Rolls-Royce 20hp Tourer (pre-production 'Goshawk' prototype)

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“I have discussed your chassis in some detail with John [Fasal] and we both agree that your chassis without question is the oldest Rolls-Royce 20hp extant” – Robert K Slee, November 2000.

To find the remains of an ancient vehicle slumbering in a barn is exciting enough for any car lover, but when that vehicle turns out to be a long lost artefact of historical importance, the thrill is all the greater. When this Rolls-Royce chassis was first discovered by the vendor in 1982 he did not realise there was anything particularly remarkable about it and sold it on a couple of years later without a second thought.

Fourteen years then passed during which time the vendor, by now a committed Rolls-Royce 20 enthusiast, had owned a whole string of these fine cars and got to know them inside out. So when he next stumbled across the chassis he had sold all those years before, he immediately noticed that there was something intriguing about it. And the more he looked, the more intriguing it got, sparking off years of painstaking research which culminated in the chassis being officially recognised for what it was: the oldest Rolls-Royce 20 in existence.

Chassis number 6G2 is one of seven experimental chassis built in 1922 and codenamed ‘Goshawk’ that were used to develop a new, smaller Rolls-Royce more suited to a straitened post-war world in which the extravagant Silver Ghost had become something of a dinosaur.

It was originally fitted with HJ Mulliner Open Touring coachwork and carried the registration number CH2927. Christened ‘Cinderella’ by the test team, it was extensively trialled in England and France, racking up some 20,000 miles until it was pensioned off in October 1925 and sold to a G Palgrave-Brown of Suffolk. These facts are detailed by Ian Rimmer in his 1986 book ‘Rolls-Royce and Bentley Experimental Cars’ which also shows a photograph of 6G2 on test in the South of France in April 1922 with 4G2 (which we reproduce here – 6G2 on the left).

Palgrave-Brown kept the car until at least the late 1940s, shortly after which it more or less vanished from view and was widely assumed to have been scrapped, 4G2 subsequently being awarded the mantle of ‘oldest surviving 20hp’, an honour which it held for many years until 6G2 was officially recognised as the rightful claimant to this title in 2000.

The precise details of how 6G2 was finally identified are too complex to list in full here, but were the result of years of research and forensic enquiry that are amply covered in the large history file that accompanies the vehicle. Correspondence from renowned Rolls-Royce experts John Fasal, Robert Slee and Mike Worthington-Williams corroborate the truth of 6G2’s identity which was reunited with its original number (CH 2927) in 2000 and has been on display in the vendor’s private museum of Rolls-Royce motorcars for the past 14 years.

As the original coachwork has long since disappeared, the car is currently loosely fitted with a tourer body of uncertain origin (possibly Alvis). It is impossible to know which engine 6G2 was originally fitted with as Rolls-Royce factory records do not list engine numbers fitted to any of the ‘Goshawk’ experimental cars. It is now fitted with engine G171 which is recorded as being fitted to chassis 44G7 in 1922 and is thus contemporary with the frame. The gearbox, starter, axles and fully rebuilt beaded edge wheels are also contemporary, as is the radiator with early type shutters and correct rounded edge profile so the chassis is complete but not running.

It also comes with an original 20hp Instruction Manual and various spares including an engine block, front road springs, windscreen parts, the original floorboards and various other smaller items such as HJ Mulliner tread plates and Dunlop wheel removal tools. A current V5C registration document and the aforementioned history file are also present.

Altogether a unique opportunity to acquire an important piece of Rolls-Royce history that should amply reward the restoration that it now requires and will doubtless open many doors to its fortunate new owner and attract invitations to many prestigious events once completed.