GREATEST EVER ARMOURED CAR?... ROLLS ROYCE SILVER GHOST Ridiculously Heavy, Powerful & Expensive!!

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]For Captain Murray Sueter, the designer of Britain's first high-speed armored vehicles, here immortalized in plaster, the solution was a simple one.

[00:00:10]Get yourself the biggest, most over-engineered, overpowered car around and rivet your armor to it.

[00:00:17]And this amazing machine is what they ended up with. An armored car capable of over 60 mph, designed to race behind enemy lines, rescue downed airmen, and carry out hit-and-run attacks on enemy columns.

[00:00:31]But their simple and very effective solution was also an expensive one.

[00:00:36]As that biggest, most powerful, over-engineered machine the armor was riveted to happens to be a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. There's the familiar badge in there.

[00:00:47]Now, when new, each one of these was 2,600 lb, which in today's money is a whopping 832,205 lb.

[00:00:58]But it was money well spent. The Rolls was so over-engineered in its original 2 and 1/2 ton civilian form, riveting another few tons of armor to it wasn't going to trouble it in the least.

[00:01:11]The builders just beefed up the rear suspension by adding a huge number of extra leaves to the springs and fitted double wheels at the back to help carry the extra weight.

[00:01:22]And that was it.

[00:01:25]This massive six-cylinder 7.2 L Silver Ghost engine then rockets the armored car to 60 mph.

[00:01:34]Mhm, a work of art. And it smells like a work of art to boot.

[00:01:39]But of course you know it's an armored car when you try and close the bonnet.

[00:01:46]Oh, that's the armor.

[00:01:48]Incredibly heavy. Watch where you put your fingers.

[00:01:53]And down.

[00:01:56]Heavy.

[00:01:57]In fact, I've got me shirt caught in it.

[00:01:59]>> [laughter] >> And it won't go any faster.

[00:02:05]>> [music] >> Captain Sueter had a wonderful brief he used to give to his armored car squadrons.

[00:02:15]"Crews," he said, "should consider themselves an emergency unit.

[00:02:20]And they ought to be like a fire brigade.

[00:02:22]Available for any call, day or night, >> [music] >> to rescue one of our air pilots who might have had to make a forced landing in hostile territory."

[00:02:32]>> [music] >> With their high-speed and armor, these cars could survive deep behind enemy lines. But they could fight back, too.

[00:02:42]Above me is a Vickers machine gun here capable of firing 400 rounds per minute.

[00:02:47]Now, as Chatty will demonstrate, the turret is mounted on ball bearings and can swivel round manually. Here we go.

[00:02:57]There it is.

[00:02:58]And that is where the high-tech stops, literally.

[00:03:02]Unfortunately, within a few months of the armored Rolls arriving in France, the two opposing armies had become completely [music] dug in, building massive trench systems right across their front lines.

[00:03:15]With the roads cut and fields and ditches to cross, the armored Rolls simply couldn't operate.

[00:03:21]But this was a world war and there were plenty of other areas of conflict the speed [music] machines could be sent to.

[00:03:27]Amongst them, the flat deserts of Jordan and Syria, where an Arab army was fighting the occupying Turks, assisted by a British officer. His name was T.E.

[00:03:37]Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia.

[00:03:42]With a squadron of nine armored Rolls, he launched lightning raids against Turkish outposts causing utter chaos.

[00:03:49]Lawrence later wrote, "The Turks fired at the cars raggedly.

[00:03:54]It was about as deadly as trying to warm a rhinoceros with birdshot."

[00:04:01]So, what gave Lawrence's armored Rolls even more protection than a rhino's hide?

[00:04:07]Well, it was this, steel boiler plate.

[00:04:11]And this is what it had to keep out.

[00:04:16]The bullet from a World War I.303 caliber rifle fired from close range.

[00:04:22]Back in 1914, when Captain Sueter and his team designed the armored Rolls, they'd spent [music] weeks experimenting with armor thickness. It was a fine line to tread. Too thin and a bullet goes straight through it.

[00:04:37]Too thick and the armored car can't carry it.

[00:04:41]After endless trials, Sueter settled on armor plate of 9 mm thickness and developed a way to bend [music] it without it cracking and losing its protective qualities.

[00:04:53]Perfect.

[00:04:56]But Lawrence of Arabia didn't just have his 9 mm armor to keep the Turks out. He also had this switch down here on the floor, interestingly labeled not for use in the United Kingdom.

[00:05:10]Watch this, or should I say listen to this.

[00:05:18]Lovely.

[00:05:21]That switch allows the exhaust to bypass the silencer, making enough noise to frighten off a crowd trying to force their way in.

[00:05:33]Lawrence was a speed freak and loved these armored cars, racing them across the flat desert as fast as they could go.

[00:05:39]>> [music] >> He famously remarked, "A Rolls in the desert is above rubies."

[00:05:45]For roads and flat surfaces, the Rolls combination of armor and speed were absolutely awesome.

[00:05:52]But as the trenches of France had proved, off-road it was absolutely useless.