The significance of the Rolls-Royce Phantom III

People have a tendency When you see an actor take on his first high-profile role, you assume he becomes an overnight success. This is not the case. His success is earned over many years, which many people never realize, and culminates in his appearance in a blockbuster film. The Rolls-Royce Phantom III may be an iconic part of the James Bond film series, as it was the villain’s car in 1964’s Goldfinger, but it achieved much more in the years before it hit the big screen.

According to Rolls-Royce, as early as the early 1930s, Sir Henry Royce realized that the company’s I6 engine was approaching the limits of technology. He also realized that more powerful V8, V12, and V16 engines produced by American automakers posed a threat to the company. To ensure Rolls-Royce’s relevance, he developed a 7.3-liter V12 engine for the Phantom III, which was launched in 1936 and produced until 1939, the last car developed by Royce before his death in 1933. Not only was this the company’s first V12 engine, but it was also shorter and more powerful than the 7.6-liter inline-six used in the Phantom II, with 165 horsepower.

The new V12 engine benefits other parts of Phantom III as well. It is shorter, allowing for a shorter bonnet and a wider passenger compartment. Everyone on board enjoys reduced noise, vibration and pitch, while the ride is improved by another Rolls-Royce first: independent front suspension.

Rolls-Royce only built 710 Phantom IIIs. One of them, a 1937 Sedanca de Ville (aka Town Car), was originally custom-built for Huttleston Rogers Broughton, who was born in the United States but immigrated to England to become the first Lord Fairhaven of Anglesey Abbey. He had the Barker body and other parts painted almost entirely black, leaving only the white body lines and sandblasted radiator louvers. For its role in Goldfinger, the Phantom III was repainted black and yellow, and the license plate read “AU 1,” which has several meanings: In addition to referring to the symbol for gold in the periodic table, it also has a connection to British automotive history. According to Rolls-Royce, “AU is the original British license plate code, indicating that the car was registered in Nottingham, and AU 1 was issued in 1901 for one of the first vehicles in the area.”

The Phantom III in Goldfinger is the vehicle and plot device for 007’s nemesis Auric Goldfinger and his ruthless bowler-hatted driver Oddjob. Goldfinger is obsessed with gold and has come up with a creative way to smuggle it back and forth. He replicates the body of the Phantom beneath its two-tone paint and builds it out of gold, which he can melt down once it reaches a smelter, turning it into bars that he can then use for his criminal activities. Goldfinger would then put his car’s original body panels back on so he could travel without worry and start the process all over again. His ultimate goal? To detonate a nuclear bomb at Fort Knox and multiply the value of his property.

To a large extent, the first V12 Rolls-Royce influenced the brand’s first all-electric car nearly 90 years later: Spectre was the code name for the 10 experimental Phantom IIIs produced between 1934 and 1937.

There’s more to the Goldfinger Phantom story: On October 25, Rolls-Royce will release an announcement furthering “the legacy of this extraordinary car and Rolls-Royce’s connection to the James Bond film franchise.” Perhaps the company will produce a limited run of Goldfinger-inspired Phantom VIIIs?