1928 Rolls Royce New Phantom chassis no 45wr, body by barker, UK of the Nawab of Bahawalpur, has been driven 7400 miles, and perhaps the best preservation class phantom 1, is now in the keep of the Bashir family of Lahore who have sympathetically recommissioned it.

Series “wr” is among the last of the phantom I cars, superceded by the phantom ii in 1929. Rolls Royce selected two of these aluminum head chassis for the Cairo show. These were sent to the body maker thrupp & maberly (pronounced trup and maberly) a superlative disappearing top tourer on specifications of rr design bureau was constructed in ivory and Nile blue colour on 45wr. Even the chassis was in nile blue instead of black and the car had the lucas p100 db lamps with grebel spot lamps.

The Nawab of Bahawalpur was stopping over at Cairo on way back from London to meet and marry an ottoman princess. He saw the car in the show and bought it. The car was used in Cairo for some months and then shipped to Bahawalpur.

In 1934 the c-in-c of the British army in India and lord Linlithgow, viceroy were to visit Bahawalpur and many Bahawalpur cars including 45wr were sent to UK, to barker & co for fitting with a Pullman limousine de Ville body in beige and black with maroon interior. The car cost the 25-year-old his highness nawab Sadiq Muhammad Abbasi v, ruler of Bahawalpur a princely sum of £2150 plus another £ 900 for the new body.

The car was extensively used for royal visits before being laid up in the motorkhana. It is all original including paint and is in full working order.

The car has a 6 cylinder petrol engine of 7800 cc with 12 volt electric system. It has two electric ignition systems, one magneto power and the other battery powered and each has its own set of sparking plugs.. The car can operate with any one iginition system working but both are used in normal driving. The main carburetor is fed by a vacuum tank. There is a small starting carburetor instead of a choke. The four speed manual gear box is not synchromesh and double de clutching is required for all changes. The 1st gear is not used except for starting off on a slope. The engine temperature is manually controlled by opening or closing the radiator shutters. The steering has controls for ignition timing, carburetor mixture and engine speed governor. The gear box is not attached to the engine and has a flex coupling. A dry plate clutch with an enclosed torque tube drive is used. It has gearbox driven brake servo for the manual brakes. There is a fuel gauge mounted on the tank only. The tyre size is 5 x 33 on 23 inch rims. Rear tyre pressure is 60 psi , front 45 psi.

Owner Name:
Amer Ahmad