The year is 1913 in the month of May, the year when James Radley set off from Brown’s Hotel in London’s Mayfair for the 1913 Alpine Trial. He was driving the original Ghost-the Silver Ghost and his words are hard to forget;
“We must have a bottle to christen her. Here, John, just fetch a bottle of ‘The Widow’, will you? And there outside Brown’s was duly christened, and a glass of champagne was poured into my radiator.”
Back to the present, its exactly one century since that rally, and Rolls-Royce want to redo it all over again. You now understand fully why the 2013 Rolls-Royce Ghost Alpine Trial Centenary Edition was important. It will run against other Silver Ghosts when this day come; think of it as reincarnation of the dead who are required to perform a spell!
The rally will take place in June, more than 40 Silver Ghosts some over a century old will join the new model in the rally. They will travel over 1,800 miles of Alpine roads starting from Vienna on 14 June, and will pass through Italy, Croatia and Slovenia before returning to Vienna where they will have a specila evening hosted by Margraf Pallavicini at his Palais
When the rally starts, they will stop over at Riva Del Garda, Italy on Friday 21 June. Here a Rolls-Royce club will have prepared 100 historic Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts to assemble in sign of a century’s celebration of the Alpine Trial. The Silver Ghosts really did well in the Alpine Trial of 1913 and were named ‘The Best Car in the World’.
The Rolls-Royce Ghost Alpine Trial Centenary Edition was created to commemorate the day when four original Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts embarked on the Austrian Alpine Trials. The Rolls-Royce Ghost Alpine Trial Centenary Edition consequently becomes the first bespoke Rolls-Royce to have been inspired by a heritage car produced by the British company and features a selection of unique interior and exterior components which separate it from the standard Rolls-Royce Ghost.
Inside you find that the clock displays the stages of the rally and timings, whilst inlays to rear picnic tables and the front fascia express the topography and distances of the Alpine route. There is the hand-painted coachline referencing the four Rolls-Royce motor cars that took part in the rally and headlining, color-matched to the hood of Radley’s car.
the Ghost looks surprisingly good in that color (al thani blue :P).