V.E.V. Miscellany, August 1966

According to The Birmingham Post an 84-year-old consulting surgeon still runs the 40/50 Rolls-Royce he bought in 1920. It has a specially-built touring body-and has covered approximately 300,000 miles. The owner and his wife mixed the grey paint in which it is finished on the premises of the Birmingham coachbuilders who made the body and every year the car is driven from Ross-shire to Rolls-Royce’s London Service Depot to be “dusted.” No one, except the R.-R. mechanics, has ever driven it, apart from its owner, who used to take his operating table, nurse and anaesthetist in the car to the houses of private patients. It is said that he is the only R.-R. customer permitted to enter the workshops while servicing is in progress. The only time this Silver Ghost broke down was in 1956, due to metal fatigue in the back axle, but a replacement arrived four days later. The owner considers open touring cars delightful and the latest Rolls-Royce products “as ugly as sin. No dignity about them. . .”