40 - 50 H.P. Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost motor car

Rolls-Royce, yellow, 40-50 H.P. Silver Ghost motor car, 1909, Chassis no. 1119. It is fitted with a Hooper landaulet body, which is supported on a stiff chassis frame of channel-section steel girders. It has a six-cylinder vertical watercooled engine. Rolling chassis built at Roll-Royce works in Derby. Body built at Hooper & Co in Westminster, London.

This is an example of one of the earliest 'Silver Ghost' motor cars to be built and was used continuously until 1929 by the 5th Marquess of Cholmondely. First introduced in 1907, the 40/50 HP, later to become known as the Silver Ghost, remained in production until 1925. The first cars were built in Royce's Cooke Street factory in Manchester but, in July 1908 following the success of the Silver Ghost, the company moved to a custom-built factory in Nightingale Road, Derby. Until after the Second World War, Rolls-Royce supplied cars as a ‘rolling chassis’ – the chassis, engine and other mechanical elements – and the car bodies were built by independent, dedicated coachbuilders. They believed that it was best to focus on their specialism of engineering excellence until the post-war move towards mass manufacture forced a change in order to remain commercially competitive. This car has a landaulet body built by Hooper & Co coachbuilders, which is one of the best known body styles for the Silver Ghost along with the tourer and enclosed cabriolet bodies by Barker an Co, and the London-Edinburgh type. Hooper & Co were very successful, supplying horse-drawn carriages and motor cars to the Royal Family and specialising in luxury vehicles.