Here’s the back story on the Springfield Rolls —

When famed British luxury car maker Rolls-Royce was looking for the best American city in which to set up an assembly plant, one East Coast town seemed to offer everything. In 1921, Springfield, Massachusetts, was one of the oldest and most cutting-edge manufacturing cities on the North American continent. Springfield was also strategically located near New York and Boston, both popular shipping ports and two of America’s most cosmopolitan cities.

Initially, parts for every Rolls-Royce made in Springfield were assembled with parts imported from England. Cars were the same as those built at its British plant, down to the right-hand drive, until eventually the company began using American parts and designs, including a three-speed transmission.

Some 1,703 Silver Ghosts and 1,241 Phantoms were assembled by the 1,200 workers employed at the Springfield Rolls-Royce plant. The cars sold for roughly $12,000 in an era when a top-of-the-line Packard cost less than $4,000. The high cost spelled the end of the factory in 1931 when the Great Depression essentially eliminated the luxury limo market in America.