The Rolls-Royce Corniche is the two-door convertible Rolls-Royce built by hand in London from 1971, and one of the most popular classic wedding cars in America. Five classic Corniche convertibles can be booked through RentX, in Marfa and Dripping Springs, Texas, Toms River, New Jersey, McDonough, Georgia and Tarzana, California, for weddings, getaways, proms, graduations and photo shoots.
On this page
Of all the classic Rolls-Royces, the Corniche is the one made for a day out. It’s a two-door convertible, built by hand in London in the 1970s and 1980s, with a long hood, a tall chrome grille and a cabin of leather and walnut that opens to the sky. Put the roof down and it’s the most glamorous getaway car there is: the two of you in the back, the Spirit of Ecstasy up front and confetti still in your hair. The Corniche is one of the most popular classic wedding cars in America, and it’s just as good at a prom, a graduation or a photo shoot. You can now book five of them through RentX, in Texas, New Jersey, Georgia and California. Here’s the story of the car, and a closer look at each one.
The five Corniches at a glance
| Corniche | Based in | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 Rolls-Royce Corniche, silver and charcoal View | Marfa, Texas | West Texas weddings |
| 1975 Rolls-Royce Corniche, white View | Toms River, New Jersey | Jersey Shore weddings |
| 1976 Rolls-Royce Corniche, navy blue View | Dripping Springs, Texas | Hill Country weddings |
| 1982 Rolls-Royce Corniche, tan View | McDonough, Georgia | Atlanta weddings and proms |
| 1983 Rolls-Royce Corniche, British Racing Green View | Tarzana, California | Los Angeles garden weddings |
Where the name comes from
A corniche is a road cut into a cliff, and the most famous are the three that run along the French Riviera from Nice to Menton, between the mountains and the Mediterranean. The highest is the Grande Corniche, and it gave the car its name.
Bentley, which Rolls-Royce owned by then, used the name first. In 1939 it built a one-off streamlined prototype called the Corniche, drawn by the French designer Georges Paulin and bodied by Vanvooren in Paris. It ran at 111 mph at Brooklands, but it was damaged twice while being tested in France that summer, and its body was destroyed in a bombing raid on Dieppe before it could come home. The name sat on the shelf for three decades (Bentley built a recreation of the car for its centenary in 2019).
A short history of the Rolls-Royce Corniche
Rolls-Royce brought the name back in March 1971 for its most glamorous cars: the two-door saloon and convertible versions of the Silver Shadow, built since 1966 and 1967. It launched them on the Riviera itself, with nine Corniches waiting for the press at Nice airport, as Classic & Sports Car tells the story. It was a brave party. Only weeks earlier, in February 1971, Rolls-Royce had gone into receivership, and the launch very nearly didn’t happen.
Every Corniche body was built by hand at Mulliner Park Ward, Rolls-Royce’s own coachbuilder, at its works on Hythe Road in Willesden, north-west London, while Crewe built the engines. A saloon took about 20 weeks to make, and a convertible longer. Under the long hood is a 6.75-liter aluminum V8, tuned to give the Corniche about a tenth more power than the standard car, although Rolls-Royce never published the figure. A three-speed automatic from General Motors does the shifting, and a high-pressure hydraulic system licensed from Citroën runs the brakes and keeps the back of the car level.
Inside, it’s a drawing room with the roof off: Connolly leather, burr walnut, deep Wilton carpets and chrome “organ stop” switches on the dashboard. The power-operated soft top is lined with horsehair, the way a fine coat is.
The Corniche kept improving. In 1977 it gained rack-and-pinion steering, rubber-tipped bumpers, a small front spoiler and two-level air conditioning, and American cars got fuel injection from 1980. The saloon was dropped in the early 1980s, but the convertible carried on as the Corniche II from 1986, the Corniche III from 1989 and the Corniche IV from 1992, until the last 25 cars, the turbocharged Corniche S, were built in 1995. You can follow the whole family in Rolls-Royce’s own history of its coupés. The name returned once more, for a new convertible built at Crewe from 2000, and the last of those, finished in 2002, was the last Rolls-Royce ever built at Crewe.
The two 1975 Corniches
These two come from the Corniche’s first years, before the 1977 changes, with the clean lines of the original car. One lives under the big skies of West Texas, the other near the beach on the Jersey Shore.
1975 Rolls-Royce Corniche: silver and charcoal in Marfa
Marfa’s Corniche wears two tones, silver on top and charcoal below, with bright red leather you can spot from across the street. Out here the roads are empty and the light turns gold an hour before sunset, which is exactly when you want to be in it with the roof down. Book it for a wedding in Marfa, Alpine or Fort Davis, or for portraits on the open road with the Davis Mountains behind you. It seats up to three passengers.
