It's a tale of tragic love, death and nobility and it is also the story behind the graceful woman adorning so many Rolls as the famous "Spirit of Ecstasy" hood ornament.

The story of "Eleanor" goes back much further than Canberra's Ian Irwin, now 75, who has devoted more than half his life to breathing life back into the classic car. All the way to December 1910, when the Silver Ghost was delivered to Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.

The car's first owner Lord Montagu (aka John Walter Edward Douglas Scott-Montagu, the second Baron of Beaulieu) was truly, madly and deeply in love with his secretary, Eleanor Velasco Thornton. But they could not wed as she had no title or money.

Although Lord Montagu eventually tied the knot (twice) he never relinquished his first love. When Rolls Royce chassis number 1404 was delivered to his home with fashionable Roi des Belges coachwork by Barker and Co of London, he commissioned a personalised hood ornament from the sculptor Charles Sykes.

Sykes looked no further for his inspiration than the comely Eleanor. He immortalised her in diaphanous robes and with a finger to her lips, an obscure reference to the secret love affair. The piece was called "Whisper".

When, a short time later, Rolls Royce commissioned Sykes to create an ornament that would grace all Rolls Royces from that point forward, Eleanor was conscripted to the service of art and science a second time.

This time the figure was leaning forward, arms behind her and trailing draperies not dissimilar to an angel's wings. Sykes described his creation as "the spirit of ecstasy, who has selected road travel as her supreme delight".

And the love story? It ended quite badly. Eleanor Thornton died on the night of December 30, 1915, when the SS Persia was torpedoed by a German U-Boat near Crete on her way to India. Lord Montagu, who was also aboard, survived the attack and lived on until 1929.

His son, the third Baron of Beaulieu, was just three at the time. In later life, keenly aware of his father's contribution to motoring, he founded the National Motor Museum on the family estate, which dates back to the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry XVIII in 1538, to preserve his legacy.

Lord Montagu has been aware of the restoration project for some time and this week congratulated Mr Irwin on his efforts.

"I am delighted to see my father's car restored to its former glory," he said. "That the car bears the Spirit of Ecstasy which was modelled on my father's lover, Eleanor Thornton, makes it all the more poignant."

A motoring pioneer with an interest in the new and the novel, the second Baron of Beaulieu (pronounced Bewley) had neither the inclination or the need to keep any vehicle for long.

Rolls Royce 1404, formally named "Eleanor" by Mr Irwin a few years ago, quickly passed out of the baron's hands.

She had five owners in 11 years between 1910 and 1921 and turned up in Melbourne in the possession of a James R. Hartley in 1923.

Increasingly out of fashion and, as she aged, ever more costly and difficult to maintain, Eleanor fell upon hard times in the 1930s.

By 1938 she was on the market for £100 at Great Southern Motors in Wagga, having been traded in on a new Ford V8.

Eleanor's next owner, the equivalent of a postwar hot rodder, intended to install the Rolls Royce mechanicals in a Packard chassis - an exercise that would have destroyed her forever.

The war, fortunately in this case, intervened and Mr Irwin became aware of the dismembered remains of the car in 1975. It took him until 1981 to secure the major components from various points around south western NSW and, since then, he has scoured the globe for the parts needed to complete the project.

His greatest coup was sourcing a Barker and Co Roi des Belges body that had originally been fitted to a 1908 car.

"The body on this car is original to the period; it is not something that has been recreated," he said.

She will take pride of place in Kings Park as part of the ACT's largest annual gathering of rare and classic cars from 9.30am on Sunday.