• Make: Rolls Royce
• Model: Phantom III
• Year: 1937
• Price: £185,000

1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III Barker Sporting Saloon with division.

Chassis number 3BU190
Registration number DXX128

Just out of a stem to stern restoration. This car was entered in the concours at this year's RREC Rockingham Castle event & came away with two prizes: a first & a second.

It is not an understatement to say that absolutely everything has been done:

The interior has new leather & carpets throughout. The wood work has all been removed & refinished to the correct level of gloss, rather than the over polished glass like finishes one so often sees. New headlining was also put in & the car rewired. The car has been repainted in its original colours of smoke grey over dove grey after the body was stripped to bare metal.

Massive engine work was undertaken:

Engine removed from the chassis and completely dismantled,
Crankshaft reground, main bearings line bored and re-metalled.
Camshaft re-profiled.
Both cylinder heads reconditioned and skimmed.
All new cylinder liners. Existing pistons retained with new rings as they were still standard size.
Carburettor rebuilt including new bowl.
Water pump rebuilt and radiator overhauled.
Ignition system rebuilt with new distributor caps and original mushroom coils.

The car is still at the running-in stage, having covered just a few hundred miles since the rebuild. One has to see the engine idling to appreciate the uncanny smoothness of these V12s when in as-new condition. One may count the individual fan blades as the engine imperceptibly turns over.

Numerous other works were carried out at the same time, far too extensive to list here. Suffice to say the car is in concours condition; (not a term I use lightly) - & has proved it with its recent prizes awarded.

The body is a swept tail sporting saloon by Barker. It was a trials car (demonstrator) at the RR London showrooms, subsequently being sold to Mr Garfield Weston, the Canadian founder of Associated British Foods, where his grandson George is still the CEO. The car boasts a huge sunroof for semi open air motoring. Walnut picnic tables are fitted for use of the rear passengers.

The car is in the current owner's motor house on the Pennines, 15 miles west of Sheffield, & may be viewed there by appointment.