Rolls-Royce Phantom V Sedan, 1961
Rolls-Royce Phantom, V
Rolls-Royce Phantom, V•
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Chassis No.: 5BV61PV30B
Auction: Kissimmee 2025
Auction date: January 19, 2025
Lot No.: J203
$82,500 | Sold
- Odometer: 6,270 miles
- Engine: V-8
- Transmission: Automatic
- Exterior: Blue
- Interior: Gray
- Body: Sedan
- Right-hand drive
- 6230cc V-8 engine
- Automatic transmission
- Blue exterior
- Gray interior
Even with a 1961 list price of $27,617, and getting on for three times the sticker price of the most expensive Cadillac one could buy, there was no doubt the few who could afford a Rolls-Royce Phantom V limousine got a lot of car for the money. The preceding Phantom IV had been something of an austerity model, but that could not be said of the considerably larger 1959 Phantom V, which rode on a 145-inch wheelbase and measured a full 238 inches in length, as sure a sign as any the good times were coming back and that the ‘60s were about to get into full swing.
Power came from the new Rolls-Royce 6230cc V-8 driving through a 4-speed automatic transmission; with a lower final-drive, this very large car could whisk occupants along at 100 MPH or make stately progress at ceremonial speed. John Lennon bought his first Phantom V in 1964 before he’d learned to drive and outraged the establishment by painting it in a psychedelic gypsy wagon livery. His second was in more muted white. Heads of state and landed aristocrats were also customers, but many went to the winners in the world of finance, industry and commerce.
Liveried in a stately deep blue, this 1961 right-hand drive example has the seven-seater layout (with jump seats) and all the amenities of a better country club with a drinks cabinet, leather upholstery, deep wool carpets and furniture trim and fittings in the finest wood veneers. For discretion and privacy, the Phantom V’s even had an electric-powered glass division. Through to 1968, a total of 832 hand-built Phantom Vs were produced, some to better tastes than others. England’s Queen Elizabeth used two, which served as vehicles of state until their retirement in 2002 and are now on museum display.
It’s not recorded what Her Majesty thought of Elton John’s pink one, nor of Liberace’s mirrored glass finish on his, but she would have surely approved of the modest restraint with which this one presents itself. Whether at a red-carpet destination or en route, it announces with quiet self-assured confidence that you truly have arrived and in more style than some of today’s less discrete limousines.
https://www.mecum.com/lots/1134471/1961-rolls-royce-phantom-v-sedan/
Cost
302,982 AED
