1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II

Henry Royce passed away in 1933, making the Rolls-Royce Phantom II the last model he ever designed. The Phantom II was introduced in September of 1929 and served as a replacement for the New Phantom, which would later become known as the Phantom I. The 'New Phantom' had replaced the Silver Ghost which had been in production since 1906. By 1925, it had reached the limits of its development, but a new chassis had not been built sot the car was upgraded by the installation of a new engine and dubbed the New Phantom. In many ways, the six-cylinder overhead valve engine was similar to Rolls-Royce's other current model, the Twenty, but its displacement measured 7,668cc, nearly twice the capacity of the 3,127cc of the Twenty.

The New Phantom had been prepared in secrecy, with the development car code-named EAC, which stood for Eastern Armoured Car. Ernest Hives, who was in charge of development, reinforced the rouse by leaving pieces of armor plating around the factory.

In 1929, the Twenty and the New Phantom were replaced by new models, with the Twenty's replacement dubbed the 25/30, and the Phantom retrospectively called the Phantom I after the launch of the Phantom II. The Phantom II brought with it improvements and styling changes throughout the vehicle, including the chassis. The 7668cc engine was about the only thing that was not changed. The cantilever springs in the Phantom I was replaced with semi-elliptic units which helped the chassis ride much lower to the ground, thus improving performance, especially through corners. The gearbox was mounted directly to the engine and had synchromesh on the top two speeds. The Phantom II adopted the central chassis lubrication system in use by the Rolls-Royce operation in Springfield, Massachusetts.

For numerous reasons, the Phantom II was never put into production in North America, though a series of left-hand drive chassis were built by the Derby factory from 1931 through 1934. 116 examples were sent to the United States, three to Canada, and six to Europe. In total, there were 1680 examples of the Phantom II constructed.

The Continental version of the Phantom II was designed for customers seeking a prestigious automobile that offered high-speed touring capabilities with the highest levels of comfort and quality. They rested on a shortened chassis and were equipped with a specially tuned engine and revised suspension. In total, just 278 of the 1,680 Phantom II chassis built between 1929 and 1936 were to Continental specification.

by Daniel Vaughan | Sep 2019