The recovery Rolls: how a thoroughbred became a workhorse

We have seen a few interesting commercial car conversions from the past before now. Remember the impressive Mercedes-Benzes used as mobile shops to promote watches in Germany in the 1930s? Or the Bugatti Type 40 camionette used to help producers hide their banned film rolls from the German occupiers during the Second World War? And speaking of the film industry, there was also the Rolls-Royce Phantom flatbed camera car used at Pinewood Studios in England.

Here we see another regal Rolls-Royce turned into a genuine workhorse. We know just a little more about this one. Apparently it started life as an experimental chassis in 1911 and was used by Claude Johnson—no less than the founding managing director of the company—himself. It was bodied by Carrosserie Kellner of Paris as a limousine but we don’t know if it was Johnson who commissioned them to do so. The fact is that the car was rebodied later by Thrupp & Maberly as a tourer, but it didn’t end there. Its next guise was the one you see here: a tow truck. This happened after the Second World War.

The car was used by Adcocks Garages of Chichester, which as far as we can tell was up and running until the 1970s at least. The Ghost must have been a great towing vehicle, impressing everyone who saw it and happy to haul any car in absolute silence and comfort with no shortage of pulling power. Does anyone know if it survived what may well have been the most turbulent period in its life? What about that scenic backdrop—can anyone pinpoint where it might be?

Words: Jeroen Booij; Picture: source unknown

Published:

Tuesday July 23rd, 2024

Terry Cockerell

29 July 2024, 04:58

I remember seeing an immaculately restored very early Rolls Royce in the Birdwood Museum in South Australia many years ago. The body was completely made from scratch. The car had been found on a farm in the South Australian outback with the engine running a large water pump. The chassis was being used as a swing gate. Whoever restored the car deserved a medal!

David Green

23 July 2024, 13:45

This is not the only surviving Silver Ghost to have spent time as a breakdown truck. The 1909 Silver Ghost in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu was first converted to a hearse, and then, in 1930, to a breakdown truck with strengthened back springs and a Mann Egerton crane on the back. The truck operated, from memory, in Berwick-on-Tweed on the Scottish border until 1952, when it was acquired by the then Lord Montagu. I seem to recall it had quite a noisy gearbox.

Nick Harley

23 July 2024, 11:19

I love your photograph of the Silver Ghost. What a history these cars have. This one reminds me of the Phantom I truck I acquired from Walkers Garage, Holbeach, Lincolnshire in the 1960s. According to Mr. Walker, "using her huge torque, she was never defeated hauling errant vehicles out of dykes."

Fitted from new with a Barker body and still retaining the whole front section including doors, screen, scuttle and coachbuilder's plates, she was painted in a woodgrain finish, including the chassis! As it had originally belonged to the Caudwell sugar beet farming family, I tracked down the nephew of the first owner, who well remembered being driven to market with the dogs in the back. Here is an as-found photo and one after restoration was completed in 1969.

Henk Gerritsen

23 July 2024, 16:47

Hello Nick,

I'd like to know the chassis number and year of manufacture. The second photo will not open, please send it to me.

Thanks,
Henk

Ashley

23 July 2024, 07:03

That is Chichester Cathedral in West Sussex.

The recovery Rolls: how a thoroughbred became a workhorse

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