The 1936 Amsterdam and Geneva Show Car
1936 Rolls-Royce 20/25 Sports Saloon

• Matching numbers (chassis, engine)
• Long-term single family ownership for 30-plus years
• Present ownership for the last three years
• Professional engine rebuild in 2008
• Overdrive transmission
• 'On the button'

The introduction of a smaller Rolls-Royce - the 20hp - in 1922 enabled the company to cater for the increasingly important owner-driver market that appreciated the quality of Rolls-Royce engineering but did not need a car as large as a 40/50hp Ghost or Phantom. The 'Twenty' proved eminently suited to town use yet could cope admirably with Continental touring when called upon. Nevertheless, by the late 1920s the trend towards ever-heavier coachwork was beginning to have a detrimental effect on the Twenty's performance.
Introduced in 1929, the successor 20/25hp model addressed this problem, featuring numerous improvements, the most significant of which was an enlarged (from 3,127 to 3,669cc) version of the Twenty's six-cylinder, overhead-valve engine. The latter's increased power allowed the bespoke coachbuilders greater freedom in their efforts to satisfy a discerning clientele that demanded ever larger and more opulent designs. Produced concurrently with the Phantom II, the 20/25 benefited from many of the larger model's improvements, such as synchromesh gears and centralised chassis lubrication, becoming the best-selling Rolls-Royce of the inter-war period.
Off test on 7th December 1935, chassis number 'GXK36' was completed with touring saloon coachwork by Hooper & Co, London-based carriage makers to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII and arguably the finest of all British coachbuilders. References to its presence at the Amsterdam and Geneva shows in 1936 may be found in copies of factory build sheets and chassis cards on file. Having failed to sell the car on the Continent, Rolls-Royce replaced the 'metric' speedometer and fuel gauge on 23rd April 1936 after it returned to England.
The car's first private owner was one F J Shoobridge of Craigweil, Sussex. Three further owners are recorded, the last of whom, A M Jenkins & Sons Ltd of London, acquired the Rolls-Royce in 1963. The next recorded owner is David Baldock of Cranbrook, Kent, who sold the car in 1984 to long-term owners the Bennett family, who would be its custodians for the next 30-plus years. The current vendor, a highly respected Veteran and Vintage engineer, has owned the Rolls-Royce for the last three years.
Also in the accompanying history file are various pieces of correspondence; expired MoTs for the period 1984-2013; old/current V5C Registration Certificates; and sundry bills, one of the most significant relating to an engine rebuild undertaken by N P Veteran Engineering in 2008 at a cost of £9,492. (It should be noted that a clerical error records the engine number as '729' on the V5C.)