If you were to ask almost anyone in the world what is the best car made, I think a very high percentage would answer, Rolls-Royce. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce formed a partnership in 1904 about the same time as Henry Ford was getting his company operating. Both, of course, were very successful, but their goals were about as far apart as any could be in the same industry.
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Henry Ford wanted to build an affordable, simple to operate and durable car. Henry Royce wanted to build the best car in the world regardless of price. Royce, a self-taught engineer, was in the electrical and mechanical business while Rolls, a Cambridge-educated restless aristocrat, was already one of the early cars dealers, selling upscale cars in London. Royce built his first car in 1904 and Rolls agreed to buy as many as Royce could make. A partnership was formed. The goal was always quality over quantity and the company, now owned by BMW, currently sells about 6,000 cars a year.
Here’s a little trivia. All Rolls-Royce cars since 1911 have the “Spirit of Ecstasy” nose ornament called a mascot. The story goes that the model for this sculpture was Eleanor Velasco Thornton, the secretary and secret mistress of Lord Montagu, a significant investor in the company. The first sculpture was called “The Whisper” with the woman’s finger to her lips symbolizing the secret romance. Henry Royce didn’t approve of the mascot, and it is said he seldom drove a car with the Spirit of Ecstasy as he felt it compromised the styling of the car.
Eleanor didn’t get to see this mascot long as she was drowned while traveling with Lord Montagu on the SS Persia when it was torpedoed by a German submarine in December of 1915. The Spirit of Ecstasy is still on today’s Rolls-Royce models, but it has been downsized and redesigned.
This issue’s featured vehicle is a very rare 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom I owned by Gordon Johnson, of Alamo. It is one of only two built in a U.S. Rolls-Royce plant in Springfield, Massachusetts. Both were originally sold to Mrs. Carroll Tyson of Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, for $19,000 each — or about $698,060 in today’s dollars. She was the great-granddaughter of John Roebling, designer of the Brooklyn Bridge and manufacturer of the wire rope for the Brooklyn and Golden Gate bridges. Johnson’s car is one of Mrs. Tyson’s former cars.
The car that Johnson purchased in 1991 didn’t look anything like the car it is today. He showed me pictures of what he bought sight unseen. It looked like scrap iron to me. It wasn’t a car, only rusted parts of a car like an impossible do-it-yourself Ikea project. He paid $40,000. But Johnson’s enjoyment is finding old classic cars that most people in their right mind wouldn’t want to own and turn them into classic beauties. He does most of the work himself, and in this case turned it into the third-place winner at the Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach, the world’s most prestigious car show, in 1994. Johnson was more than just surprised at winning the award, he said: “On either side of my car were cars that had been flown in from England and Switzerland. I had no expectation of winning anything.”
This car is unbelievably nice. It is a seven-passenger car, including the two jump seats, has two complete windshields, a top that folds down requiring at least two people, plus is painted a perfect black with red leather seats and interior. One almost has to be an engineer to drive the car as it has six settings on the steering wheel just to start the car. But it has a working clock that tells you the correct time.
Johnson didn’t discuss any long-term plans for the car, but I think it belongs in a museum.
Have an interesting vehicle? Email Dave at MOBopoly@yahoo.com. To read more of his columns or see more photos of this and other issues’ vehicles, visit mercurynews.com/author/david-krumboltz.
