Rolls-royce Phantom
AFLEETING memory from childhood is of lining up among a group of schoolmates, waving tiny Union Flags as The Queen swept by in her limousine. Unfortunately, the emotion of the occasion was one of disappointment, as the monarch turned her head to wave to children on the other side of the road and the royal chauffeur was driving way too fast for us to catch more than a blur of pink. Having waited for an eternity, she was gone in a moment.
However, the shining black conveyance itself was visually stunning, a veritable black beauty. This would have been a Phantom V or Phantom VI State Landaulette, with especially high-sided windows that were intended to grant watching crowds a good view of their Queen and which were part of a series of Rolls-royce models inextricably associated with the Windsors.
The most exclusive of the series was the Rolls-royce Phantom IV, made by the company between 1950 and 1956. Reportedly, only 18 were ever made, reserved for royals and heads of state around the world, including the Shah of Iran, the Aga Khan III and King Faisal II of Iraq. Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh had taken ownership of the very first one in 1950. It was fitted with a specially modified driver’s seat, with concern for the height of the Duke, who had made it known that he intended to take the wheel himself on occasion. It was painted in royal claret and black two years later for The Queen’s first public engagement following the death of George VI, when she was driven in the Phantom to attend the Maundy Service at Westminster Abbey on April 10, 1952. The vehicle would remain in royal service for more than 40 years.
The first Phantoms had been introduced in the mid 1920s, replacing the legendary Rolls-royce Silver Ghost, which had earned itself the epithet ‘The Best Car in the World’. In 1911, it had achieved the remarkable feat
As James Bond admiringly remarked to Goldfinger: “She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
of being driven on the 800-mile London to Edinburgh return journey in top gear only, with a fuel consumption of 25mpg and a top speed of 75mph. A reputation for luxury and sound workmanship had been established almost from the company’s formation in 1906 and, although the first Phantom did not greatly differ in appearance from the Silver Ghost, it had a larger engine.
Typically for its limousines until the Second World War, the company concentrated on producing the chassis and mechanical parts, commissioning out the task of building the bodies to specialist coachbuilders. Alongside owner-driver models were larger, chauffeurdriven versions, the interiors of which displayed something of the decorative opulence and comfort owners might have had in their homes. Although the Phantom II, introduced in 1929, marked a step up appearance-wise, with a more modern, low-slung look, the Phantom III, introduced in 1935, had a powerful V12 engine and real presence. As James Bond (Sean Connery) admiringly remarked to Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe), the proud owner of one, in Goldfinger (1964): ‘She’s a beauty, isn’t she?’
The later Phantom V would attract a big hitter from pop music in the shape of John Lennon, who took delivery of one in 1965. It was almost entirely black—lennon even wanted the radiator painted black, but the company refused his request. Eventually, he had it painted in the style of a Romany caravan. For many people, it was a lurid visual obscenity and Lennon enjoyed telling the story of how a disgusted old lady once battered it with her umbrella.
Jack Watkins