Background
Rolls-Royce came early to America. In 1906, C.S. Rolls himself brought three cars to race at New York's Empire City track. An exhibit at the annual auto show followed, where three cars were sold.
In 1913, a New York depot was set up with coachbuilders Brewster & Co., who bodied the majority of the imported chassis. In 1919, Rolls acquired a factory in Springfield, Massachusetts, and began to manufacture the Silver Ghost.
In addition to Brewster, American Rolls-Royces were bodied by many other prestige coachbuilders, a number of them under the hallmark of "Rolls-Royce Custom Coach Work" – or RRCCW, for short.
Included in this bevy of eastern craftsmanship were such companies as Biddle & Smart, Willoughby, Merrimac and Holbrook.
In order to have cars ready for customers who wished to buy "off the showroom floor," a range of standard designs was prepared, to be executed by the aforementioned firms. Included were the Pall Mall tourer, Oxford seven-passenger tourer, Piccadilly Roadster and Mayfair and Riviera town cars.
Initially the same as its British counterpart, the Springfield Silver Ghost chassis evolved over the years to adapt to its adopted country.
First were component substitutions; American Bosch ignition in place of the Watford magneto, American wheels replacing Dunlops and eventually all electrical equipment was of local manufacture.
By 1924, six-volt electrics had been adopted, and the following year the chassis was reconfigured for left-hand drive.
At the same time, the four-speed, right-hand-shifted gearbox gave way to an American-style three-speed with centre change.
In its infancy, the automotive industry was an environment where engineering and design were rapidly evolving. While motor cars by competing manufacturers proved to be crude and quickly showing age, it was Rolls-Royce's Silver Ghost that solidified the company's reputation for producing reliable vehicles that were precisely engineered and delivered with exceptional attention to detail.
The Silver Ghost remained in production in England until 1925 and at Rolls-Royce's Springfield plant in the USA until 1926, the longest production run of any model from that celebrated company.
