ROLLS-ROYCE ‘MODELS OF THE MARQUE’: THE 1910s – THE ROLLS-ROYCE 40/50 H.P. ‘SILVER GHOST’

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce 40/50 H.P. – generally known as
  the ‘Silver Ghost’ – launched in 1906
• Legendary performances in the great motor trials of the early 20th
  Century cemented Rolls-Royce’s reputation as creators of ‘the best
  car in the world’
• Second in a series celebrating a landmark model from each decade
  of the marque’s history, from its foundational years in the 1900s to
  the contemporary Goodwood era
• The selected motor cars represent significant developments in
  design, construction, engineering and technology that continue to
  influence the marque’s products today

“Of all the famous nameplates borne by Rolls-Royce motor cars
since 1904, few are as celebrated, significant, evocative and
enduring as the ‘Silver Ghost’. Formally launched in 1906 as the
40/50 H.P., it was the first model to be awarded the soubriquet of
‘the best car in the world’ that Rolls-Royce retains to this day,
setting unmatchable standards for performance and reliability,
proven in the era’s toughest road trials. It was also a stupendous
commercial success, with almost 8,000 examples built in the UK and
US over an 18-year period – an unimaginable product lifespan in the
modern age. That so many Silver Ghosts still survive in full working
order – and, indeed, regularly perform the same feats they achieved
more than a century ago – is a lasting monument to Henry Royce’s
engineering genius.”

Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage,
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

By 1906, just three years after its foundation,
Rolls-Royce was already something of a victim of its own success.
Demand for its motor cars was such that its line-up had quickly
expanded from the original twin-cylinder 10 H.P. to include
three-cylinder 15 H.P., four-cylinder 20 H.P. and six-cylinder 30 H.P.
models. Henry Royce had even produced the first ever V8 passenger
motor car, known as the ‘Legalimit’ since the 3.5-litre engine was
governed to keep it below the 20mph speed limit then in force in
Britain – only three of these were ever made, and it remains the only
Rolls-Royce model of which no examples survive. This proliferation of
models reflected a trend across the luxury automotive sector, as
competing manufacturers chased an ever more finely segmented client base.

However, for Rolls-Royce, it caused major manufacturing
headaches, since many parts were not interchangeable between models.
The problem was compounded by Henry Royce’s entirely laudable policy
of continuous improvement; his constant adjustments and refinements
went all the way down to the smallest components. This created
variations between – and even within – production series, to the
extent that often only a handful of individual motor cars would be
entirely identical.

As with almost any manufacturing process, more complexity and
variability meant increased costs. This was anathema to the highly
astute, commercially driven Managing Director, Claude Johnson. Having
decided radical change was needed, he proposed the marque should focus
all its energies on producing just one model. Charles Rolls
enthusiastically agreed, but insisted it should be positioned at the
top end of the market, where Rolls-Royce was already gaining a
reputation as the very best motor car available.

Though a ruthless perfectionist and tireless innovator, Royce
was also a pragmatist. He saw the logic of his colleagues’
single-model approach and duly produced a completely new motor car,
the 40/50 H.P.

As with all Rolls-Royce models of the time – and indeed until
the 1950s – the 40/50 H.P. was a rolling chassis, upon which the
client commissioned bodywork from an independent coachbuilder. At its
heart was a new six-cylinder, 7036cc engine (from 1910, the capacity
was increased to 7428cc). Royce’s groundbreaking design effectively
divided the engine into two units of three cylinders each; combined
with a harmonic vibration damper on the crankshaft – a feature still
used by modern manufacturers – he effectively eliminated the vibration
problems caused by resonate frequencies that had bedevilled
six-cylinder engines up to that point.

This technical achievement alone would have been sufficient to
make the 40/50 H.P. a historically significant motor car. But it was
the marketing genius of Claude Johnson that assured its immortality.

When the 40/50 H.P. was launched, new motor cars were taxed
based on their horsepower. In general, this meant higher-value motor
cars attracted heavier duties than lower-priced models. Since many of
the more powerful motor cars on the market were imported, the tax also
helped protect domestic British producers.

