For Sale £345,000
The quintessential early 1920’s styling on this Silver Ghost, chassis no. S77LK, is a perfect reflection of its period when knickerbockers and patent leather dominated in the USA in the age of Jazz.
The car’s Piccadilly Roadster coachwork is considered by many as the ultimate body style fitted to the Springfield-built Silver Ghost. Offering lightweight, two-seater coachwork with a rear dickey seat for occasional 4-person touring, it presents as an elegant and sporting example.
Chassis no. S77LK is one of the last right-hand drive Silver Ghosts to be produced by the Springfield factory. Whilst Springfield-built Silver Ghosts were initially identical to their Derby counterparts, the Company went on to develop the Silver Ghost to better serve the American marketplace. The electrical systems were upgraded to use US produced items, as were the wheels and hubs. In particular, the American buyer expected a swift delivery following ordering a new car, so to enable this, Rolls-Royce Custom Coachwork was created. This offered customers a variety of standardised stock body styles (named after English towns) which were supplied part-finished by external coachbuilders. These stock bodies only required bespoke finishing, allowing Rolls-Royce to promptly supply complete cars.
The Piccadilly Roadster coachwork on this car is Rolls-Royce Custom Coachworks by Merrimac of Massachusetts. It must be said that the build quality of the American coachwork was world class, and often superior to that of its European counterparts. Built to withstand long distance journeys on rough terrain, they often included steelwork reinforcements or cast aluminium sections. They were generally lightweight and have in many cases proved more longstanding than some of the most famous traditionally coach built examples from Europe.
Chassis no. S77LK was delivered new on 25th April 1925 to Samuel S. Conrad, a Boston department store owner, yachtsman and sportsman. It was later sold to an unknown owner who sent it to Redman Auto in Phoenix for repairs in 1939. Unbelievably, the owner never collected the car and in 1944 Redman sold it to Don Bringold, a Phoenix local. Clearly a fellow motorsport enthusiast, in 1946 Bringold drove the car from Phoenix to Indianapolis to watch the Indy 500. This was an epic round trip of over 3,000 miles, testament to the reliability and touring capabilities of the Piccadilly Roadster!
In 1949, the car was sold to a 19 year old Fred Beuss in California. Unsurprisingly for his age, this was the first Rolls-Royce that Buess had owned, but the passion for Rolls-Royce ran in the family as Fred’s father was one of the founding members of the Rolls-Royce Owners’ Club in 1951. Clearly the Piccadilly Roadster left a good impression as Beuss went on to become a renowned collector and restorer of Rolls-Royce cars and retained S77LK for an incredible sixty years until it was bought from his estate in 2009.
In 2013, after a restoration to its original specification by Robin Onsoien of Early Motorcars in California, S77LK was invited to enter the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance whereby it completed the Tour d’Elegance and won second place in its class at the Concours.
In 2015, well known collector Lord Laidlaw acquired and imported S77LK into the UK. He commissioned specialist Allan Glew to carry out mechanical work as needed, install an overdrive, and refinish the car body in red as presented today.
S77LK remains in stunning order and retains its original body, chassis, engine, and gearbox. Its Piccadilly Roadster coachwork is a defining style of the Springfield-built Silver Ghost and indeed of the period. This is a supreme and highly attractive car.
