Page 24 - April 2023

The Beast cont inued from page 23 Court.

Ruling in Rolls-Royce's favor, Dodd was also fined
Stories about the pranks that Dodd got up to with
£5000 for the tradmark violation and was ordered to
the car were legion; some of them may have even
pay the same amount again in costs for ignoring the
been true. Likely the best was the story that a German
ruling and turning up two days later at a car show,
baron called Rolls-Royce to purchase a Beast of his
grille and mascot still firmly attached to the car.
own after the original had passed his Porsche on the
Autobahn as if his own car were standing still. The Dodd filed and lost an appeal and was sentenced to
caller of course was Dodd, giving a raspberry to Rolls. six months in prison for refusing to pay up. With a
warrant issued for his arrest, Dodd went on the lam
Rolls Ret urns t he Favor and Takes Dodd t o
to Spain. Andalusia declined to extradite him. His
Court family and The Beast, still in the Dodd's possession

but now shorn of its Rolls-Royce bits ( yet bearing its
In 1981 the double R lawyers acting on behalf of the
official British registration as a Rolls-Royce auto)
company issued a High-Court writ charging Dodd with
followed shortly thereafter.
trademark infringement. The use of the distinctive
radiator cover and bonnet mascot had finally come The Last Laugh
back to bite the flamboyant owner. The case became
From his new base in Malaga, Dodd, unbowed, ran a
a media sensation with Dodd showing up for the
successful transmission repair business, frequently
hearing in his large, unmistakably adorned car.
working, ironically, on Rolls automobiles, and he
The rest of the story is best left to Dodd to explain in learned to windsurf. The locals watched The Beast
his own words, which he did in a 2016 story for Classic on the roads for many years, Dodd behind the
Driver. wheel and the car still touting its original KPD 67K
plates. The grille, however, now bore the Initials JD in
? I drove it to the hearing every day and parked right an oversize font, and the Lady had taken flight.
outside the court. The Rolls-Royce representatives parked
Dodd remained an ex pat until his death. So, why did

opposite in a Silver Spirit with the number plate ?RR 1??
he do it?
t
funnily enough, they got towed away and I didn?.
Once again his own words in an interview to
?On the final morning of the trial, my lawyer Nationwide tell the story most honestly: " The truth is, I
sacked himself saying I was ridiculing the highest court in wanted something different. The idea was to have a car
the land. His last piece of advice was not to take the car that could beat anything on earth [and] at the same time
that day, otherwise it?d be confiscated and I?d never get it run on the cheapest [two-star] petrol you could buy.? Not
back. wanting foreign supercars to hog the limelight, he
continued: ?Cruise at 200mph and beat anything else.
?They said I was behaving like a maverick. Perhaps
Make it all British.?
1000 horsepower was a bit excessive, I thought, so I called
a friend who had some stables in Hyde Park for a favour. He made it all British and the car made it into the
Me, my wife and my children took a horse each, and Guiness Book of Records, where the editors wrote
clip-clopped to the doors of the Courts of Justice ? that about the most powerful road car in the world, " it
caused a bigger sensation than the car had!? exceeded 200mph (321.8km/h) on many occasions on
Continental roads.?
Dodd's antics, including wearing a Rolls-Royce sweater
to court and numerous interjections during the Dodd may have been the ultimate British car nut,
proceedings, alienated his own attorney and put the but it was an American singer , Frank Sinatra, who
judge in the case in the camp of of the not amused unknowingly gave his story a sound track-" I Did It My
where he joined the plaintiffs. When Dodd lost the Way."
case, he also lost his house, numerous other Indeed he did.
possessions and an airplane as fines for Contempt of
24