Armored Ghosts are holy grails to car collectors. A British collector owns the restored Tom Keogh, named after an Irish Free State colonel killed by a mine in 1922. Dennis Ambruso, of Bridgeport, Conn., has owned four armored cars (all World War II vintage) and restored six of them. “The Silver Ghost armored vehicle was state of the art and very well made,” he said. “Any collector would like to get their hands on one, because they’re unique.” Replicas have been constructed on authentic Ghost chassis, including a 1925 version built by the late Frank Cooke that sold at auction in 2006 for $87,750.

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The Duke of Westminster’s car survives in civilian guise, and the shell of an armored Ghost is rumored to exist in India. “There’s always a chance that another intact car will turn up,” says David Willey, who notes that the Tank Museum’s model is insured for £2 million, regardless of its dents and bent bolts to which mechanics applied an incorrectly sized spanner. “Some people would much prefer to see it immaculate,” he said, “but we like it as it is, with a bit of history visible.”

For further reading, Jim Motavalli recommends: War Cars: British Armoured Cars in the First World War, by David Fletcher, and British Tanks and Fighting Vehicles, 1914–1945, by B.T. White. Visit the Tank Museum online.

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