October 2011 - Royal Automobile Club

Club member Nick Naismith saw
two years of hard work come
together when, in the early hours
of Sunday 11 September, 16
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts
assembled on Pall Mall. The cars
had gathered to recreate an
historic endurance challenge from
the pioneer days of motoring.
A hundred years earlier, Silver
Ghost chassis 1701 set off from
London with four passengers and
their luggage to drive from
London to Edinburgh and back
– a total of 799 miles – using
nothing but top gear throughout.
This epic adventure was an
attempt to prove to the rival
Napier marque that Rolls-Royce
truly did build the best car in the
world and, as a result, the trial’s
performance and fuel
consumption was monitored by
the R AC. Recreating the original
run on its 100th anniversary,
chassis 1701 took pride of place at
the head of the 15 Ghosts. Nick
explains what happened next.
70 | October 2011 | Issue 136
What prompted you to recreate
the Silver Ghost’s epic reliability
run? How did it come together?
It was just such an important
centenary to mark, Rolls-Royce
really came of age through this
achievement. You have to
remember that, at the time,
relatively few people really trusted
the motor car as a reliable
alternative to horse-drawn travel.
Driving from London to
Edinburgh and back comfortably,
reliably and with acceptable fuel
consumption really challenged the
idea that cars were simply a
novelty or fad and gave Rolls-
Royce an opportunity to showcase
the Silver Ghost.
Were there times when
attempting to recreate the trial
seemed a hard task to complete?
The event was organised for the
20-Ghost Club, the oldest
Rolls-Royce club in the world.
Everyone involved in putting the
event together shared a common
intrigue – how did they achieve
such a feat? And how could we
hope to repeat it? We managed to
draw 15 Silver Ghosts together.
Many came from overseas – the
original car, 1701, travelled across
from Spain and we had other cars
arriving from Switzerland,
Portugal and Hong Kong. It was a
step into the unknown for
everyone, but I don’t think anyone
would have missed it for the world.
The 1911 run was a landmark for
Rolls-Royce. What were the
final results that 1701 recorded
originally and how did your
performance compare?
The 1911 result showed 24.4mpg
was achieved at an average of 19.8
mph – remembering that the
speed limit at the time was
20mph! For our run 1701 recorded
13.6 mpg but at a much higher
average speed – which is either a
case of exercising greater caution
in 2011 or some poetic licence
being made in 1911!
photographs: coUrtEsY oF roLLs-roYcE. words NIcK garttoN