This is a gorgeous 1925 Rolls-Royce Springfield Silver Ghost Pall Mall Phaeton that has been shown at Europe’s leading concours event at Villa d’Este as well as participating on many tours.  With a known history from new, donning its original beautiful phaeton coachwork and engine, this is a no excuses Silver Ghost that can be enjoyed on tours or at concours events.  Being a later LHD Ghost, this benefits from the more advanced technology and has been set up well for reliable touring.  Silver Ghosts are without a doubt, one of the most enjoyable and impressive motorcars of the period and this example doesn’t disappoint.

According to the factory records, S138MK was delivered new with its Merrimac built Pall Mall phaeton body number M-1244.  The body plate is still on the Rolls and is shown in the photo gallery along with the 200 photos.  Engine number 22564 was installed and is still in the Rolls today, the engine number is also shown in the photo gallery.

S138MK was originally delivered to Houston and used as the Rolls-Royce Trials Car on June 30, 1925.  By May 14, 1928, S138MK had found its first owner, Mr. Paul E. Zehe, where it was delivered to his sprawling estate in New Rochelle, NY.  Mr. Zehe enjoyed the Rolls for the next 16 years until it was acquired by Mr. Thomas A Herbert of NYC and then to Lawrence Dame, the Art Editor of The Boston Herald.  S138MK’s next caretaker was Mr. Thomas Petzold of Grosse Pointe Park, MI and Palm Beach, FL.  Mr. Petzold acquired the Pall Mall on February 11, 1954 and enjoyed it for the next 24 years until it was acquired by Michael Gertner, Esq. of Newport Beach, CA.  Mr. Gertner entered into the 1979 RROC Annual Meeting concours in Monterey, CA where it earned a place award.  The Rolls had accumulated about 75,000 miles from new.  Mr. Gertner continued to restore and improve the Ghost through his 13 years of ownership until it was acquired by Walter Steinemann of Morschwil, Switzerland.  Mr. Steinemann was a longtime RREC board member and was the editor of the highly acclaimed “Alpine Eagle” magazine.  He had about 27 Rolls-Royces and Bentleys in his collection.

In 2007, Mr. Steinemann entered the Ghost in the 1,000 mile 7E RAID tour from Switzerland to Paris.  The Ghost performed beautifully.  By 2009, Mr. Steinemann entered S138MK in the Concours D’Elegance at Villa d’Este, arguably Europe’s most prestigious concours event.  The link to his entry is here: Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost | Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este (concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com)

From Klaus-Josef Roßfeldt in Germany:  “Apart from photos of  S138MK that occasionally appeared in ‘Alpine Eagle’, the magazine of the Swiss Section of the RREC this particular car is shown repeatedly (e.g. pages 4 and 6) in the book “Faszination auf Rädern – Rolls-Royce & Bentley” >>Fascination on Wheels – RR & Bentley<< by Walter Steinemann, Moerschwil, Switzerland. The book was published in 2002 as a limited edition with a print-run of 1,500 copies.  Walter Steinemann devoted pages 84 and 85 of his book to show 5 further photos of what obviously has been one of his favorite motor cars. A further photo is found page 373.  Walter Steinemann had another book “Rolls-Royce – Der beste Wagen der Welt” published in 1990, too. That was of smaller size with only 80+ pages and merely B&W photos were shown. My check showed two photos of S138MK did appear in that tome, page 13.”

The livery is finished in a beautiful Dove Gray that is complemented by all nickel-plated accessories, lights and the iconic Rolls-Royce Grill.  The Dove Gray is accented with red and a double black coachstripe that runs the length of the Ghost.  The paint has a wonderful shine and luster.  There is a small amount of damage near the passenger side front fender near the side mount spare that can easily be corrected.  The wire spoke wheels are painted red to mirror the beautiful red leather interior and are donned with now nearly ancient wide white walled tires ready to be replaced with new black walled tires (we were so tempted to replace them with black walled tires but decided to let the new owner do so).  The black canvas convertible top looks handsome and is in excellent condition.  The Ghost is well accessorized with two tonneau covers, one for the rear passenger’s compartment and one for the driver’s compartment.  These are crucial for touring as it allows you to pile in the luggage and ancillary articles on tours.  The rear has the luggage rack with its original trunk that contains two trays full of Rolls-Royce tools, the wheel wrench, hammer and spares.  The luggage trunk has a black canvas cover.  The Boush & Lomb Optical Co. headlight lenses are perfect and look terrific.

The interior is highlighted with its beautiful red leather which looks as new.  It is soft and supple and is comfortable and tight fitting.  The matching red Wilton wool carpeting also looks great and matches perfectly the leather.  The interior overall is gorgeous and in excellent condition.  The dashboard is very original, and all of the instruments and gauges work as expected except the clock.  The speedometer is set to kph presently as an overlay over the original mph.  The wood graining on the dash could be refinished.  It is well oiled, but the graining is heavy.  We show numerous photos in the photo gallery.

The engine compartment is gorgeous.  The venerable and massive 7.4-liter six-cylinder engine is very quiet and has incredible oil pressure of 22-25 pounds.  The operating temperature was fantastic, ranging from 140 to 160 degrees, in 95 degrees Fahrenheit ambient temperature here in Phoenix!  All of the instruments work well except the clock.  We show about six miles of touring in the Ghost in our test drive videos, all performed in 95-degree weather.

This Ghost has been well set up for touring.  Most of the chassis lubrication fittings have been replaced with modern Zirk fittings to make lubrication easy.  It has also been fitted with front and rear turn signals and additional lighting.  Luckily, being a late LHD Springfield chassis, this Ghost has a centralized lubrication system that makes normal use ten times easier than an older Ghost.  Included in the trunk are the wheel wrench, proper lubrication syringe, hammer, spare spark plugs and two full trays of period tools.

We have this Silver Ghost priced very fairly.  This is a very rare occasion to have a repatriated Ghost reenter the US market after such esteemed existence.  She comes complete with the spirit of ecstasy mascot as well as the parking cap.  Also included is the owner’s manual specifically for the LHD Springfield Silver Ghost and the two tonneau covers, tools and spares mentioned earlier.

For more information and details, please call or text Harry Clark at +1.602.245.7200 or email us at sales@classicpromenade.com.  The Ghost is available for inspection at our Phoenix showroom.  We are pleased to offer FaceTime or WhatsApp live video inspections and we help coordinate shipping worldwide. We also have financing partners if you are interested in financing.