a young couple who bought "A Dinner and Drive" at a charity event Wall hosted. "I even wore my Rolls-Royce chauffeur's hat," she says.
But fun and games is not the only benefit of the RROC. There is a practical side. "The mantra of Rolls Royce has always been to find the best that anyone builds – and improve on it," Waite says. "It's the best-engineered car in the world."
Nicky Waite disputes that. "I have a love/hate relationship with these cars and the club," she says. "You can never really totally rely on them because, when they break down, it's a real fiddle-faddle."
"Rolls Royces don't break down," counters her husband. "They F.T.P. – fail to proceed."
That proclivity ultimately explains the true utility of a club like the RROC. "I try to maintain my '55 Silver Wraith and my '29 Phantom One myself," Waite says. "But if I need help, I can get it from fellow club members both locally and on our superb online forum. It's very useful."
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