Ghostly goings on at Rolls

Rolls-Royce celebrates century-old bling with a very special Ghost

By Dan Trent / Tuesday, 21 May 2013 / Loading comments

Now, usually our Time For Tea? slots involve the moving image, Friday's Pic Of The Week a new desktop for your computer or phone. This kind of sits between and while spun off the back of a press release is basically an opportunity to talk about a very cool image, with a back story to match.

Radley prepares to depart in 1913...

Basically Rolls-Royce is strutting the stuff of its Bespoke department with a

modern day Ghost

painted in a scheme reminiscent of an original example that set off 100 years ago from Brown's Hotel in Mayfair on the Alpine Trial. Driven by James Radley - but not until a bon voyage glass of champagne had been tipped into the radiator - the Radley Rolls demonstrated the excellence of the Silver Ghost and helped contribute to the 'best car in the world' moniker Rolls humbly stands by to this day. And more appropriate than

ragging round a field

The original car will be re-enacting this act of motoring derring do along with 40 other original Silver Ghosts in June, departing Vienna on a circular 1,800-mile Alpine adventure and along the way joining a meeting of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club in Italy for a gathering of 100 Ghosts.

...100 years later his car prepares for the same

The snappily named 2013 Alpine Trial Centenary Ghost takes that original 1913 car as inspiration, throwing lots of bespoke this and exquisitely crafted that at a 'regular' Ghost to complete the homage. The result, in isolation, could be described as 'eye catching' but in the context of being parked alongside the original and outside the start of that 1913 adventure kind of makes sense. And for a nice photo. Which you can

download here

sans watermark if you'd like.

Hopefully Jeeves will be along in due course to top up the coolant in suitable fashion...