Rolls-Royce celebrates 120 years of the Silver Ghost

First presented at London’s Olympia Motor Show in November 1906, the 40/50 H.P. went on to become known as the Silver Ghost and is now the subject of a 120th anniversary celebration by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. The car established the marque’s reputation for engineering, refinement and reliability, and stayed in production until 1925.

How the Silver Ghost got its name

Henry Royce gave it a smooth-running six-cylinder engine and paid close attention to every component, from mechanical parts to refinement and handling. Claude Johnson, the company’s first Commercial Managing Director and known as CJ, set out to show those qualities in public. He named chassis 60551 ‘The Silver Ghost’, and its silver paint and silver-plated fittings made it so well known that other owners adopted the name for their own 40/50 H.P. cars.

Silver Ghost trials and the Sluggard

Under CJ, the car took on the Scottish Reliability Trial and the London-Edinburgh run, and won the Spanish Grand Prix and the Austrian Alpine Trial. Chassis 1701, which CJ nicknamed ‘The Sluggard’, completed the 1911 London-Edinburgh Trial with its gearbox locked in top gear, beating the fuel economy and speed figures set by Napier. Later that year it became the first Rolls-Royce to exceed 100 mph.

Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said its engineering achievements “established a reputation for refinement, reliability and excellence that was extraordinary even by today’s standards”.

Silver Ghost owners and the Spirit of Ecstasy

Owners included Tommy Sopwith, Sir Winston Churchill and Howard Hughes, and in 1911 the Government of India ordered eight landaulette-bodied examples for the visit of King George V and Queen Mary. Opera singer Dame Nellie Melba took delivery of chassis 1500 at the Ritz Hotel in London, while in Australia Charles H. Angas called his car ‘The Dreamer’ because his wife regularly fell asleep in it. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu’s Silver Ghost was also the first car to carry the Spirit of Ecstasy, sculpted by Charles Sykes and introduced as the official mascot in 1911.

Silver Ghost production and Goodwood display

Many survivors are still driven. In 2013, 47 Silver Ghosts retraced the 1,800-mile route of the 1913 Alpine Trial, and in 2021 chassis 1701 repeated the London-Edinburgh journey in top gear, 110 years after its first run.

Between 1906 and 1925, 6,173 examples were built in Britain and a further 1,703 at the company’s American factory in Springfield, Massachusetts. Chassis 1701 is currently on display at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood.

Supplied by Newspress UK (Rolls-Royce Motor Cars)

This story is based on aggregated news, press release(s) or other sources and was prepared with the help of AI tools, which can make mistakes. Prices, specifications, general information and availability may change, so confirm the details with the manufacturer, other news sources or a dealer.