1928 Rolls Royce Phantom 1 shooting brake comes to the market
Here at The Steeple Times we love unusual shooting brakes and in a 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1, we’ve discovered an especially fantastic one.
Last marketed in January 2012 with a guide of £250,000 at the Bonhams Paris sale, the car, which the Mail Online described as the “lovechild of a garden shed and an exclusive 1920s Rolls Royce”, is now on the market with Essex based Vintage & Prestige Fine Motorcars at a price of £159,000.
The 8-litre fully restored shooting brake was owned by The Rt. Hon. G. Fryer between 1928 and 1939 and then either loaned or commandeered by the RAF during the Second World War. It was at this time that the rear part of the original saloon body by Knibbs of Manchester was replaced with the existing mahogany estate section by a firm of coachbuilders named Weavers.
Registered as a commercial vehicle, the shooting brake was allowed a higher petrol ration and was used to carry engineers, pilots and tools to stricken planes. It passed, after the war, into the ownership of a former Gaiety Girl named Mirabel Topham (1891 – 1980). In her role as chairman of Tophams, owners of Aintree racecourse, this former actress used the Rolls-Royce shooting brake as a safety car for both horse and motor racing. It remained in the ownership of her family until 1984.
Featuring a patinated brown leather interior with seven seats in three rows and further seating at the rear, this unusual vehicle would make the most wonderful talking point on any shoot. It certainly should shoot to the top of any wealthy gun’s want list this season.
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