1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Tourer

Imperial War Museum | Duxford, Cambridgeshire 20000 - 30000 Registration No: GU 7770 Chassis No: 65WR MOT: Exempt � Partially restored example most recent work being engine strip down and start of overhaul by Fiennes Engineering � Tourer coachwork by Calderbank�s Coachbuilders of Orrell � Matching chassis and engine numbers � Believed to be mostly complete with all significant components present "After seven years of experiment and test, the 40/50hp six-cylinder Phantom chassis emerged, and is offered to the public as the most suitable type possible for a mechanically-propelled chassis under present-day conditions" (New Phantom launch brochure, May 1925). By 1925, the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost had been upstaged by a younger generation of more technically advanced luxury cars. The glory days of the 1913 Alpine Trials had long passed and both F. Henry Royce and RR sales manager Claude Johnson felt the need to produce a new claimant to the title 'best car in the world'. Just as the competition between car manufacturers was becoming increasingly fierce so that between rival coachbuilders had intensified correspondingly. With the arrival of each faster, more powerful chassis came the opportunity to construct ever more lavish, sophisticated coachwork. To ensure that their cars could be fitted with the finest bodies in the world, Rolls Royce introduced the 'New Phantom'. While, its tapered channel-section chassis, four-speed manual transmission, supple springing (semi-elliptic front, cantilever rear), and ingenious gearbox driven servo-assisted four-wheel brakes owed much to its predecessor, the Phantom's 7668cc engine was all new. Quoted as being an impressive thirty-three percent more powerful than the Ghost's unit, it featured overhead valves set in a detachable cylinder head, two-cylinder blocks with three cylinders each, an aluminium alloy crankcase, and a massive seven-bearing crankshaft. Bore and stroke dimensions of 108 x 139.7mm resulted in abundant torque enabling the flagship Rolls-Royce to accelerate from walking speed to approximately 80mph in top gear. Unveiled at the company's 14/15 Conduit St, London showrooms during May 1925, the �New Phantom' remained in production until 1929 by which time some 2,269 chassis had been delivered. More information following shortly.