ON THE QT

Quentin Tod explores the mysterious ownership status of a classic and iconic Gold Coast Rolls-Royce

THE car is dark blue, it’s sporting bronze Mirage plates, and it’s sitting in a Gold Coast shed a long way from its former home.

The 2018 ownership of the 1934 Rolls-Royce, part of the furniture at Sheraton Mirage Hotel for nearly three decades, is something of a mystery.

Does the 1934 Rolls-Royce belong to a former Mirage owner, India’s beleaguered Pearls group, or is it in the control of the hotel’s current landlord, a Star casino partnership?

Then again, it might be in the hands of another party or parties but trying to lift the bonnet on exactly who is in the owner’s seat is brick wall stuff.

For the guests and patrons who frequented the Sheraton Mirage on the Southport Spit, and its Rolls nightclub, in the years following the hotel’s 1987 opening, the post-vintage Rolls was a fixture.

In later years its home reportedly was in a Sheraton basement storage area, covered in dust and resting among cardboard boxes.

It’s now emerged that the car, partially smartened up, is sitting in a large private shed among other vehicles but who put it there, who owns it, and what road it’s headed down isn’t known.

The occupier won’t say boo.

The Roller, a 20/25 series, has had at least four owners of the shed since the Qintex days and two of them – the Raptis Group and Pearls – ran into trouble.

The car still was at the hotel in 2009 when the property was bought by Pearls and overseen by former developers Peter Madrers and Paul Brinsmead.

It’s unclear whether it remained at the Sheraton when Star and its two Chinese partners took over more than a year ago.

The hotel, renamed the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort by the Star team, isn’t forthcoming over the Roller or whether it owns it.

“We are unable to share any information regarding the removal of the vehicle from the resort,” was the response to a query.

The regal “lady” was acquired at the behest of the late Christopher Skase, the Qintex group boss who spent a fortune on adornments around the hotel.

The Roller had a dual life, starting out as a feature in the Rolls nightclub from September 1987.

When last drinks were called at Rolls some 16 years later, the car was made roadworthy, sat at the hotel entrance, and was used sparingly.

One fellow familiar with the car says that because it does not have power steering, it was almost undriveable for hotel staff.

“You just about had to be Arnold Schwarzenegger to be able to turn the wheel,” he said.

A long-term Sheraton staffer recalls a visiting VIP using the car to impress a “local lovely”, something that apparently did not improve the leather on the back seat.

The classic model car today could be worth anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000, judging by prices being asked in the UK.

TRYING TO LIFT THE BONNET ON EXACTLY WHO IS IN THE OWNER’S SEAT OF THE ROLLS-ROYCE IS BRICK WALL STUFF