In 1928, in West Hartford, Connecticut, a young man named M. Allen Swift got a graduation gift most of us can only dream about: a brand-new Rolls-Royce Phantom I, straight from his father. It wasn’t just a luxury toy sitting in a garage. Allen actually drove it, year after year, through normal days, special trips, and changing eras, slowly adding more than 172,000 miles to the odometer over 77 years. Instead of swapping cars every few years like many people do, he chose to stick with this one. He took care of it, serviced it, and when it started to age, he didn’t give up on it. In 1988, he even paid for a full restoration and engine rebuild so the car could keep running smoothly. Rolls-Royce noticed his loyalty. In 1994, they awarded him a special crystal “Spirit of Ecstasy” for owning the same Rolls longer than anyone else they knew of. When Allen died in 2005 at the age of 102, he still wasn’t done caring for the car. He donated the Phantom and $1 million to help preserve it. Now it’s on display at the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History in Massachusetts, where visitors can see both the car and the story it carries.

In 1928, in West Hartford, Connecticut, a young man named M. Allen Swift got a graduation gift most of us can only dream about: a brand-new Rolls-Royce Phantom I, straight from his father. It wasn’t just a luxury toy sitting in a garage. Allen actually drove it, year after year, through normal days, special trips, and changing eras, slowly adding more than 172,000 miles to the odometer over 77 years. Instead of swapping cars every few years like many people do, he chose to stick with this one. He took care of it, serviced it, and when it started to age, he didn’t give up on it. In 1988, he even paid for a full restoration and engine rebuild so the car could keep running smoothly. Rolls-Royce noticed his loyalty. In 1994, they awarded him a special crystal “Spirit of Ecstasy” for owning the same Rolls longer than anyone else they knew of. When Allen died in 2005 at the age of 102, he still wasn’t done caring for the car. He donated the Phantom and $1 million to help preserve it. Now it’s on display at the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History in Massachusetts, where visitors can see both the car and the story it carries.