1936 Rolls Royce 20/25

SOLD

The Rolls Royce 20/25 entered production in 1929 and was intended to appeal to a new market for Rolls Royce. The 20/25, the replacement to the popular but aging Rolls Royce 20HP, was intended to be a small 'town' car. It was intended to bring people outside of Rolls Royce's existing customer base into Rolls Royce dealers, those of a slightly lower class than the average Rolls Royce customer, who drove themselves ('owner drivers' as Rolls Royce called them).

However, the brand's prestige image in the public's eye didn't seem to allow a lower-class car and as such the car was still bought mainly by the chauffeur-driven upper classes. Powered by an enlarged version of the 6-cylinder overhead valve engine used in the 20HP, displacement was 3699cc and the engine used a single carburetor. The car uses a four-speed gear box with the gear changes being done with the drivers right hand, as was the norm at the time. Only RHD cars were manufactured until the early 1950s. The car featured the classic Rolls Royce radiator grill with the triangular top and the famous 'Spirit of Ecstacy' logo. However, this grill used a thermostat to automatically rotate the slats in the grill, allowing more air when needed, quite a novelty at the time. Although the car's large engine allowed a top speed of 75mph, quite impressive at the time, most owners had expensive, after-market limousine coach bodies.

This very desirable limousine has the benefit of a glass division and is fitted with a supplementary trunk to the rear. It has just passed the ridged UK MOT inspection and is running very sweetly. It drives amazingly smooth, is tight, and starts immediately upon pressing the starter button. I recently drove it from near Birmingham to Southampton where she was put on the ship for delivery to the United States. She now sits safely in my garage after having won first place in its division at the British Invasion in Stowe, Vt. The last picture shows us getting the award at the main stand.