Last week, as Britain sweltered in a summer heatwave, people in Plymouth, Devon, hoping to cool off with a dip in the city’s outdoor swimming pool were left disappointed to find that there was a large luxury car ‘floating’ in it. Said car was a Rolls-Royce Phantom – or rather the engineless shell of a prototype Phantom that’s destined for the scrapper – and the reason it had gone for a swim has now become clear.
See, the Phantom name has just celebrated its centenary, and Rolls has chosen to mark the occasion by highlighting the car’s longstanding popularity in the music biz. What better way to do that than by recreating the semi-mythical 1967 incident in which Keith Moon, the infamously boisterous drummer for The Who, allegedly drove his own Roller into a hotel swimming pool in Flint, Michigan?
Rolls-Royce Phantom in a swimming pool – rear
Whether it actually happened is a matter of debate – some say it was actually a Lincoln Continental, and others that the swimming pool remained distinctly car-free that night. Either way, the apocryphal tale has enough legend surrounding it that it’s been recreated by everyone from Oasis on the Be Here Now cover to Jeremy Clarkson on an episode of Top Gear.
The Phantom, then – it launched in 1925 as the flagship of the Roller range, a position it continued to occupy across six generations before eventually going out of production in 1990, by which point it was the favoured transport of Queen Elizabeth II.
Rolls-Royce Phantom in a swimming pool – side
Under Rolls’ BMW ownership, the Phantom made a comeback in 2003 as a V12-powered ultra-luxury saloon. It not only revived the fortunes of a manufacturer that had been struggling for some time, but exposed the Phantom name to a whole new audience, and it’s been back in its place at the pointy end of the Roller range since, with an eighth generation arriving in 2017.
Original Phantoms, Rolls notes, were driven – or more often ridden in the back of – by musicians as diverse as Marlene Dietrich, John Lennon, Liberace and Elton John. The revived 2003 car, meanwhile, as a symbol of modern luxury, became adored by rappers, perhaps most memorably appearing in Snoop Dogg’s video for Drop It Like It’s Hot. It’s the alleged antics of Moon, though, that ultimately led to Rolls plonking a hugely expensive car in a Devonian swimming pool. As you do.
Rolls-Royce Phantom in a swimming pool – side
Oh, and in case you were wondering, this particular Phantom was actually sitting on a specially-constructed platform. If you own one, we really, really don’t recommend trying to find out if it floats.
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