Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost: The Car That Earned 'Best Car in the World'

The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is the car that made Rolls-Royce famous. Strictly speaking, “Silver Ghost” was the name of one specific car — a 40/50 hp chassis finished in silver paint with silver-plated fittings in 1907 — but the name came to stand for the entire 40/50 model built until 1926. After a record-breaking reliability trial in 1907, the motoring press called it the best car in the world, and that reputation has followed Rolls-Royce ever since.

Silver Ghost at a glance

A car named for a single example

Rolls-Royce’s managing director Claude Johnson had the twelfth 40/50 chassis painted aluminium-silver, fitted with silver-plated lamps and brightwork, and named it “The Silver Ghost” to emphasize its ghost-like quietness. It became the company’s demonstrator — and the name stuck to the whole model.

The reliability run

In 1907 the Silver Ghost completed the Scottish Reliability Trial and then kept going, covering around 15,000 miles of almost non-stop driving under official observation. At the end, the parts needing replacement cost a trivial sum. In an era when cars broke down constantly, that was astonishing, and it built the Rolls-Royce reputation for engineering and reliability.

Why it was so good

Henry Royce was a perfectionist engineer. The 40/50 had a smooth, large six-cylinder engine with a seven-bearing crankshaft, pressure lubrication and careful balancing — which made it quiet and remarkably free of vibration. Like all Rolls-Royces of the era, it was sold as a rolling chassis, and customers commissioned bodies from coachbuilders, from open tourers to formal limousines. Read about coachbuilders.

War service

During the First World War, Silver Ghost chassis were turned into armoured cars that served in the Middle East and elsewhere. T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) praised the Rolls-Royce armoured cars used in the desert campaign for their reliability.

Made in America

From 1921, the Silver Ghost was also built at a Rolls-Royce factory in Springfield, Massachusetts, for American customers, who could order bodies from coachbuilders such as Brewster of New York. Read Rolls-Royce in Springfield.

Successor and legacy

The Silver Ghost was replaced in 1925 by the Phantom — the name still used for Rolls-Royce’s flagship. The original 1907 car, registration AX 201, survives to this day, and surviving 40/50s are among the most valuable veteran cars in the world. Follow the story forward in the Rolls-Royce Phantom history and the history of Rolls-Royce.