Airline Limousine & The Best Car In The World (Part III)

Here is a third and last part of our photo report from 2017 Rolls-Royce Enthusiast Club Annual Meeting. As they say, the best at the end.

The black Phantom III, which you can see below, was originally ordered to the specifications of Alan Samuel Butler, the chairman of de Havilland Aircraft Company. In 1940, Mr. Butler presented his one-off Phantom III as a gift to Britain’s War Department for use by the chiefs of the British General Staff. In June 5, 1944, a day before the largest invasion in history, the car was allocated to General Bernard Montgomery which became worldwide renown when he brilliantly crushed Rommel at El Alamein. After the war „Monty“ aquire it and used regularly until the death of his longtime chauffeur, Sergeant Cedric Parker, in 1962.
In its 364,000 miles of duty, this lovely Airline Limousine has shuttled Winston Churchill, King George VI and President Dwight Eisenhower, among others.

Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was originally named the “40/50 hp”. This one on the photos registered as AX 201, was the car that was originally given the name “Silver Ghost.” Other 40/50 hp cars were also given names, but the Silver Ghost title was taken up by the press, and soon all 40/50s were called by the name, a fact not officially recognised by Rolls-Royce until 1925, when the Phantom range was launched. Car was built in 1907 as a Demonstration car and took part in Scottish reliability trials, winning a gold medal. Claude Johnson then subjected it to a further extended test, covering 14.371 miles in repeated London-Glasgow journeys, after which it was disassembled and examined for wear. All parts were found to be within tolerances and in good condition. Thereby earned the reputation as “The Best Car In The World”. Now as you can see, the car is stil in sympathetically condition even it‘s estimated that has covered nearly 600.000 miles.