Manufacturer Rolls-Royce Ltd Body style 4-door sedan Related | Production 1959–1968
516 produced Layout FR layout | |
 | ||
Assembly Crewe, England
(engine and chassis) | ||
The Rolls-Royce Phantom V is a large, ultra-exclusive four-door saloon produced by Rolls-Royce Limited from 1959 to 1968. Based on the Silver Cloud II, it shared a V8 engine and General Motors Hydramatic automatic gearbox with that model. Rolls-Royce assembled the cars' chassis and drivetrains with bodies made to standard designs by coachbuilders H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward, and James Young, former vendors absorbed by Rolls-Royce.
The engine was a 6,230 cc 90-degree V8 with twin SU carburetors, coupled to a 4-speed automatic transmission. The car had massive drum brakes and a wheelbase of 3,683 mm. Four speed automatic transmission and power assisted steering were standard.
From 1963 onward the Silver Cloud III's 7% more powerful engine and new front wings incorporating the latter's quad headlamps were fitted.
A total of 516 Phantom V's were made.
Notable owners
Notable Phantom V owners included Queen Elizabeth II and her mother, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Those owned by Elizabeth II were official state cars, adapted for that purpose with a flag staff and illuminated heraldic shield above the windscreen and a glass canopy fixed over the back seat for the better visibility of the Queen. These two cars built in 1960 and 1961 joined the fleet of two earlier Phantom IV's. Having been retired from active service in 2002, both are now on public display: one in the royal motor museum at Sandringham, and the other in the special garage aboard HMY Britannia in Leith, Edinburgh. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother acquired Rolls-Royce Phantom V Landaulette in 1962, painted in the royal colors.
The Governor of Hong Kong used a Rolls-Royce Phantom V for ceremonial occasions. It was removed from Hong Kong by the Royal Navy immediately following the handover to China on 1 July 1997.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, owned a Phantom V. Since his exile, the car has been kept in his royal residence in Tehran and is occasionally shown to the public among the other luxurious cars owned by the Shah, including a unique Rolls-Royce Phantom VI and a Phantom IV.
King Olav V of Norway owned a 1962 limousine as a state car. Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito had Rolls-Royce Phantom V in presidential collection for representative purposes. The car is now displayed at the Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade. The Republic of the Philippines owns one. The former First Lady,Imelda Romualdez Marcos used the Rolls-Royce Phantom V as her official car
Then Beatle John Lennon's Phantom V, a 1960s counter-culture icon, came from the factory finished in Valentines black, with Lennon commissioning the custom paint job atop it in the style of a Romany gypsy wagon (not "psychedelic" as often referenced).