Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost re-enacts triumphant London-Edinburgh run 110 years on

History literally repeated itself recently, as Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost 1701 re-enacted its astonishing run in the 1911 London-Edinburgh Trial. The car, designed as an 'Experimental Speed Car', won the original event locked in top gear for the entire 799-mile return trip between the two capitals. Given the primitive state of Britain's Edwardian roads, its average speed of 19.59 mph was highly impressive – and its then unheard‑of fuel efficiency of over 24 mpg even more so. To prove that the car had not been modified in any way, it achieved 78.2 mph on a half-mile speed test conducted immediately after the Trial; it also became the first Rolls-Royce to exceed 100 mph in a later test at the fabled Brooklands circuit in Surrey. The re-enactment was as faithful to the 1911 event as possible. The car, now a priceless collector's item and wearing registration R-1075, departed from the Pall Mall headquarters of the Royal Automobile Club (which oversaw the original Trial) at 06.00 on Sunday 5 September 2021, then travelled to Edinburgh on a route that followed the old Great North Road as closely as practicable – locked in top gear just as it was 110 years before.