Rolls-Royce has recently embarked upon a bold new chapter in its long history with the first deliveries of the Spectre, its inaugural electric model. However, these silent luxury leviathans are not the first use of the Spectre name. Perhaps in keeping with their more environmentally friendly nature, they have recycled their supernatural title from earlier Rolls-Royces that represented an equally significant leap forward in technology and evolution during the 1930s.
The 10 experimental Spectres of 1934-37 were constructed to prove the new V12 engine partly designed by Sir Henry Royce, as well as other features of the Phantom III, in an attempt to wrest back the accolade of 'The Best Car in the World' from American upstarts such as Cadillac, Packard, Lincoln and Pierce-Arrow, as well as European rivals such Hispano-Suiza. But the Spectre was also Royce's last significant project… and one he wouldn't live long enough to see through to completion.
The Spectre name goes back even further than these immediate pre-World War II prototypes, to a 40/50hp chassis completed in 1910. Following on from 1907's The Silver Ghost (which would subsequently lend its designation as a collective catch-all for all 40/50hp models), The Silver Spectre was built as a trials and demonstrator car in August 1910. It remained with Rolls-Royce until 1915, after which it was sold to the War Office and ultimately ended up with a firm of motor engineers in Sheffield in 1933. Beyond that, nothing else is known about it.
At the same time that this original Spectre faded into the ether,money to afford its smoother and more powerful V12 competitors. For Rolls-Royce to keep up, it would need its own twelve-cylinder model.
