A Silver Ghost Returns from the Dead.(Escape Roads)

Byline: JOHN F. KATZ

Even Rolls-Royce enthusiasts can't agree where Rolls went wrong. Was the last truly great Roller the Silver Cloud? Or the Silver Wraith? Even the magnificent Phantom III already betrayed the tendency toward needless complication that culminated in the controversial Silver Shadow of 1965.

On the other hand, no one doubts it was the 40/50 H.P. model of 1907-25 that established the Rolls-Royce reputation as "the best car made in the world.'' Factory manager Claude Johnson built one special 40/50 with sterling-silver trim, ordered a Barker touring body painted metallic silver, and drove the Silver Ghost 15,000 trouble-free (and widely publicized) miles. To a very impressed public, all 40/50s became "Silver Ghosts,'' even if it took the factory a bit longer to warm to the idea.

The 40/50's pioneering inline six grew from 7.0 liters to 7.4 liters in 1909, suspension and transmission were revised several times, and electric starting was standardized after the Great War. Four-wheel brakes arrived in mid-1924 (in Britain, but not America), along with a gearbox-driven friction servo licensed from Hispano-Suiza.

In November 1923, one Mathias Astoreca, who maintained homes in London, Paris and Santiago, Chili, purchased 40/50 chassis No. 23EM, with the understanding it would be updated with four-wheel brakes as soon as they became available. Astoreca's brother had purchased Rolls' Paris show car, a cabriolet by Million-Guiet, a year or so before, and Mathias arranged with the Barker coachworks to have that body refitted to his new chassis.

Astoreca drove 23EM extensively in Britain and on the Continent before he died in January 1926. His widow then shipped the Rolls to Santiago, where its history clouds over until 1972-when it was found as a stripped and rusted hulk that had been used to haul fruit on the Valpariso waterfront.

That began yet another odyssey for 23EM. Its new owner sent it to Australia, where vintage coachbuilder Peter Lamb replicated a Barker touring body for the ...