A 105-year-old Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, considered one of the finest vintage cars ever built, has been stolen from a hotel car park near Grays, Essex, just hours before it was due to embark on a European tour.
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The theft occurred Wednesday night while the vehicle, secured on a trailer, was parked at the hotel. Owner Bryan Fitton, 82, discovered the vehicle missing at 6 a.m. Thursday, ahead of its scheduled transport to Tilbury Docks for shipping to Helsinki.
Fitton, a retired businessman from Wilmslow, Cheshire, had planned to drive the car across the Baltic States — a long-awaited addition to a decades-long list of international adventures in the vehicle.
“I’m absolutely heartbroken,” he said. “This car is irreplaceable. It has its original parts, its original ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ mascot, and over a century of history behind it.”
Fitton spent years meticulously restoring the 1920 Silver Ghost, which has toured dozens of countries including France, Italy, Switzerland, and Poland. He’s now offering a £2,000 reward for information leading to its recovery.
Essex Police have launched an investigation and are asking for public assistance. Officers are urging anyone with information or relevant CCTV or dashcam footage from the area to come forward.
The Silver Ghost, once hailed by Autocar magazine in 1907 as “the best car in the world,” is not just a rare collector’s piece — it’s a symbol of British engineering heritage. Fewer than 8,000 were produced between 1907 and 1926, and surviving examples are exceedingly rare.
“This car is a rolling advertisement for Britain,” Fitton added. “It’s been everywhere — and now, it gets stolen in Essex. It’s just appalling.”
