A Rolls Royce Binder Mystery

In 1974 I came in contact with the Rolls through Herb Wuesthoff Restorations. It was presently owned by Talbot Kendall of San Francisco. Along with Herb we gave the rolls an extensive restoration treatment. The last I saw of it was when I delivered it to Talbot in 1977. Beautiful rolls.

Several other coachbuilders were insprired by the 'coffin nose' Cord.
Pininfarina, Castagna (on a '39 Alfa 2300B chassis) and others.

Vantage Motorworks Inc. restored the Binder Rolls as a Rolls, but not as the very special Binder one from 1936!!!

Very interesting comments, but I doubt the car had those wings (fenders) in 1931. This style of 'pontoon' fender was introduced by General Motors in 1933/34 for La Salle. The somewhat slab sided body, however, does suggest 1931. The car had almost certainly been modified for its 1936 appearance, but clearly there had been no rush to replace its offending French radiator grill!

Love the single headlight , though not practical at night in modern traffic !

I sent a link to my tame Rolls Royce expert, and he e-mailed me back as follows:
"It was apparently put on show to create discussion among the other body designers, because is was an old car as it is seen in the pictures, not a new one. It was a Rolls-Royce 'Trials' (testing purposes), car until 1931, so was not in the best of condition underneath that body and as depicted has been discussed by many car enthusiasts as to it being the influence for the 'Coffin' nosed Cord a few Years later?
Rolls-Royce were not happy with the treatment of their famous grille, but could not really do anything, the car at this time was not there property and it was not being displayed on their or their own affiliated coachbuilders stands.
The car does still exist and has been reinstated with a conventional R-R grilled front."
he also included another photograph (a much better quality three-quarters front view), but I have no idea how to add that to this comment.

This is covered quite extensively in Coachbuild.com article. Apparently it started out life as a Kellner bodied chassis (No 41 GX). Rolls-Royce however reputedly took such exception that the car was eventually withdrawn from display. And it seems quite possible that Binder (or some other agency) decided to re-instate the conventional front end.

This is Rolls Royce Phantom II (chassis 41GX) remains extant but with a conventional radiator.
"Chassis No 41GX. It was originally delivered in chassis form to the Swiss Rolls-Royce agent Herr H. Schmidt who entrusted Kellner Carrosserie to produce him a close coupled saloon style body. The completed car was exhibited at the 1931 Geneva Motor Show where it was photographed and subsequently featured by Motor Magazine. On September the 14th 1932 the car was supplied to its first private owner, Mr Joseph Rubin of Geneva who kept the car for just over a year before selling it to Mr J. Poberejsky of Paris who was involved with Mercedes-Benz in the French capital. Mr Poberejsky kept Chassis No 41GX in its original form until 1935 when he discussed a new body with the famous Parisian coachbuilders Binder."