Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost History
Catalog record
This is a brief catalog introduction with limited source documentation. A licensed, identity-checked lead photograph has not yet been added for this page. Detailed year, configuration and ownership coverage must be identified separately; this page is not a complete vehicle catalog.
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Officially the 40/50 HP, the model earned the name "Silver Ghost" from the thirteenth chassis (no. 60551, registered AX 201), which Rolls-Royce managing director Claude Johnson had finished in aluminium paint with silver-plated fittings and named for its almost supernatural quietness. The nickname stuck to the whole model line.
It built the marque's reputation through endurance feats — most famously a 1907 run repeatedly shuttling between London and Glasgow to amass 15,000 virtually trouble-free miles — which led Autocar to dub it "the best car in the world," a phrase Rolls-Royce adopted for decades.
Around 7,874 were produced over two decades, including cars built at a Springfield, Massachusetts plant from 1921. It was succeeded by the Phantom I in 1925, by which point its side-valve six was outdated.
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