1922 | Rolls-Royce 40/50 HP Silver Ghost

1922 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost Alpine Eagle
Chassis Number: 72MG
Registration Number: KK1331
This Silver Ghost is very simply the fastest one ever produced. It has a top speed of somewhere between 80 & 90 MPH with 70MPH cruising easily achieved. Its history is fascinating to read. We have driven & road tested the car up to 70MPH where it cruises effortlessly & in silence. The whole car is in simply brand new condition. Some minor works are being done to complete the car including finishing the convertible top, (now done) upholstering the dickey seat area (now done) & fitting leather Wefco gaiters to the leaf springs. The coachwork by steve penney is an exact recreation of the original Cunard lightweight streamlned body & is beautifully executed.
The first owner of this extraordinary car was William Maurice ‘Tubby’ Broomhall was born on 16th July 1897 and educated at St. Paul's School, RMA Woolwich and Christ's College, Cambridge.
Lieutenant General William ‘Tubby' Broomhall was a larger-than-life character who loved all things engineered, mechanical, modern and fast.
He approached R. W. Harvey-Bailey, Chief Technical Production Engineer of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, with an outlandish request: a bespoke, one-off Silver Ghost built for speed and capable of ‘seeing off’ the latest and fastest models from Bentley and Hispano-Suiza.
Claude Johnson, the extrovert and sometimes brusque Managing Director of Rolls-Royce (and a man who described himself as the hyphen between Mssrs. Rolls and Royce) would have strongly disapproved, as would the other directors – which is why the project was kept a secret between Harvey-Bailey and the then Captain Broomhall.
Harvey-Bailey knew that Henry Royce, who by then was not in good health and spent most of his time in the South of France, had a penchant for the racier aspects of motoring and almost certainly would have approved.
And so it followed that this extraordinary car came into being.
It was engineered for power and speed, with a unique chassis, an engine that revved to 3000rpm and could propel the car to speeds in excess of 90mph, and a stunning body built by the Cunard Motor & Carriage Company of Putney.
No expense was spared in the creation of this wholly bespoke car.
Broomhall was a particular and demanding customer. He knew exactly what he wanted, and precisely what he didn’t want.
His list of instructions to Harvey-Bailey and his team started by declaring that ‘Special attention should be paid to power and speed’.
An engine that revved to 3,000rpm compared to the 2400-2450rpm achieved by all other fast post-WWI Alpine Eagles went a long way to achieving that goal, as did the lightweight, doorless, 3-seater sports body by Cunard.
All brightwork on the car is silver-plated. The Spirit of Ecstasy mascot is silver, and it's the original one too.
Other aspects of the car’s design reflect Captain Broomhall’s obsession with symmetry.
The special aluminium dashboard was to feature dummy controls on one side to match their functional counterparts on the other side.
The same impetus informed Broomhall’s choice of a suitably symmetrical registration plate – KK1331.
He also specified that all electrical components should be provided by C.A. Vandervell (CAV), not Lucas; that the aluminium spare wheel covers should be sat further back to aid weight distribution; that there should be a special side filler to the petrol tank (which was subsequently adopted as a standard feature); and that a Rolls-Royce engine-driven tyre inflator of the sort normally found on Rolls-Royce armoured cars should be fitted.
Broomhall placed his order for the car on 27th January 1920. He received the finished car on 15th September 1922.
Fast-forward to 1963 and this car had lost its Cunard body, and also the Barker body that replaced it, and had been repurposed as a pick-up for use on a farm. This was because the powerful engine qualified it to be classified as a truck and therefore eligible to claim extra fuel rations during WWII.
Mike Evans joined Rolls-Royce in 1959 with a degree in Archaeology from Cambridge University and a great deal of enthusiasm for his twin passions – history and engineering.
He became the founder of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust and a friend and colleague of Rolls-Royce Director Alec Harvey-Bailey, the son of the man who had overseen the covert creation of 72-MG for Captain Broomhall.
One day, Alec shared a distant childhood memory of 72-MG with Mike…and so the seed was sown.
Mike tracked down and bought the car in 1968. He spent the intervening years until 2012 painstakingly restoring the car to the very highest standards.
Because of the contacts he’d made and the friendships he’d forged through his work with the Heritage Trust, Mike was able to call upon truly world-class advice and expertise from the masters of their respective crafts in the Rolls-Royce restoration business.
Andy Wood of P&A Wood helped a great deal, as did Barry Hares, Coldwell Engineering, Jerry Marshall, Will Fiennes, Steve Penny (who built the superb replica body), Gary Wright, Steve Lovatt, Ristes of Nottingham, John Malamatenios, Allan Glew, Graham Mead and many other luminaries from the Rolls-Royce restoration Hall of Fame – plus, of course, Mike himself.
Sadly, Mike passed away in November 2016, with the car entrusted to his wife, Frances, and then his daughter, Rhiannon, who is just as passionate and enthusiastic about 72-MG as her father.
She has driven the car and reports that it is remarkably easy and satisfying to drive.
Being rather nearer 5ft than 6ft in height, she drives with a fire extinguisher wrapped in a blanket behind her and follows the road ahead by looking through the rim of the 19” steering wheel.
Rhiannon is only parting with the car now because she wants it to be enjoyed, cared-for and driven by someone who has the time and resources that this wonderful car so clearly deserves.
She tells us that wherever you go in 72-MG the car turns heads and instantly wins hearts and minds.
Well, of course it does.
It is utterly jaw dropping in every respect and, frankly, it has to be seen to be believed.