Launched in 1929, unlike its predecessor which inherited its underpinnings from the Silver Ghost, the Rolls-Royce Phantom II employed an entirely new chassis, semi-elliptic rear springs replacing the cantilever springing of the Ghost and Phantom I. The new low-slung frame, with its radiator set well back, enabled coachbuilders to clothe the new car in the modern idiom, creating sleeker designs than the more upright ones in the past. The six-cylinder 7,668cc engine was built in-unit with the clutch and gearbox, and although similar in dimensions to that of the Rolls-Royce Phantom I engine, it came in for extensive revision, the combustion chambers re-designed, the cylinder head now of the cross-flow type, with improvements made to the manifolds, performance being greatly enhanced. Road-tested in 1929, a short-wheelbase Phantom II recorded a maximum speed ''well over 80 mph (130 km/hr), that well-known 'purveyor of horseless carriages to the nobility and gentry', Bunty Scott-Moncrieff later declaring the Phantom II to be a ''magic carpet, wafting you silently''.