Full-Bodied Ghost - 2020 AXA Sydney Harbour Concours d’Elegance
If you attended Motorclassica in 2017, you may remember this car, as it was the Best in Show winner that year.
![REPORT - 2020 AXA Sydney Harbour Concours d’Elegance](https://just-prod-assets.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Sydney%20Harbour%20Concours%20D%27El%C3%A9gance-32.jpg?tx1ojI4PeQu0kZOe2FHd7UMK0Yg8peW_)
Fully restored by owner David Berthon over a 15-year period, this 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost London-to-Edinburgh Continental is one of 188 built, of which only six are known to survive today. The model took its name from Rolls-Royce’s victory over arch rival Napier in an RAC-observed test from London to Edinburgh in 1911.
![REPORT - 2020 AXA Sydney Harbour Concours d’Elegance](https://just-prod-assets.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Sydney%20Harbour%20Concours%20D%27El%C3%A9gance-202.jpg?m5.UnIsCQKOolNujRA0GSlYftQ56cDLn)
With engine, transmission and running gear changes made to improve performance, what’s notable with these cars is that they were the only Rolls-Royces to officially enter – and win - a grand prix, albeit the 1913 Spanish Grand Prix, which was closer to an observed trial than a grand prix in the accepted sense.
![REPORT - 2020 AXA Sydney Harbour Concours d’Elegance](https://just-prod-assets.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Sydney%20Harbour%20Concours%20D%27El%C3%A9gance-121.jpg?yNELGYAXAHmrp94s_xTxNRnl3AECzLmD)
This particular car started its life in London with a Connaught Torpedo body and was requisitioned for use by the British Army in World War I. In 1925, it was imported to Australia by a Sydney doctor and fitted with a touring body by Properts’ Motor Body Works in Newtown. In subsequent years, it would be rebodied multiple times and serve as a mourning car for a funeral parlour and even a tow truck before it was abandoned. Rediscovered in the 1960s, the Rolls was fitted with the touring body, produced by Peel’s of Brisbane in the style of a 1913 Sunbeam, that it wears today.
Berthon acquired the car in 2001 and showed admirable devotion and patience over the course of the 15-year-restoration, which was undertaken by two Victorian-based specialists.
A worthy winner in the I.C.B.M. class, this car was also the A Lange & Söhne People’s Choice winner and Best in Show runner-up.