7,036 cc, L-head six-cylinder engine, single updraft carburettor, four-speed manual gearbox, solid front axle with semi-elliptic springs, transverse platform spring at rear and live rear axle, rear wheel brakes and mechanical drum brake, acting on the transmission. Wheelbase: 3,650 mm

• The oldest known Rolls-Royce 40/50 hp Silver Ghost

• Built for Arthur H. Briggs, founding director of Rolls-Royce

• Originally by Rippon Brothers, the oldest coachbuilder in England

• Restoration covered in September/October 1992 issue of The Flying Lady

• Winner of Charles A. Chayne Memorial Trophy at Pebble Beach

The 1907 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost remains the cornerstone on which the most prestigious automobile company in the world was founded, but like many icons, it was created in a time of great trouble for the parent company.

Since Christmas 1904, sales of Rolls-Royce automobiles had been handled by the Honourable Charles Rolls and his general manager Claude Goodman, while engineer Henry Royce concentrated on vehicle production. The company had effectively been created at a 1904 lunch, brokered by Henry Edmunds, who had brought Henry Royce and Charles Rolls together. Royce built cars in Manchester; Rolls sold them in London. Together they began to offer a range of five well-built two-, four- and six-cylinder vehicles, marketed under both their names.

In March 1906, Royce’s manufacturing business and Rolls’ dealerships were combined into Rolls Royce Distributing, soon to become Rolls-Royce Limited. Royce was reportedly unhappy with the smoothness of the 30-hp six-cylinder engine and had gone back to his drawing board calculating, as so many did after him, that there was “no replacement for displacement” and so developed the 40/50-hp six-cylinder.

ARTHUR BRIGGS

However, research and development costs money, and Royce burned through Rolls’ bankroll, so a public offering of preferred and ordinary shares was launched in December 1906. The company aimed for £100,000, but money was not forthcoming, and the day before the offer closed, they had raised only £41,000 of the £50,000 minimum required. Fortunately, company secretary John De Looze remembered Yorkshire wool merchant Arthur H. Briggs, who had bought the very first “Heavy 20” model and had encouraged the partners to compete in the 1905 Tourist trophy, at which they had done very well.

De Looze hopped a train to Harrogate with a proposition for Briggs and returned with a cheque for £10,000, which kept the stock offering alive. Briggs already owned one of the 30-hp Rolls-Royces and immediately ordered a new 40/50-hp model when he heard about it. He was made a company director in short order and would eventually own three pre-WWI Rolls-Royces.

CHASSIS 60547

Arthur Briggs’ 40/50-hp Rolls-Royce is recognised as the oldest Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost still in existence, but when it was made, the term Silver Ghost was unknown. In fact AX 201, the Barker-bodied Roi de Belges Tourer that’s the original Silver Ghost, hadn’t even been built yet. Its chassis number is 60551, while Briggs’ car is 60547, making it the eighth 40/50-hp car to be built and the oldest known survivor.

The idea of the Silver Ghost sobriquet came from Claude Johnson, a consummate showman apparently, to demonstrate the smoothness and reliability of the 40/50-hp model in the RAC’s Scottish Reliability Trial in 1907. Going back and forth between London and Glasgow 27 times, the Silver Ghost travelled 14,371 miles, more or less non-stop, which led a journalist to call it “the best car in the world.” Johnson was too smart to let that slogan get away. When AX 201 was torn down under the eyes of the RAC’s scrutineers afterwards, it was found to need a mere £2 2s 7d in repairs. It was practically good as new.

Brigg’s enormous limousine (it stands eight feet tall) was bodied by Rippon Brothers of Huddersfield, which could claim to be the oldest coachbuilders in England, dating from 1555. The company was reputed to have built carriages for both Queen Mary I and her half-sister Elizabeth and was known for the quality of its work.

When Rolls-Royce expert Martin Johnson found the car in 1986 in Derbyshire, it comprised a frame, rear axle, wheels, transmission and various other parts and required restoration to be returned to its former glory. Johnson sold it to Silver Ghost aficionado Jonathan Harley, who sent it on to American collector James Leake in Muskogee, Oklahoma before it went to noted Rolls-Royce enthusiast and collector Millard Newman, who persuaded Jonathan Harley to continue his investigation into 60547’s past. Ultimately, its origins were confirmed, and Newman had the stroke of luck to track down the engine from the immediately preceding car, number 546, in New Zealand and also turned up a period-correct Rippon Brothers limousine body in upstate New York.

Such a romantic tale attracted considerable attention, of course, and the restoration of Briggs’ behemoth was thoroughly recorded, photographed and documented in the September/October 1992 issue of The Flying Lady. Once completed, it made the rounds of the Rolls-Royce Owners Club shows, also winning the Charles A. Chayne Memorial Trophy at Pebble Beach Concours.

This enormous vehicle has been restored to the highest standard, which included all the Edwardian grandeur that could be mustered in terms of lights, accessories, button-back leather and fabric curtains. It also boasts the Alpha Communicators command panel for rear passengers, whose buttons could command the driver to start, turn left or right, slow down or speed up.

Since being in the Newman Collection, 60547 has resided in other very respected collections, including that of Barry Hon, Richard Solove and most recently John O’Quinn. Apart from AX 201, the original Silver Ghost, there are few Rolls-Royces as important as this one, particularly with its fascinating history and status as the oldest known 40/50 Silver Ghost, delivered new to none other than a company director.

A reduced import tax of 5% may be applicable to this car. For further explanation please speak with an RM representative.