What's in a name?

The Wraith

Up until the 1925 arrival of what was named the "New Phantom" Rolls Royces were known, by the RAC horsepower rating of their engines. The first instance of the Wraith name being used on a Rolls Royce was a Silver Ghost, chassis 1101, built in 1911 and used for trials. Wraith was subsequently used in 1938/39 as a model name for the short lived successor to the 25/35hp. When the rationalized Range of Rolls Royces were conceived in 1938, the Silver Wraith was applied to the largest model. This was a limousine on a 11ft 1 in wheelbase available with both six-cylinder and eight cylinder engines. In 1939 the "eight was renamed the Silver Phantom and left the six as the Silver Wraith - the name with which it entered production in 1946.