To provide a universal basis for these tax calculations, the
Royal Automobile Club (RAC) developed the ‘tax horsepower rating’.
This was derived not from actual engine output, but by an esoteric
mathematical formula based on three engine measurements, all the more
arcane when expressed in the prevailing imperial units: an assumed
mechanical efficiency of 75%; a mean cylinder pressure of 90lbs per
square inch; and a mean piston speed of 1,000 feet per minute. Since
these differed from engine to engine, in reality, the resulting figure
was almost entirely arbitrary, but could be applied by manufacturers
and bureaucrats alike. Using this formula, the new Rolls-Royce was
tax-rated by the RAC at 40 horsepower; in fact, it developed 50. Hence
it was given the prosaic ‘40/50 H.P.’ designation on launch, so
clients would know both the level of duty they would have to pay and
how much power they could expect.

As an engineer, Royce was probably quite comfortable with this
functional naming convention, but not so Claude Johnson. To his
showman’s mind, it lacked distinction, resonance, romance and glamour;
and it certainly failed to properly suggest the desirable,
best-in-class motor car envisioned by Charles Rolls.

Accordingly, some 50 of the early motor cars were given suitably
imposing names, either by Johnson or by their proud owners. In an
inspired moment, Johnson dubbed the twelfth chassis, number 60551, the
‘Silver Ghost’, in homage to its almost supernatural quietness and
smooth ride. Painted silver and adorned with silver-plated fittings,
it was widely exhibited by Rolls-Royce at motor shows, and Silver
Ghost would go on to become the name by which the 40/50 H.P. was
generally known, as it is today.

But chassis 60551 was more than just a showpiece. Out on the
road, it dominated the gruelling, high-profile reliability trials that
represented the pinnacle of motoring endeavour at that time and were
thus central to Johnson’s relentless promotional activities. In the
process, it perhaps did more than any other early Rolls-Royce model to
establish the marque’s international reputation for performance and
engineering excellence.

Its extraordinary run of success began with the 1907 Scottish
Reliability Trial, in which it covered some 2,000 miles without a
single breakdown, the only delay being for a minute to re-open a
closed fuel tap. Immediately afterwards, it covered 15,000 miles
non-stop, driving day and night except for Sundays, setting a new
world record for continuous travel.

In 1911, impelled by his own pursuit of perfection and Johnson’s
insatiable appetite for publicity, Royce unveiled a new version of the
Silver Ghost. Known as the ‘London to Edinburgh’ type, it was designed
for the RAC’s flagship reliability trial, a return run of almost 800
miles between the two capitals. In an age long before motorways, the
route consisted almost entirely of poorly surfaced A- and B-roads; to
add to the challenge, cars were locked in top gear from start to finish.

Chassis number 1701 won the event at an average speed of
19.59mph, returning a then-unheard-of fuel efficiency of over 24 mpg.
To prove it had not been modified in any way, it achieved 78.2mph on a
half-mile speed test conducted soon after the Trial; later that year,
fitted with a lightweight streamlined body, it attained 101.8mph at
the fabled Brooklands circuit in Surrey, becoming the first
Rolls-Royce in history to exceed 100mph.

But arguably the 40/50 H.P.’s greatest sporting triumphs came in
1913. A ‘works team’ of three Silver Ghosts, plus one privately
entered car, all specially prepared to the same specification for the
rigours of high-speed endurance motoring, gained first and third
places in that year’s Alpine Trial, which started and finished in
Austria. Customers immediately demanded a Silver Ghost offering
similar performance, so Rolls-Royce released a production model of the
competition cars; formally named the Continental, these were generally
known as ‘Alpine Eagles’. The Continental itself then scored a
landmark win in the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix, driven by the newly
appointed Rolls-Royce agent for Spain, Don Carlos de Salamanca. His
victory by three minutes helped Rolls-Royce break into a Spanish
market that had long been dominated by French marques.

These faultless performances, together with the quietness and
smoothness of operation implicit in its name, secured the Silver
Ghost’s reputation as ‘the best car in the world’. It proved an
enormous commercial success for Rolls-Royce, with 6,173 examples built
in Britain, and a further 1,703 at the marque’s American factory in
Springfield, Massachusetts, between 1907 and 1925.

Thanks to these relatively large volumes over a long production
run, the Silver Ghost has one of the largest surviving populations of
early Rolls-Royce models. This longevity is a testament to Royce’s
engineering and the marque’s build quality. Even more impressive,
however, is that some are still capable of the performances they
achieved when new. In 2013, 47 Silver Ghosts, including one of the
original team, retraced the 1,800-mile route of the 1913 Alpenfahrt,
while in 2021, chassis 1701 repeated its record-breaking
London-Edinburgh run; locked in top gear, just as it had been 110
years earlier.