Best for: weddings in Marfa, Alpine and Fort Davis, and golden-hour portraits.
1975 Rolls-Royce Corniche: white on the Jersey Shore
The white 1975 car is the Corniche most people picture: white paint, a tan top folded away behind the back seat, and tan leather around a burr walnut dashboard and a wood-rimmed wheel. It’s based in Toms River, so it covers the Shore from Asbury Park and Red Bank down to Atlantic City, with every beach club, country club and boardwalk wedding in between. White is the color most brides ask for first, and on a Corniche it never looks plain.
Best for: weddings in Toms River, Asbury Park and Red Bank, and an all-white wedding.
The 1976 Corniche: The Admiral
The navy 1976 Corniche has a name, The Admiral, and it wears it well. The paint is a deep navy blue, the soft top is cream, and the seats are still trimmed in their original Connolly leather, the hide Rolls-Royce used for its cabins for decades. In its fifty years it has covered remarkably few miles, and it looks it.
It’s based in Dripping Springs, the official Wedding Capital of Texas, among the barns, ranches and chapels of the Hill Country west of Austin. Navy is a clever color for a wedding car: formal enough for a church, rich next to a white dress and a little less expected than black. With the cream top up it’s a stately arrival car; with the top down it’s your “something blue” for the getaway. It seats up to three passengers.
Best for: weddings in Dripping Springs, Wimberley and Austin, black-tie evenings and a navy-and-white color scheme. See more in our blue wedding cars.
The 1980s Corniches
Both of these were built after the 1977 changes, so they have the rack-and-pinion steering, the rubber-tipped bumpers and the two-level air conditioning, which is welcome on a summer afternoon. They’re the Corniche at its most polished, and they’re the two newest of the five.
1982 Rolls-Royce Corniche: Magnolia, in Georgia
Magnolia is a 1982 Corniche in a soft tan, with light beige leather piped in brown, a burr walnut dashboard and a wood-rimmed wheel. She has one modern touch: LED accent lighting in the cabin, which makes an evening drive feel like an occasion. She’s based in McDonough, south of Atlanta, and covers weddings across the city and the towns around it, from Stockbridge to Peachtree City.
Best for: weddings in Atlanta, McDonough and Peachtree City, proms and a sunset getaway.
1983 Rolls-Royce Corniche: British Racing Green in Los Angeles
The 1983 car is finished in British Racing Green, with tan leather, a tan soft top and a burr walnut dashboard. Its photo album is full of weddings, from garden ceremonies to the beach, the car often dressed with a garland of greenery and a “Just Married” sign. It’s based in Tarzana, in the San Fernando Valley, and covers Los Angeles from Malibu and Santa Monica to Pasadena.
Best for: weddings in Los Angeles, Malibu and Pasadena, and garden, estate and beach venues.
Famous Corniche owners
A Corniche has always had a certain kind of owner. A few of them:
- Dean Martin. The singer bought a 1980 Corniche convertible from Rolls-Royce of Beverly Hills in February 1981 and drove it on “Dinos RR” plates. The actor Dennis Farina owned the same car later, until his death in 2013, as its Barrett-Jackson auction listing records.
- Wayne Gretzky. When the Great One scored his record-breaking 802nd NHL goal in 1994, the Los Angeles Kings gave him a 1994 Corniche IV.
- Roy Horn. The Roy of Siegfried & Roy was given a 1994 Corniche for his 50th birthday and kept it until he died in 2020.
- Maurice Gibb. The Bee Gee bought a 1973 Corniche convertible in 1979.
- Kenny Baker. Even R2-D2 had one: the actor inside the droid in Star Wars owned a 1982 Corniche saloon from 2002.
More than a wedding car
The getaway is the Corniche’s favorite job, but it works hard all year:
- The wedding getaway. Roof down, the whole wedding waving you off. Book it for the last hour of the night, or for the drive from the ceremony to the reception with a stop for photos on the way. Our getaway car ideas have more.
- Proms and homecoming. A Rolls-Royce convertible beats any limo line at the school gates. See our classic cars for prom and prom transportation guide.
- Graduations. A Corniche waiting after the ceremony turns a family photo into the photo of the day.
- Photo and film shoots. Engagement sessions, fashion and senior portraits, music videos, commercials and films set in the 1970s or 1980s.
