1937 | Rolls-Royce Phantom III

1937 Rolls Royce Phantom 3 Barker Touring Limousine
Chassis Number: 3BU194
Registration Number: UZG251
Chassis 3BU194 was sent off test from Derby on 18 February 1937, fitted with engine X48E, and with E type steering. It was set up for use in Belgium and on the Continent for both town work and touring. The chassis was sent off test with bonnet louvres sloped at 15.5, with wiring for Marchal lamps and with all instruments in metric measures. It was fitted with twin side-mounted spare wheels in metal covers and wheel discs. The company charged €1489//2/10 for the chassis.
The Belgian Rolls-Royce agents, Andr Pisart SA ordered the chassis in December 1936. It was shipped from London to Brussels aboard the ss "City of Brussels
* on 24 February
1937. The agents advised that the chassis was to be fitted with a 5-passenger saloon by Belgian coachbuilder Vesters and Neirinck.
The car was to be used by Paul Vuylsteke, mayor of Brussels, of La Meunerie Bruxelloise, Heren (Nord), Brussels. In 1971 the car was owned by Richard W Hooper of Georgia, USA, in 1979 by Ralph G Lindquist of Pennsylvania and in 1985 by Norman E Herstein of Washington state. It has been returned to the UK by June 1987.
The car suffered war time damage & had the current Barker body fitted post war which came off a Phanotm 3 of similar vintage. The body is an elegant swept tail touring limousine similar to several we have handled previously. The orginal vesters & Neirick dash board was retained along with its associated continental instrumentation.
This car resides currently in an exlusive Rolls Royce & Bentley collection of notable cars in Scotland where it may be viewed by appointment. It is in excellent running condition with a smooth silent & powerful engine that runs beautifully. The car has been in the current onwership since 2008 & has been maintained without regard to cost.
To the interior is original brown leather to the front seats & west of England cloth to the rear. The car was repainted a few years ago in its current gunmetal clour scheme with the paint being in really lovely condition. The odometer reads 76999 miles currently which may well be the total mileage from new. It certainly feels to be a low mile chassis & the mechanical components of the suspension show no signs of wear at all. Indeed the underside of the car is pristine & in beautifully preserved condition with new rubber bushes fitted where required & leather Wefco gaiters to all the leaf springs.
This is a high specification body with a very large sunroof, wind up division, picnic tables etc etc. The wire wheels are powder coated red & the coachwork has red pinstiping along the length of it & also to the bonnet louvres.
All in all this is a rather lovely Phantom 3 in excellent condition & running very very well with nothing needing doing to it at all. The coachwork is grand & makes it presence known wherever it appears exuding elegance & gravitas in equal measures.
The below infomation is relayed to us by a Rolls Royce historian with regards to the body swap & when & where it was done etc......
We assumed that the Barker body was mounted about 1938, given that you
found
the body number 7372 on the body. The chassis was originally fitted with
a
(Belgian) Vesters & Neirinck saloon with division body, and delivered to
a
mill owner who happened to be the Mayor of Brussels at the time.

We are uncertain when the car returned to the UK, but it was registered
in
Croydon, Surrey in July 1950 as JBY20.

Through various investigations I have now determined that the body on
your
chassis was fitted some time after 1953, and was originally on chassis
3DL122, which was a 1938 chassis fitted with a Barker saloon with
division
body. Chassis 3DL122 - fitted in 1953 with a Gurney Nutting body ex
3CP142 -
is owned by Mermie Karger in the US; she and her husband have owned the
car
since 1968. In her file was the attached photo, which is exactly what is
on
your chassis. Mermie has excellent records of her car, and its original
owner plus those who did the swap of bodies (it was the Earl of
Shrewsbury
who owned both cars and did the swap, helped by his chauffeur). Both
3CP142
and 3DL122 were for sale by Jack Barclays in London at the same time in
1953.

The Barker body from 3DL122 was sold by the Earl to Dr Huw Edwards in
Wales,
who later sold it on to a man in Deptford, London. (Mermie has a 1968
letter
from Edwards confirming this.) We have no idea when it was fitted to
chassis
3BU194, but I am convinced that this body is the one that ended up on
chassis 3BU194. We are pretty sure that the bonnet from the Vesters &
Neirinck chassis body is still the one on your car.