milestones

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Milestones

Since the day in 1904 when Henry Royce's first car left the factory a total of 61 different models have

been built by the company. Included amongst these are the various Bentleys produced since the acquisition

of Bentley Motors by Rolls-Royce in 1931.

From 1904 to 1939 the company produced chassis only and it was left to specialist coachbuilders to

construct coachwork to the individual requirements of customers. After the Second World War it was

decided to produce a complete car with Rolls-Royce becoming responsible for the coachwork of the

newly introduced standard steel saloon. To do this required more extensive factory space for paint shop

and assembly areas and so in 1946 motor car production was moved from Derby to a new factory at

Crewe where aero engines had been built throughout the war.The first car to be built completely by

Rolls-Royce at Crewe was a Bentley Mk VI, not a Rolls-Royce. The Muliner Park Ward Division of

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars maintains the traditional crafts and skills of English coachbuilding.

40/50 HP (THE SILVER GHOST) 1907 - 1925
The 40/50 HP which Royce himself considered to be the best car he had ever made, was the first
Rolls-Royce to be known as the "best car in the world".

An extract of the first reference to the 40/50 HP in the Autocar dated 20 April 1907 reads "the motor

beneath the bonnet might be a silent sewing machine ...there is no realisation of driving propulsion; the

feeling as the passenger sits either at the front or back of the vehicle is one o being wafted through the

landscape".

But silence, reliability and quality were not the only things to impress the press and public alike in that year.
Soon after covering 2,000 miles (3,218 km) in the Scottish Reliability Trial the same car covered
14,371 miles (23,210 km) without a single involuntary stop, beating the existing long distance record of
7,089 miles (11,140 km).

1913 saw further success for the Silver Ghost when four cars were entered in the Austrian Alpine
Trials and took virtually every prize awarded.

During the First World War Rolls-Royce 40/50 HP motor cars were commissioned as ambulances,
staff cars and armoured cars. Later armoured cars earned fame under the legendary Lawrence of Arabia.
Even with heavily armoured bodies weighing up to 4 tons they still managed 50 mph (80 km/h).

The car actually received its name from a 40/50 HP which Claude Johnson had built for himself.

He took the twelfth chassis built and fitted it with a 5/5 seat touring body which was finished in aluminium

paint and adorned with silver plated lamps and fittings. A handsome silver plated brass plaque monted on the

car bore the name "The Silver Ghost".

This car is still owned by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and is in perfect running order after over 500,000 miles

(800,000 km).

The Silver Ghost was in production until 1925and 7,870 were built. 1,700 of these were produced in Springfield,

America where a factory had been established in 1921. Production in the USA ceased in 1931 because

American customers preferred to buy Rolls-Royce motor cars built in Britain.

The Silver Ghost has now been completely refurbished and in 1990 successfully completed a charity run from
John O'Groats to Lands End. All funds donated during the trip were for the NSPCC in England and Wales and
the RSSPCC in Scotland.