One classic has been garnering a lot of media attention the past two weeks – a 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom kitted out with an armory-worth of vintage tactical and hunting munitions. This early era Phantom has a grand history and one we’re sure you’ll enjoy reading about.

The car surfaced and caught the public eye when it made an appearance at the Sixth Annual Barret-Jackson auction which was held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on September 26th through the 28th. With a reserve of $450,000 the Phantom didn’t pull enough bids during the auction to go home to a new owner. The car was poised to sell for around $1,000,000 which was actually a “lower” projected estimate based on the fact that the car’s original paint, grey, had been redone in what is now a fire-engine red.

The Phantom was originally commissioned by Uhmed Singh II, who reigned as the maharaja of Kotah, India from 1889 to 1940. Singh was an avid soldier and statesman serving as a top advisor to government officials within the British Raj at the time. He was also a fan of big-game hunting, thus the safari-modified Phantom came into fruition.

The coachbuilder’s at Barker and Co. of London customized the Phantom with taller tires along with a black wire wheel combo to accent the narrow white walls, searchlights, and several gun racks for mounting and storing firearms. It is powered by an 8.0-liter six cylinder and was the mechanical alternative to hunting atop the backs of elephants. Other odds and ends include a hidden safe and a nickel-plated hissing snake horn.

As for firepower, the maharaja’s coach features a mounted sawed-off shotgun and gun racks positioned in front of the rear seats. Above the rear bumper a lantaka cannon is mounted. These cannons where originally cast out of bronze and served as defense munitions for merchant vessels traveling through waterways infested with pirates. The kicker, if that wasn’t enough for the safari and a small scale assault already, is the .45 caliber hand crank machine gun which is in tow. The best thing, all firepower was included in the auction with the Phantom!

What Uhmed Singh II had sought out to create was a luxurious supply hauler and mobile fortification that would protect him and his crew while on these hunting expeditions. Where in the past the howdah, a sometimes ornate and extravagant carriage mounted on the backs of elephants, would have served as the mode of hunting, war, and expeditionary transportation the Rolls-Royce Phantom in this case was a technologically updated version of it.