The Rolls-Royce Phantom is now a 100-year-old car. As a century-old piece of engineering and human history, the car has had its share of interesting owners. From 50 Cent to Elton John, a run of famous folks have all owned one. So, for the car’s 100th birthday, Rolls-Royce set about recreating one of the more famous bits of lore surrounding the car.
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Did Keith Moon Really Dunk A Phantom?
If the photos hadn’t given it away, Rolls-Royce did pull it off. More on that in a second. First, it’s worth addressing a simple fact that even Rolls acknowledges: no one was ever able to figure out if Moon, drummer for The Who, ever took one for a swim, but the man himself says he never did. Moon owned one, but as the story (very much allegedly) goes, the suddenly amphibious luxury car was a Lincoln Continental. In a ’76 interview with Rolling Stone, Moon said his attempt to flee a party-crashing sheriff at a Holiday Inn ended in a a submerged Lincoln.
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“I ran out, jumped into the first car I came to, which was a brand new Lincoln Continental. It was parked on a slight hill and when I took the handbrake off, it started to roll and it smashed straight through this pool surround [fence] and the whole Lincoln Continental went into the ‘Oliday Inn swimming pool, with me in it.”
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Rolls did it a bit differently, taking the retired body of a prototype destined for recycling and gently placing it on stilts in the pool of the Tinside Lido in Plymouth, England for some photos.
Sometimes A PR Stunt Is Just… A Stunt
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It all feels a little like Alex Krokus’ “Life of a Meme” comic. Keith Moon allegedly did the whole pool thing first, and even if he did, it was probably a Lincoln, and no one ever corroborated the story. The whole bit was only just a little funny when Top Gear did it, and even that was so long ago it’s now found on a YouTube channel called Top Gear Classic.
The multi-billion-dollar company? Kind of beating a dead horse that’s already been dug up, beaten, and buried a few times over. Rolls could have sacrificed a real Phantom to whatever Poseidon of the Pool there may be and really, truly sunk the thing. Sticking it on stilts for a photo op just doesn’t feel very sincere, or very “Rock n’ Roll.”
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