1930s Rolls - Has It Survived ?

[neutral 3]

As above, advert dates from 1970.

[tog]

Probably. Contact the RREC, they have a pretty extensive archive.

[Roy C]

Unlikely to still have that UK plate, so difficult to track down without a chassis number.
The chances are that it's still in the US, so probably more likely to be known to the RROC.

[davepoth]

And in case that doesn't work:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/juergenspicsseethewo...

I reckon this should be it.

Internet says there are only two Ranalah bodied 1930 Phantom IIs, one of which is white and a wedding car in the UK, the other is in the US. According to Jurgen on Flickr, this one is sat in a car nut's storage building in Berkeley, CA waiting to be put back on the road as of 2009.

[Autolycus]

Chassis number 42GN. Off test 1 March 1930, fitted with a Barker Tourer body. Sold to Samuel A Courtauld, registered GC2352. Ranalah body fitted in 1938. There's a photo with this later body in Whitaker & Stuckey's excellent book "The Rolls-Royce Phantom II and Phantom III" (Complete Classics) from which I shamelessly copied the historic information above.

Kevin

[neutral 3]

Thanks for all of the replies, much appreciated ! So the Rolls was re bodied when it was 8 odd years old. Also the registration number was changed ?

[Autolycus]

These cars were owned in the 30s by some very rich men (Samuel Courtauld - Chairman of the eponymous company, Courtauld Institute of Art, etc), many of whom would be very fashion-conscious. Tourer bodies were getting less popular even when this one was first bodied, and by 1938 were a bit old hat, so it's not surprising that someone (I don't know who owned it by then) went to one of the coachbuilders who specialised in re-bodying older cars. Southern, for instance, "modernised" a number of the 20hp cars. What a shame they didn't store all the old bodies somewhere so they could be used now to replaced collapsed and ugly limousine bodies.

I don't know why or when the registration number changed - it had another one at some point, too - it could have crossed the Atlantic a few times in the last 80 years, and people weren't so bothered about retaining old numbers. It will probably be in the records at The Hunt House (RREC and Sir Henry Royce Foundation). The Foundation would be my suggested starting point for someone who isn't an RREC member.

Kevin