Chassis number 201RY was one of just 18 Phantom II Continentals produced with Chelsea coachbuilder J. Gurney Nutting’s “Owen” drophead sedanca coupe body, carrying the name of the London dealer purportedly involved in its creation. The lines of this body were beyond compare, and in time it would rightfully come to be considered, and remains, the quintessential Phantom II Continental style.

Originally planned for Owen dealership stock, 201RY was instead sold to G.H. Barr of Penmaenmawr, North Wales, in April 1934, with the completed car delivered to him that October. Second owner George King of Middlesex acquired the car in October 1937, with later owners noted by historian André Blaize as John Holroyd-Reece, in 1940, and David Crawford Collins, in 1955. The car was then purchased in June 1956 by John M. Floyd, a Royal Air Force Sergeant stationed in Suffolk. Sergeant Floyd crossed paths at Suffolk with American Air Force pilot Seymour Johnson, who in 1958 acquired the Phantom II Continental and brought it back with him to the United States.

After several years spent in storage, the car was sold in 1969 to Raymond Gentile, following several years of heated pursuit of an Owen drophead sedanca coupe, and what Mr. Blaize described as “long months of correspondence . . . he made him the kind of offer ‘that he could not refuse.’” Mr. Gentile spent six years meticulously personally restoring the Continental to its original condition. The exceptional restoration was finally completed in time for the Rolls-Royce Owners' Club Annual Meeting of 1975, where it won Ladies Choice and the Guerrero Trophy for Best Owner Restoration.

His work inspired Mr. Gentile to compile all that he had learned in a book, The Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental, which remains one of the standard reference works on the model—and features 201RY both on the cover and as the frontispiece. Two separate handcrafted models were produced of the car, and it formed the basis of a famous Revell model kit, first issued in the 1970s and continuously produced for over 30 years.

Mr. Gentile retained his prized Continental until 1986, when he sold it to Duncan Bull, who would retain it for over a decade, adding a CCCA Senior First Prize and multiple other concours and RROC awards to its laurels. In 2011 it was purchased by renowned Rolls-Royce collector, Orin Smith, and then acquired from his stable by the present owner in 2017.

The original restoration of the car has held up remarkably well, with only minor signs of age and use, and remains quite authentic, a testament to the amount of research and care that went into restoring it properly 40 years ago, down to the finishes and equipment of the engine bay, the correct polished finish of the wood trim, and the set of hand tools fitted to the boot.

In the ranks of great Full Classics, there are certain cars that, restored and shown, win so frequently and attract so much attention that they come to embody entire marques and models for an entire generation. Such is the tale of Raymond Gentile’s Phantom II Continental, a car that made its owner an expert, led to the creation of a book still widely referenced by collectors, formed the basis of a bestselling model kit, and has been shown all over the world. It stands alone as, quite simply, the most famous extant Continental.