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Rolls-Royce 40/50 HP Silver Ghost - tourer body - manufactured in 1910
If there has ever been a car that has defined a manufacturer for a century then that car must be the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. Even now, a 100 years after its first appearance, Rolls-Royce still thrives on the qualities set by the original Silver Ghost.
In the early days of motoring most cars could be regarded as a work in progress, experiments put together by method of trail and error. As a result cars of that era were notorious for malfunctioning and unreliability. Especially products of the many starting companies, realizing that cars were becoming booming business, were often disappointing. Rolls-Royce was formed in 1904 and could be regarded as one of those starting companies when the company presented the big 40/50 HP model in 1906. It attracted quite a bit of attention but Rolls-Royce needed better publicity if it was to sell such an expensive car.
Managing director Claude Johnson came up with an remarkable scheme: he decided to fit a silver colored 40/50 HP chassis with silver plated details and a matching tourer body by Barker and to enter this car in the gruelling Scottish reliability trails of 1907. The car was dubbed the Silver Ghost and driven non-stop for 40 days and over 14,000 miles before it needed to be serviced. This kind of reliability was previously unheard-of and caused a world-wide whirl of amazed publicity. One of the best known British car magazines of the day, the Autocar, even wrote that the Silver Ghost was "the best car in the world", which became the motto for Rolls-Royce to this day.
Just one car proved to be enough to establish Rolls-Royce as a top-class manufacturer for over a century. Of course, many splendid Rolls-Royce cars did follow the Silver Ghost, but none produced an equal stir. The 40/50 HP chassis was made, with steady improvements, until 1926 and was quite successful with 8416 units produced. The Scottish reliability trails car was the only true Silver Ghost, named after its color and its silent operation, but after the introduction of the Phantom I in 1925 all the old 40/50 HP cars were referred to as Silver Ghosts.
The Rolls-Royce 40/50 HP model shown here is actually named "Silver Lion", "Silent as a Ghost, Powerful as a Lion, Trustworthy as Time" being one of the contemporary Rolls-Royce slogans, but it's very similar to the original Silver Ghost. It has a straight 6-cylinder sidevalve engine with 7,428 cc displacement (the original Silver Ghost had 7,036 cc) providing ample power. It also has plenty of silver plated details and the workmanship shown is really astounding. You only have to look at it to see that it was one of the best cars in its time.
The claim to be the best car in the world is quite hollow until you see a Silver Ghost in all its glory; then you'll see what it actually means if you have an eye for it. Other Rolls-Royces, great as they may be, could only hope to live up that standard. The Silver Ghost is an engineering monument which set the standard for quality cars.
© André Ritzinger, Amsterdam, Holland
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