Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
In 1906 Rolls-Royce produced four chassis to be shown at the Olympia car show, after a great deal of public interest the managing director Mr Claude Johnson (often described as the hyphen in Rolls-Royce) ordered the car painted silver, with silver plated fittings. A plaque with the words "Silver Ghost" adorned the bulkhead. An open top body by coachbuilder Barker was fitted, and the car readied for the Scottish reliability trials 1907. The aim was to raise public awareness of the new company and to show the reliability and quietness of their new car. This was a risky idea, cars of this time were notoriously unreliable and roads of the day could be horrendous. Nevertheless the car set off on trials and with press aboard broke record upon record. Even after 7000 miles the cost to service the car was negligible. The reputation of Rolls-Royce was set, and the 40/50 very successful. After the introduction of the Phantom 1 in 1925 older 40/50 models were called Silver Ghosts to avoid confusion, but there was only one car given the name "Silver Ghost" - 60551, registered AX-201. The name referred to the car's ghost-like quietness. For many years after RR continued with the paranomal theme of naming cars. In all 8416 Silver Ghosts were produced from 1907 to 1926, many of them still running to this day. AX201, the most priceless of all, was sold in 1908 to a private customer and recovered by the company in 1948. Since then it has been used as a publicity car and travelled worldwide.