1915 Rolls-Royce 40/50 HP Silver Ghost

In 1906, Rolls-Royce built four chassis to be shown at the Olympia Motor Show in London, including two examples of a new car initially designated the 40/50 HP. The car that gave the model its now much more well-known name was AX201 (with chassis 6BD), which was the twelfth 40/50 hp built. It was painted in aluminum paint with silver-plated fittings and was nicknamed the 'Silver Ghost' to emphasize its ghost-like quietness. This Silver Ghost was privately entered in the prestigious 1912 Austrian Alpine Trial by its first owner, James Radley. Rolls-Royce prepared a factory team of four cars for the 1913 event, and the team gained six awards, including the Archduke Leopold Cup. Replicas of the victorious cars were put into production and sold officially as Continental models, but they were called Alpine Eagles by chief test driver Ernest Hives, and this is the name that they have kept ever since.