 Just live your passion, this is what Miguel de la Via must have thought in the eighties after a successful business career. Being a car lover he started with the fundamentals for any collection; (re-) building a castle to host the collection. Near Bilbao he entirely restored the 14 th century Loizaga Tower and build a castle around it. In the year 2000, the job done, he set out to live his hobby. In a period of ten years Miguel collected an impressive 75 classic cars, 45 of them being Rolls Royces. And as we all know from our period as stamp collector, you need one of each to complete a series. Now the collection is complete with one fine example of each Rolls Royce, starting with the Silver Ghost up to the take over by BMW. And like the stamp collection the challenges lays in the exclusive models. In its time the Phantom IV was the flagship between the flagships. Sold primarily to heads of state, only 18 where made. Three of them, former cars from Franco, reside with the Royal Family of Spain, one with Queen Elisabeth, and serveral others in various palaces around the world, leaving only one in the market. Miguel de la Via managed to lay hands on the car formerly sold to the ruler of Kuwait. After the passing away of Miguel de La Via, some years ago, his niece is now managing the collection and when you visit the castle, chances are that she will show you around personally and tell you the personal story of each and every car. She will certainly be our host at the start of the Via Iberica rally for pre-war cars on June 4th. Words and photos: Bart Kleyn |
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The most complete Rolls Royce collection?
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