Beschreibung:

Body No. 6560 The Phantom II Continental Reputedly the last model Henry Royce designed himself the Phantom II was introduced in 1929 as a successor to the New Phantom. Following Royce’s keen interest in a more sporting version, as evidenced from the Experimental Phantoms (see Lot 357) and designed around the short (144”) Phantom II chassis a ‘Continental’ version arrived in 1930. As the name suggested it was conceived as ‘an enthusiastic owner driver’s car’ intended for fast touring abroad, and featured revised rear suspension, higher axle ratio and lowered steering column. Highly favored by prominent coachbuilders, the Phantom II chassis provided the platform for some of the truly outstanding designs of its day its new low-slung frame, enhanced engine performance and set back radiator lending itself well to coachbuilders art. By the end of production the magnificent Phantom II Continental was good for 95mph. “Powerful, docile, delightfully easy to control and a thoroughbred, it behaves in a manner which is difficult to convey without seeming to over-praise,” opined The Motor after testing a PII Continental in March 1934. The growing interest in closed and streamlined cars of the Thirties meant that the lion’s share of coachwork on these chassis was devoted to sporting saloons, as fashion moved away from long open tourers of the 1920s. Coachbuilders adapted to this, and began to produce a more ‘convertible’ dual purpose body, this car being one such example of that transitional era. Captain Jack Frederick Conrad Kruse For those unfamiliar with the name it is particularly pertinent when considering the importance of this Phantom II Continental to elaborate on Capt. Kruses’s motoring interests. Born the eldest son of a banker, Jack Kruse was the ultimate motoring sportsman of the ‘Roaring Twenties’. His life story, chronicled by Tom Clarke in The Flying Lady in 2001/2 portrays him as a cross between a character from Jeeves and Wooster novel and James Bond! He survived the trenches of the Peninsula Campaign and even his ship being torpedoed on his way home, to be demobilized with the rank of Captain and to go on to found successful businesses in Amsterdam and London. His constant traveling caused him to separate from his first wife only to meet his second, a widow and hotel chain heiress, Annabel Wilson, during one of many trips to America in the early 1920s. By the latter part of the decade they were firmly established in the British society elite and owned Sunning House in the middle of Sunningdale Women’s Golf Course, where 22 staff including 3 chauffeurs attended their every need. Capt. Kruse had a vociferous appetite for fast and elegant cars and from the early 1920s developed a particular passion for Rolls-Royce, while among his close friends he could count Frank L. Manning Showroom manager for Barker & Co. who were responsible for many of the bodies on his cars, and his close motoring associations brought him into contact with Amherst Villiers. In 1928 Kruse gave Villiers carte blanche to rework his Phantom 1 Barker Tourer ‘31 HC’. This followed on from Villiers work on the supercharged Vauxhall, and preceded his liaison with Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin on the Blower Bentleys. A familiar sight in marque histories for its novelty it used a completely separate engine mounted on the side of the chassis to drive the supercharger. This extraordinary project absorbed two years of Villier’s time, and is rumored to have cost Kruse somewhere between £10-16,000 – enough to have bought him 5 standard Phantoms! But it hardly seems to have impressed him as he once simply referred to the car as ‘the first, and last, supercharged Rolls-Royce.’ Always in search of the best mount for competitive events, he sparred in the motoring press with those that favored particular marques baiting the Bentley Boys on a number of occasions, despite the fact that photographs from the Twenties show his stables replete with numerous cars, including two 6½ Liters a