Rolls-Royce Phantom III

Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) owns a black and yellow Rolls-Royce in the movie Goldfinger (1964). The Rolls-Royce driven by Goldfinger and his henchman Oddjob (Harold Sakata) is a Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca de Ville by Coachbuilder Barker, Chassis Number #3BU168. It was originally custom-built for Lord Fairhaven of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire in 1937.

The car plays an important part in the storyline and can be seen in several scenes. Bond's first encounter with the car is at Stoke Park Golf Club, after he beats Goldfinger in a golf match. Bond puts a tracker in the Rolls, which allows him to follow Goldfinger to Switzerland using the advanced tracking device in his Aston Martin DB5 (Note that in the novel Goldfinger (1959, Ian Fleming), the car used by Auric Goldfinger is a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost and Bond drives a Aston Martin DB Mark III.) In Switzerland, Bond discovers that Goldfinger smuggles the gold by melting it down and incorporating it into the bodywork of the Rolls, which he takes with him whenever he travels.

Goldfinger's license plate is AU1, AU being the periodic table symbol for gold, as well as the first two letters of Goldfinger's first name Auric. The license plate was offered on auction at Bonhams in 2008 but the plate wasn't sold as it didn't reach its reserve price.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom III was the final large pre-war Rolls-Royce. It was introduced in 1936 and until 1939, 727 V12 Phantom III chassis were constructed. The predecessor of the Phantom III, the Phantom II, was used by villain Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan) in the movie Octopussy (1983) in India. That car is still owned by the Maharaja of Udaipur (where the movie was filmed) and can be seen in the Vintage Car Collection museum in Udaipur.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom III used in Goldfinger also still exists and has appeared at some recent events and exhibitions. On September 21, 2012, Day 5 of the Bond Blu-Ray Relay Tour, the car returned to Stoke Park and was joined by Bond girls Eunice Gayson (Sylvia Trench in Dr. No and From Russia With Love), Tania Mallet (Tilly Masterson in Goldfinger), and Britt Ekland (Mary Goodnight in The Man With The Golden Gun) and actor Richard Kiel (Jaws). On October 23rd, at the SkyFall World premiere, Bond producer Michael G Wilson arrived in the Rolls at the Royal Albert Hall. The car returned once again to Stoke Park on the first official James Bond Golf Day on June 28, 2013. In 2014, the car is part of the Bond In Motion exhibition in the London Film Museum.

Several scale model cars were made of this famous villain car. Corgi has created 1:36 scale models, sometimes special editions with dioramas or figurines, the combination of the Rolls-Royce and the Aston Martin DB5 or the Limited Edition (5000 pieces) all-gold version from 2005. The Goldfinger Rolls-Royce is nr. 97 in the James Bond Car Collection. You can find a large selection of Rolls-Royce Goldfinger scale models on eBay and Amazon.co.uk.

Photos courtesy of Stoke Park and Jack Pizzey