Mobile thrones by Hooper & Co.; fit for a King?

Some more info on this exceptional one off Wraith in this case by H.J. Mulliner.


1939 Rolls Royce H. J. Mulliner Wraith

Chassis Number: WHC26

Registration Number: DFS162

A simply exceptional rare car with exceptional provenance. Please be sure to read the "Rolls Royce & Bentley Driver" review in the pictures on our web page for the car. This is a car that has never been taken apart & this is apparent in the way it drives having covered a scant 42,000 miles from new.

The Wraith, one of 500 or so examples made, was ordered by a Mrs Wordie of Peebleshire Scotland as a replacement for her H.J.Mulliner Phantom 2. Being of advanced years & limited mobility she had H.J. Mulliner make up the rear compartment with separate seats, of which the passenger side one slides forwards & swivels though 90 degrees allowing for easy ingress & egress. The seating is exremely comfortable akin to sitting in a club armchair, which indeed is what the rear is equipped with. Twin occasional seats are also installed allowing for 6 people to travel in comfort. The car was delivered in August 1939 a month before the outbreak of hostilites which no doubt curtailed its use during the next 5 years of war.

The car is totally original to the interior & shows very very little wear given the very low mileage covered. The pedals show minimal wear & the car as a whole has a taut tight feel to it. A high quality repaint in its original colours of dark blue over black was done in the 1980's & has stood the test of time extremely well. Likewise a full engine rebuild was undertaken not so many miles ago by Agra engineering of Dundee including a full set of new pistons. The engine as a result runs in complete silence & when puling up to a stop one may be forgiven for thinking the engine has ceased to run altogether.

The cars are Rolls-Royces. The car where the chair moves out of the car is Phantom II limousine 154MY. The other, the landaulette with the opening rear roof, is Phantom III 3CM71.

Ask Toni Bienemann from Hooperinternational.com
He has obtained all the archieves from Hooper and lives in the Netherlands

I saw about ten of fifteen years ago at the Meadowbrook car show in Michigan, a car with a built in wheelchair arrangement with a ramp. It was owned by the actor Lionel Barrymore who had extreme arthritis and could barely walk. Funny, I can't recall the make of the car, maybe a Cadillac? American made, anyway. With the chair in place in the back seat, it fitted right in with the rest of the interior. The ramp came from underneath the floor and slid out on the right-hand side.