Handsome cab

The Phantom V limousine marked the beginning of the end for coachbuilder James Young, but this Rolls-Royce represents the craft at its very best

- MARTIN BUCKLEY

The age of the elegant, formal carriage-trade limousine has long since passed in the world of modern cars. The art of building such vehicles was only truly practised in Britain, and it faded with the demise of the Rolls-Royce Phantom VI in '92 and, to a lesser degree, the Daimler DS420 at around the same time. The reasons were manifold but hard - and expensive - to ignore: safety legislation, type-approval irritations, and the cost of skilled labour able to form aluminium and hard woods into the graceful forms these traditional bodies required.

Too low-volume to justify production-line tooling, these specialised limousines-vehicles that had more in common with the horsedrawn broughams and landaulettes of 150 years previously than the modern 'stretched' equivalents - took months to build. They were always created to order, never for stock, and by necessity hugely expensive, which further reduced their potential audience.

It was a market that was dwindling anyway.

As ordinary large cars became easier to drive and handle generally, the need for chauffeur transport even among the very wealthy was in decline. Why employ a driver when it was such a pleasure to take the wheel of your Silver Shadow? Who really needed massive amounts of legroom and seven seats in a 20ft-long car to travel a world in which such decadence might, increasingly, be frowned upon? Most Phantom Vs had Park Ward or Mulliner Park Ward bodies. The 1959 Phantom V - the first Rolls-Royce to use the name since the demise of the 'Royalty only' straight-eight Phantom IV had been under development as Project Siam since 1955.

It was a well-judged extrapolation of the new Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II technology, which still meant massive drum brakes (with gearboxdriven servo assistance) and a live rear axle, but now with the new, all-aluminium 6.2-litre V8 of undisclosed, but 'adequate' outputs.