CarBrandLogos archive · Rolls-Royce · 1906

Rolls-RoyceSilver Ghost

A publicity stunt, a 15,000-mile trial, and the car that fixed a reputation for a century.

Photo: The original uploader was Malcolma at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 2.5

The story

A defining chapter in Rolls-Royce history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Rolls-Royce settled on a single model in 1906, the 40/50 hp, with a side-valve seven-litre six-cylinder engine built to standards of balance and quietness that other manufacturers were not attempting. The thirteenth chassis was finished in aluminium paint with silver-plated fittings, given the name Silver Ghost and the registration AX 201, and sent out to be seen.

1920 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost · Jagvar · Public domain

Design and engineering

That car belonged to Claude Johnson, the managing director whose gift for promotion did as much for the firm as Royce's engineering. In 1907 he entered it in the Scottish Reliability Trial and then ran it continuously between London and Glasgow under RAC observation until it had covered 15,000 miles, stopping only once involuntarily. When it was stripped afterwards the wear was negligible. The press concluded that this was the best car in the world, and the phrase attached itself permanently.

RR40 50SG · Herranderssvensson · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

The name of the demonstrator gradually became the name of the model. Production ran from 1906 to 1926 at Derby and, from 1921, at Springfield, Massachusetts, where a US-built version was made for the American market, and 7,874 chassis were completed in total. As with every Rolls-Royce of the era the company supplied only the running chassis; the coachwork was commissioned separately, so no two are quite alike, and the same model could arrive as a formal limousine, a shooting brake or a stripped tourer depending on who was paying. The engine grew from just over seven litres to nearly seven and a half in 1910, and a four-speed gearbox arrived in 1913, the year Rolls-Royces took the first four places on the Austrian Alpine Trial and turned continental endurance events into a marketing department.

Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Kégresse · Maarten from Netherlands · CC BY 2.0

Legacy

The car had a second life in war. Armoured Silver Ghosts, with steel hulls and revolving turrets on the standard chassis, served in the Middle East and North Africa, where T. E. Lawrence rated them above rubies; the suspension coped with desert going that destroyed other vehicles, and some examples were still in British service two decades later. The Phantom I replaced it in 1925 with an overhead-valve engine, but the Silver Ghost had already done the essential work. It established that the value of a Rolls-Royce lay in refinement and reliability rather than power or speed, and every car the company has built since has been sold on that premise.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1906–1926

Engine

Inline 6

Technical specification

The Silver Ghost, in detail.

Production: 1906–1926; 7,874 made
Class: Luxury car
Engine: Inline 6; 7036cc (429.4cid) (1906–1910); 7428cc (453.3cid) (from 1910)
Transmission: 3-speed manual (1909–1913); 4-speed manual (from 1913)
Assembly: United Kingdom: Derby, England; United States: Springfield, Massachusetts
Manufacturer: Rolls-Royce Ltd (UK); Rolls-Royce of America (US)