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HOLY ROLLS: PROFIT FROM A PROPHET

By Eric Miller |

What’s the difference between a Chevy Impala with flames painted around its wheel wells and a Rolls-Royce with geese emblazoned on its hood? About $90,000. But is there a market for such a creation? Bob Roeth-lisberger, a Carroltton gray market: car dealer, believes so. That’s why he bought 85 Rolls-Royces formerly belonging to the Bhagwan Shrce Rajneesh, the Oregon-based spiritual leader who was right at home in the material world.

These cars are known to the bhagwan’s followers as the Rajneesh Modern Car Collection Trust, though recent events cast doubt on the “trust” part: After clashes with Oregon authorities and damaging media exposes, the bhagwan was caught leaving the U.S. with a reported $3 million worth of jewelry. In all, the Sannyasins, as the guru’s followers were called, bought more than 90 of the world’s most expensive cars, half of them painted in schemes that would make even Earl Scheib blush. The cars are adorned with cotton bolls, two-tone metal flake, peacocks and desert sunsets. One Rolls depicts the evolution of a thunderstorm, blue sky on the hood giving way to lightning on the rear fender.

According to Bill Ferris, vice-president of the Rolls-Royce Division of Overseas Motors Corp. in Dallas. 2.000 Dallasi;es could afford to buy a new Rolls in any given year, but just 50 choose to do so. Ferris has watched the Roethlisberger purchase with keen interest, as have his fellow dealers at Rolls-Royce. Representatives of the company actually traveled to Rancho Rajneesh in central Oregon to bid on the cars, perhaps fearing that a large lot of rare automobiles dumped on the market might erode the value of the cars already out there. Rolls’ offer was turned down, as were more than a dozen other bids. Roemlisberger paid between $6 million and $8 million for the 85 cars, hoping that the mystique of the Rajneesh-combined with that of Rolls-will be a powerful selling tool.

He may be right. As the convoy of tractor-trailers bringing the cars to Carrollton rolled south from Oregon and then east across Arizona and New Mexico, the truck drivers were besieged by BhagRolls groupies at every major city, “1 don’t know if they’re interested or curious or envious,” driver Dusty Rhodes said at a stop in Sacramento. The crowds asked questions about the mileage on the cars (less than 500 on most), the painter (an artist at Rancho Rajneesh) and what the cars smell like inside (new leather; the bhagwan didn’t smell funny), By the time the caravan swept into Carrollton, it had become an event.

The question is whether the people who stared at the cars on the interstate are the kind of people who can buy $100,000 automobiles. Roethlisberger said he had sold 15 as of late December, with one going for $125,000. He claims he has received more than a thousand “serious” calls from all over the world asking about the cars. Confident that the cars would sell, he bought part of the bhagwan’s jewelry collection to go with them.

At Rancho Rajneesh a staff of jewelers fashioned a number of custom-made key fobs for the cars. Encrusted with such gems as fire opal, turquoise, diamonds and sapphires, they are stock Rolls-Royce key chains specially adapted for the bhagwan, who drove different cars each day around the ranch. Some bear the Rolls-Royce logo; others carry mounted miniature photos of the master himself. Roethlisberger is asking up to $20,000 each for the key chains.

Perhaps because his thoughts were on the next world (or the next scam), the bhagwan was not much of a driver. Margaret Hill, the former mayor of Antelope, Oregon, which is 19 miles from the ranch, says she and her husband happened upon one of the cars lodged in a ditch one day, the bhagwan still behind the wheel. When they offered to help he didn’t even look at them, just stared trancelike straight ahead.

The Rajneeshees were not popular with native Oregonians, and legal action against some members of the sect is still under way. Antelope, Oregon, taken over by Sannyasins and renamed Rajneesh, is now called Antelope again, but its population has dwindled from 45 to 10. There was even friction between the Rajneeshees and Rolls-Royce dealerships. Anand Sheela, the bhagwan’s former personal secretary, regularly called Rolls-Royce dealers across the country trying to get the best deals on the cars. A lot of Rolls-Royce dealers don’t “deal,” in the Goss on Ross sense, and according to Bill Ferris, Sheela became irritated when a dealer wouldn’t meet her price. Money and minds must have met, however, for she did acquire scores of cars.

The bhagwan’s followers say the master bought the automo biles for different reasons. “Ev erything he did was a joke and a lesson,” they repeat. In the case of the cars, they imply, the joke was on America for its obses sion with materialism. But after the bhagwan took it on the lam, the joke may also be on the faith ful-Bob Roethlisberger is hoping to laugh all the way to the bank. -Byron Harris

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