Rolls-Royce isn’t the marque that normally comes to mind when talking about one of the most brutal racing events of all time — the Paris-Dakar Rally. Rolls-Royce has a reputation to keep, and when Thierry de Montcorgé and Jean-Christophe Pelletier dreamed up the idea of building a Rolls-Royce rally car, the company balked. When Christian Dior was signed as the primary sponsor, the French luxury company smoothed things over with Rolls-Royce and allowed the project to proceed. Based on the Corniche, the bodywork is actually a fiberglass mold taken from Thierry’s own car. The body was mounted to a HJ45 Land Cruiser chassis, and a Corvette V8 provided the power. The car ran as high as 13th midway through the 1981 Paris-Dakar before it was sidelined thanks to damaged steering, but would go on to complete the event. The car was recently auctioned off by Augettes, where it brought $625,000 at the hammer.