FEATURE CAR ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM | BARKER PULLMAN LIMOUSINE
Considering his initial reaction to this car it's amazing Chris Spaett bought it at all. ‘I didn't like the colour, the bumpers or the whitewall tyres,’ says the Herefordshire based classic motorcycle dealer. But two years later he's racked up nearly 5000 miles in the 1929 Barker Pullman Sports Limousine, which is more than many of us manage in far more modern machinery. It's also nearly 5000 miles more than the car covered in the previous 30 years, but more on that later.
The long-anticipated successor to the Silver Ghost, the New Phantom arrived in 1925. Retrospectively known as the Phantom I, it featured an entirely new overhead-valve, 7668cc, straightsix engine, a unit considerably more powerful than that of its Edwardian predecessor. The New Phantom, like the contemporary 20hp model, also employed a plate clutch rather than the old cone type and adjustable radiator shutters, although its chassis remained largely the same as that of the later four-wheel-braked Ghost, and would continue fundamentally unchanged until the arrival of the Phantom II in 1929. Rolls Royce built 2,212 Phantom I chassis by the time production ceased.
Chris’ car, chassis number 42KR, was bodied with sports limousine coachwork byassociated with Rolls-Royce from the latter's earliest days, Barker had shown an example of their work to Charles Rolls as early as 1905, who was so impressed that the London-based firm was viewed as the official coachbuilder to Rolls-Royce for the next 25 years.
