1930 Rolls Royce Phantom visits Jay Leno's garage

The modern-day Rolls-Royce Phantom is the automaker's flagship luxury car, thanks in part to the pedigree established by predecessors like the 1930 model featured in this "Jay Leno's Garage" episode.

It is one of the impressive classic cars in the collection of the Nethercutt Collection in California and is also one of 25 cars with bodies by New York coachbuilder Brewster. The car features a so-called town car configuration, with an open cockpit in the front and a closed passenger compartment in the rear.

Also characteristic of this car is the wicker-like detailing on the rear doors. Cameron Richards, vice president of the Nethercutt Collection, said in the video that when the car was restored, it took a month to recreate this. Rolls-Royce also incorporates these intricate details into modern custom-built cars, such as the Phantom Scintopia, with its intricate iridescent paint job.

Riding on a 150-inch wheelbase, the Phantom weighs about 7,000 pounds, according to Richards. Moving all that weight is an overhead-valve inline six-cylinder that produces about 120 hp and is connected to a four-speed manual transmission. According to Richards, that's not expensive for this era, but it's not bad either, and the healthy torque makes the car quite drivable.

Like the 1923 McFarlan Model 154 from the Nethercutt Collection owned by comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, this Phantom has a Hollywood history. Actress Constance Bennett purchased it from its original owner in 1936 and owned it until her husband lost it in a poker game in 1948.

It was also rented out as a movie prop for $250 a day, which Richards says was more than an actor's income at the time.

Leno and Richards found the Phantom to be a comfortable cruiser, but not as fast as the Duesenberg to which it would have been compared at the time. This is appropriate, given that Rolls-Royce traditionally emphasized comfort over speed, and its relatively primitive brakes are not suited to quick stops.