The modern Rolls-Royce Phantom is the automaker’s flagship luxury car, partly because of its pedigree from predecessors like the 1930 model seen in this episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
It is one of many impressive classic cars in California’s Nethercutt Collection, and it is also one of 25 examples with bodies by New York coachbuilder Brewster. This has the so-called city car configuration, with an open cockpit at the front and a closed passenger compartment at the back.
What also sets this car apart are the reed-like details on the rear doors. It took a father-and-son team a month to reproduce this during the car’s restoration, Cameron Richards, vice president of Nethercutt Collection, says in the video. Rolls-Royce still integrates these kinds of intricate details into modern, bespoke builds like the Phantom Syntopia, which features a complex iridescent paint job.
The Phantom has a 150-inch wheelbase and weighs about 7,000 pounds, according to Richards. All that weight is moved by an overhead-valve inline-6 that produces about 120 horsepower, mated to a 4-speed manual transmission. That’s not great for the time, but not bad either, says Richards, who adds that a healthy amount of torque makes the car quite drivable.
Like the 1923 McFarlan Model 154 from the Nethercutt Collection, owned by comedian “Fatty” Arbuckle, this Phantom has a piece of Hollywood history. Actress Constance Bennett bought it from the original owner in 1936 and kept it until her husband lost it in a poker game in 1948.
It was also rented out as a movie prop at one point for $250 a day, which was more than most actors were making at the time, Richards says.
Leno and Richards consider the Phantom a comfortable cruiser, but not as fast as the Duesenbergs this car would have been compared to at the time. That’s appropriate given Rolls-Royce’s traditional emphasis on comfort over speed, and the relatively primitive brakes aren’t up to the task of quick stops anyway.