In designing the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, Sir Henry Royce had the objective to create a quiet, reliable, smooth-running automobile and he was monumentally successful.  Hailed as 'The Best Car in the World' Rolls-Royce created a standard which no other car manufacturer could equal at the time and which few have ever surpassed since.  

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The Rolls-Royce 40/50 model to give it its correct name, refers to the 40/50 hp chassis that was initially manufactured at Royce's Manchester works in 1906, with production moving to Derby in July 1908, and also, between 1921 and 1926, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

 

Chassis no. 60551, registered AX 201, was the first car that was originally given the name "Silver Ghost." Other 40/50 hp cars were also given names, but the Silver Ghost title was taken up by the press, and soon all 40/50s were called by the Silver Ghost name, a fact not officially recognised by Rolls-Royce until 1925, when the Phantom range was launched. 

 

The Silver Ghost was the origin of Rolls-Royce's claim of making the "Best Car in the World" – a phrase coined not by themselves, but by the prestigious publication Autocar in 1907. 

 

The Silver Ghost is an amazing motorcar, fully justified in its title as the world’s best car in 1907 and a motorcar which astonishes new owners even today with its high level of comfort and driveability over great distances.

 

The chassis and engine were so strong that they were also used as the basis of a range of Rolls-Royce Armoured Cars which served in the First and Second World Wars.