1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Tourer

When the Phantom III was unveiled at the 1935 Olympia Motor Show it was the most technically advanced car in the world; many believe it was the best car ever made.

Rolls-Royce's answer to its American competitors during the cylinder was of the 1920's and 1930's was the V-12 Phantom III. Initially dubbed 'Spectre', the PIII was Rolls-Royce's first car with independent front suspension along with hydraulically adjustable shock absorbers and an on-board jacking system. The chassis alone cost the equivalent of nearly $10,000 in the United States. Just 719 (possibly as few as 710), all with custom coachwork, were produced through 1939.

Historical records show that on February 29, 1936, Allied Motors, Ltd. of Bombay ordered this custom car Built for the Shah of Bhopal, Nawab Hamidullah Khan. He was the twelfth Nawab, having succeeded his mother in 1926. The Nawab's family owned several Silver Ghosts, a Phantom I Hooper Cabriolet, and a Bentley 4 1/4-liter H.J. Mulliner Drophead Coupe. It is one of three roadsters built on the Phantom III chassis and sports lovely one-off coachwork by Thrupp & Maberly. It was later sold to Maharajadhiraj Singh of Patiala who gave the vehicle to his niece as a wedding present. The current owners, identical twins, purchased the car from her in October 1963 for $1,250 following an assignment in the Peace Corps while in India. They embarked upon a 6-day driving journey to Bombay (averaging 6mpg) where the car was loaded on a ship to London, England and then on to Newark, New Jersey. The car was then put in storage where it remained until 1974. An exhaustive restoration began in June of 1976 and was completed in July 2010. Today the odometer reads just 39,000 miles from new.