Barn Find, Two Owners: 1915 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Tourer

Wondering what to take to the Pebble Beach Concours a couple years from now? Here’s a likely candidate: this 1915 Silver Ghost tourer by Barker has had only two owners from new, including a single family from 1924. It’s tentatively available here at Paul Hageman’s site, though it appears to have passed through Gooding Christie’s Amelia auction as a no-sale, turning to “pending” after the auction ended. The original estimate rang in at $350k to $450k. The Silver Ghost was a rolling chassis produced by Rolls-Royce from 1905 through 1926 and delivered to the customer’s choice of a few RR-favored coachbuilders. This particular example was bodied by Barker & Co. and, unlike most pre-war Rolls-Royces, it retains most of its original body. (Nearly every known RR of this era has been rebodied at one time or another.)

Note that we said “retains most” of its Barker body: this car was delivered new to Australia, ordered by a prominent rancher. Its second owner purchased the car in 1924, and made a few modifications, including fitting it with a converter so it could run on charcoal, and then, during the Depression, altering the rear of the body to disguise the tourer as a “commercial” – a class of vehicles that was taxed at a lower rate. The car’s rear doors are intact, and their handles remain with the vehicle, but its tail is now capable of hauling considerable cargo volume.

At first, Rolls called its new model after the car’s taxable horsepower – the “40/50 hp”. An automotive journalist christened one particular example from the series (fewer than 8000 were made) the Silver Ghost. It took Rolls until 1925 – after it launched the Phantom – to adopt the name. The matching-numbers engine is a 7.4-liter L-head twin-spark, inline six breathing through a single updraft Rolls carburetor, backed by a four-speed manual. Two-wheel mechanical brakes at the rear were utilized until 1923, when servo-assist became available. The Silver Ghost’s suspension consists of solid front and rear axles augmented by leaf springs – geometry that carried forward to the Phantom, introduced in 1925. Remarkably, despite decades of storage, this car is in running order.

This example is also complete, with all its important bits present and extra parts to boot. By the time this Silver Ghost was sold, Autocar reportedly had anointed the Silver Ghost “the best car in the world” for its quiet and powerful demeanor on the road. The touring body would have originally accommodated four persons.

The car’s condition reflects hard use over decades in its home country, yet it is probably the most original of its kind on the planet. Imported to the US in 2024, it’s ready for a new owner’s vision: will it show up in survivor’s classes, displaying every moment of its well-earned history, or will it be restored to the nines, obviating its blemishes and wiping away its liveliest moments? We’ll have to wait for it to surface again.