Germany's Volkswagen AG looked poised to win the greatest prize in British motoring yesterday when there was less than 17 hours to go before the race to win Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Shareholders in Rolls parent company, Vickers Plc, will vote at an extraordinary meeting today on whether to back preferred bidder VW's £430 million offer against rival BMW's £340 million bid.

The wild card in the race, a group of Rolls fans called Crewe Motors, had not even got off the starting blocks, with no bid delivered to Vickers by the close of business hours yesterday, despite passionate promises. Vickers said the fans had been in touch, but delivered nothing which constituted a concrete offer.