When the Phantom was first produced, it was a coach-built automobile. Coachbuilding was a course of the place an auto producer would produce a automobile’s chassis, engine, transmission, and wheels, then ship that ‘rolling chassis’ off to another person to complete the job. This method, patrons might have the automobile’s physique constructed nevertheless they needed. As a end result, a number of the rarest and most sought-after Rolls-Royces ever had been produced in the course of the early Phantom days.

Phantoms obtained numerical designation, so, naturally, the primary Phantom was known as the Phantom I. When the Phantom II rolled round in 1929, Rolls-Royce was able to increase the providing. There was a performance-oriented Phantom Continental II mannequin with a shorter wheelbase and an enormous 7.3-liter V12 engine, with a prime pace of 95 mph – not very quick by fashionable requirements however formidable for its day.

The coachbuilding business dwindled significantly through the years, with just one coachbuilder left by 1968 — Rolls-Royce’s in-house firm, Mulliner Park Ward. Still, Rolls-Royce continued to supply Phantoms till 1992, spanning 4 extra generations, as much as the Phantom VI. In these first 67 years, Rolls-Royce produced automobiles for essentially the most prestigious prospects, together with British royalty, with prospects together with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Harry, who got here to his marriage ceremony in a Rolls.