Vehicle Description
1926 Rolls-Royce 45/50hp Silver Ghost 'Warwick' Town Car with open
front compartment.Coachwork by BrewsterRegistration no. DS
6498Chassis no. S165MLEngine no. 20655For only $179,500 New Price:
$165,000This Springfield-built, left-hand drive Silver Ghost's
first owner was none other than William Brewster, head of the firm
responsible for its body. By the time this car was made it had
become apparent that left-hand drive was essential for the North
American market, an alteration to the Ghost chassis that
necessitated the adoption of a new three-speed gearbox with central
change. Four-wheel brakes likewise had come to be seen as a
necessity rather than an indulgence, though the American version
used the New Phantom front axle together with a Westinghouse vacuum
booster rather than the British Ghost's mechanical servo. 'S165ML'
was the test chassis for this modification, which remains in place
to this day.In 1927 'S165ML' passed to its second owner, Mrs Mary
Dahlgren Robinson of Rye, New York and in the 1950s was owned in
Abington, Pennsylvania by two members of the Schaub family. The
next owner listed in the accompanying records is one Duncan
Merryweather of Chester Springs, PA followed by Otto C Kohler of
South Hadley, Massachusetts and then E Andrew Mowbray of Lincoln,
Rhode Island, who was the owner when an article about the car was
published in the Veteran Motor Car Club of America's journal 'Bulb
Horn' (November/December 1978 edition, copy available).Its next
change of ownership would see 'S165ML' return to the UK, where it
found a new home with Jack Bradley of Glasgow in 1979. Mr Bradley
kept the Rolls-Royce until August 2009 when he sold it to the Real
Car Co, from whom it was purchased by the current vendor in June
2010. The tappets were set by Alan Glew in July 2010 and he
pronounced the engine healthy, and the owner drove the car
approximately 1,500 miles that year. Outings included taking the
Silver Ghost to the GRRC members' enclosure at the Goodwood Revival
meeting where it was greatly admired.Finished in black and
retaining its original body, paintwork and patinated interior, the
car is offered with the aforementioned chassis cards and magazine
article, and comes with current MoT/tax and Swansea V5C document. A
late Springfield Silver Ghost with four-wheel brakes and Warwick
town car coachwork, 'S165ML' represents the ultimate in Vintage
motoring and is a possible 'Conservation Class' Pebble Beach
concours contender, being remarkably correct and unmolested and yet
eminently drivable and usable.