It's been true for a long time that Rolls-Royce* competes in a price category with small airplanes as well as other expensive cars. This 1925 Phantom I, re-bodied in 1934 by Jonckheere Carrossiers of Belgium, makes that aeronautical reference explicit with its Streamline Moderne styling. The Phantom I was based on the 40/50 model, but improved with four-wheel brakes, and with overhead valves replacing side valves on the inline six-cylinder engine, which went from just over 7.4 liters to just under 7.7. A good thing, then, about those 4-wheel brakes, in this case drums with a servo assist based on Hispano-Suiza patents. This Phantom was originally an open cabriolet bodied by Hooper to an order by a Mrs. Dillman of Detroit, the former Anna Thompson Dodge, who had inherited a fortune from Horace Dodge of the Dodge Brothers. Mrs. Dillman apparently changed her mind, though, and the big Rolls stayed in Europe, where its owner eventually took it to Jonckheere for a new body...
Completed in 1934, the new body was a 2-door coupe, with room for 4 passengers as long as those in rear seats didn't mind the scarce headroom. To go with the Streamline Moderne theme, the designer or designers (unknown, like the client, because Jonckheere lost records in a fire) decided on circular doors...
…which, in turn, led to adoption of side windows with retracting segments meeting at a center post.
The rear view conveys the vast size of this Rolls coupe, nearly 20 feet long. Another intriguing detail is the treatment of rear windows, which are obscured by a series of thin louvers flanking the huge dorsal fin. More privacy for those crouching rear-seat passengers, one guesses, but more trouble for the driver, who had to contend with heavy steering, a huge turning radius and not much in the way of ground clearance. The long, skirted teardrop rear fenders combine with the small ground clearance to hide the rear wheels and give a floating effect similar to French designs produced by Figoni or Pourtout. Their teardrop aerodynamic coupes came a couple years later, often featured dorsal fins, and took advantage of lower and lighter chassis from Delage, Delahaye and Talbot-Lago to produce a more graceful result.
Graceful and agile the Jonckheere Rolls may not have been, but it fulfilled its function as a show-stopper, winning a prize at the 1936 Cannes Concours d'Elegance. The car finally made its way to the USA shortly before World War II, where it served as chauffeur-driven transport for New England businessman Max Bilofsky. By the early Fifties, the Round Door Rolls had fallen into disrepair, and wound up in a New Jersey salvage yard...
There it was discovered by early classic car fan Max Obie (this car was a magnet for guys named Max), who did basic repair work and painted the car gold. It passed through other owners before going to Japan during the early Nineties collector car boom. The Petersen Automotive Museum acquired the car in 2001 and began a restoration with the goal of restoring authenticity; it probably wasn't easy to reconstitute features like the fitted luggage and hardware bits because the original drawings had been lost in the aforementioned fire.
Unlike most Rolls-Royce coachwork until decades later, the Jonckheere body features a slanting radiator with curved base. This may have helped distract from the tall hood and cowl, a result of the overhead valve engine. Elongated bullet headlights echo the fender forms. The black paint chosen by Petersen's restoration team, combined with the vast size of the car and its crouching form, gives the Jonckheere Rolls a sinister feel. My first comment to photographer Art Heinrich on seeing his shots was that it looks like a car a vampire might drive. He replied, "One of the later Batmobiles was on the other side of the floor; they should have put the two together." You can say that again, Art...
*Footnote + meandering digression: Amazingly, the only other sustained attn. we've given to a Rolls-Royce in these posts was to a 1932 Phantom II Sedanca de Ville, in "A Car Week Side Trip: Sleeping Beauties Somewhere in California", posted Aug. 24, 2022. It was the same car featured in "The Yellow Rolls-Royce", a '64 Hollywood film. That took a bit of focus, considering that the collection we visited also housed 2 Alfa Zagatos, a Ferrari Lusso, and vintage Bentleys. The only other Rolls owner I've known was a good-humored client who laughed when I suggested that he could've substituted a fleet of used VW Beetles (still cheap back then) for his new R-R Corniche, stashed 'em around town with keys under the mats, and made a sort of public transport system for his extended family and friends. I didn't suggest that he could've gotten a nice little plane for what the Corniche cost; he already had one.
Photo Credits
All color photos: Art Heinrich
Monochrome photos: 3Dmodels.org
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