Immortality Aided By Good Viral Email

Viral Photograph of Mr. Allen Swift alongside his 1928 Rolls-Royce

Picadilly Phantom-1 Roadster?  

Mr. Allen Swift of Springfield Massachusetts has attained a measure of immortality. He received a beautiful brand new two-tone green 1928 Rolls-Royce Picadilly Phantom-1  Roadster from his father as a graduation gift in 1928. He would go on to drive it for nearly eight decades until shortly before his death in October, 2005.  He was 102 years old.  

According to the Hartford Courant,  Mr. Swift "drove arguably the most distinctive car in town" for eight decades- a  world record for the longest period of  ownership of a new automobile.  In fact, he may be a Guinness recognized record holder. 

Upon his death, Mr. Swift donated the vehicle as part of a one million dollar donation to the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum in Springfield, Connecticut for the purpose of a establishing a new industrial heritage museum. The donation permitted the museum to establish a separate museum dedicated to industrial heritage.  According to the Hartford Courant: 

[t]he car [went] on display in Springfield in a new industrial heritage museum made possible in part by a $1 million bequest from Swift.

Mr. Swift's car will be one of the centerpieces of the collection. It still works and runs very, very quiet," said Guy McLain, director of the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum in Springfield. "His initial gift gave us the seed money to make this new museum a reality. Having that $1 million enabled us to raise the $8 million for this project."

Swift, general manager of his family's precious metals business in Hartford, drove the car carefully around town and sometimes piloted it in the town's holiday parades. Some of the town's older residents remember seeing the elegant car on the road, said Ned Skinnon, program director with the West Hartford Senior Center.

No matter where it went, the car stood out, like an emerald parrot in a flock of starlings. His model was a Piccadilly Roadster, chassis number S273FP, built in the plant that Rolls-Royce had in Springfield from 1921 through 1931 for its American market.

R.D. Shaffner, director of the Rolls-Royce Foundation in Mechanicsburg, Pa., knew Swift for 30 years, had the chance to drive his car and was pleased that Swift loaned his car to the foundation in 2003 for display when the foundation opened a new building.

He actually received this car as a graduation gift from his father in 1928 and, of course, kept it all his life - and as such earned the respect and admiration of many people - and holds the record [in Guinness] as the longest standing original owner, and I believe last surviving original owner of a Springfield car," Shaffner wrote in an e-mail response to a query about the vehicle.

Henry Hensley, chairman of the Phantom I Society, said that the Piccadilly is one of the most sought-after bodies on the early Rolls-Royce automobiles. Swift's car is one of about 2,500 Phantoms made in Springfield. About 60 percent of those made still exist, most of them in private collections.

I did not find any mention of Mr. Swift, or his bequest on the museum's website.  I also did not see the Rolls-Royce listed as an exhibit of the museum. Whether some have forgotten Mr. Swift, he has managed to attain some level of immortality.   Mr. Swift is made even more famous as a result of a viral email, often forwarded with the subject, “Oldest running car and driver in history...”  There are various versions of the email, some of which make additional wild claims, such as that the mileage on the vehicle exceeded one million miles.  The vehicle apparently had only “170,000 miles on it and an engine that still purrs like a sewing machine.”  But Snopes.com does have a thread for the email under its topic "Fauxtography," which may suggest the picture is not accurate.  Regardless, Mr. Swift is immortalized in the virtual world as the email travels from inbox to inbox. 

A good friend and client recently forwarded the email to me, but I had seen it previously several times over the past few years.  So I researched the real story, which I hope you have enjoyed.