- Business launches and grand openings. Park a Corniche by the ribbon at a boutique, salon, restaurant or hotel opening and every guest’s phone comes out.
- Private and corporate events. Anniversaries, vow renewals, milestone birthdays (born in 1975, 1976, 1982 or 1983? There’s a Corniche from your year), retirement send-offs and VIP arrivals at a gala or a company celebration.
Booking a Corniche: what to know
It has two doors. Passengers reach the back seat past a folded front seat, so in a big dress, sit down first and gather the dress in after you. Leave a minute for it, and let the chauffeur help.
Top up, then top down. The soft top is power-operated, so it can go up if it rains, and every car’s page has a plan B for rain. Many couples arrive with the top up, to keep hair and veil in place, and put it down for the photos and the getaway.
Keep drives short and gentle. These are cars of the 1970s and 1980s. They’re at their best on the drive from ceremony to reception, or a slow loop for photos, rather than an hour on the freeway.
Dress it up. A garland of greenery or flowers on the trunk, like the 1983 car above, and a “Just Married” sign look wonderful. Ask before anything is attached to the paint.
Book early. Each Corniche can only be at one wedding at a time, and spring, summer and fall weekends go first. Our wedding car cost guide explains what goes into the price.
Other Rolls-Royces, and cars of the same era
If the Corniche near you is booked on your date, or you’d like a second car for the wedding party, these are its closest relatives.
The Silver Shadow. The four-door Rolls-Royce the Corniche was built from, with the same engine and grille and more room in the back for the bridal party, like this 1976 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in Colorado.
The Silver Cloud. The generation before, built from 1955 to 1966, with sweeping fenders and the most famous Rolls-Royce shape of all. Our top 10 classic Rolls-Royce wedding cars has the best of them.
The Dawn. Today’s convertible Rolls-Royce, for the roof down with modern comfort: a silver Rolls-Royce Dawn in Houston, or a white Dawn on the Jersey Shore, close to the white Corniche, if you’d like his and hers wedding cars.
The same era, other badges. The Corniche had a Bentley twin, sold as the Bentley Corniche from 1971 until it was renamed the Continental in the mid-1980s. From America, Cadillac billed the 1976 Eldorado convertible as the last American convertible, and from Germany came the Mercedes-Benz 450 SL roadster. There are more in our guides to 1970s cars, 1980s and 1990s cars and convertible wedding cars.
Questions people ask
When was the Rolls-Royce Corniche made?
The Corniche name arrived in March 1971. The two-door saloon was built until the early 1980s and the convertible until 1995, as the Corniche, the Corniche II, III and IV, and finally the turbocharged Corniche S. A new Corniche convertible followed from 2000 to 2002.
Where was the Corniche built?
Its bodies were built by hand at Mulliner Park Ward, Rolls-Royce’s own coachbuilder in Willesden, London, and its engines at Crewe. Final assembly moved to Crewe in 1991.
Is every Corniche a convertible?
No. There was also a two-door saloon with a fixed roof until the early 1980s. All five Corniches you can book through RentX are convertibles.
What’s the difference between the Corniche and the Silver Shadow?
The Silver Shadow is the four-door Rolls-Royce of the same era. The Corniche shares its engine and running gear, but it has two doors, a little more power and a body built by hand at Mulliner Park Ward, and it was the Rolls-Royce you could order as a convertible.
Which famous people owned a Rolls-Royce Corniche?
Dean Martin, Wayne Gretzky, Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees and Kenny Baker, who played R2-D2, all owned one.
How many people fit in a Rolls-Royce Corniche?
The Corniche is a four-seater, so with a chauffeur at the wheel there’s room for up to three passengers, usually the two of you in the back. Each car’s page lists its seats.
Where can I rent a Rolls-Royce Corniche?
The five Corniches on RentX are based in Marfa and Dripping Springs in Texas, Toms River in New Jersey, McDonough in Georgia and Tarzana in California, and each one covers towns up to 50 miles away. That puts a Corniche within reach of weddings in Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles and on the Jersey Shore.
Can we book a Corniche just for the getaway?
Yes. Plenty of couples book a stately car for the arrival and a Corniche for the getaway, or keep the Corniche for both, with the top up for the ceremony and down for the drive away.
Can I book a Corniche for a prom, a photo shoot or a business opening?
Yes. The same cars are booked for proms, graduations, engagement and fashion shoots, music videos, films, grand openings and private and corporate events.
How far ahead should we book?
As early as you can for a spring, summer or fall Saturday. Each Corniche can only be at one wedding a day, and the favorite dates go first.
