All about Rolls Royce Motors
From the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot atop the portico grille, to the exhaust's thrumming in almost perfect silence beneath the tail, the Rolls-Royce motor car has long represented the very best of British.
It was the brainchild of the Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, who with the engineer Henry Royce, was to produce the ultimate motoring experience. Royce, of course, started making cars in 1904 and had been a mechanical and electrical engineer twenty years before that - and indeed, those of an engineering bent still refer to the company's cars as Royces. A fastidious fellow, he refused to bow to mediocrity, and so everything that he did was as perfect as he could make it. He met Rolls in 1904 in a hotel in Manchester: Rolls had a car showroom, and he wanted Royce to build cars to be sold exclusively by him. The venture was so successful that, two years later, Rolls-Royce was born for the manufacture of machines for use "on land, on water and in air".
Their first car, a long, low, six-cylinder, a sleek, handsome car amongst the comparative squat trolls of the age, was the Silver Ghost. It gained a reputation for extreme reliability in comparison with other examples of this relatively new technology, and soon came to be known as "The Best Car in the World". It was in the manner of a sporting saloon, too - what would today be termed a Grand Tourer - and was a spirited performer even if, at the time, one almost needed a degree in mechanical engineering to operate it.
In 1910, Charles Rolls was killed in a flying accident near his family seat in Monmouthshire. However, the firm continued to prosper, and during the first world war, the factory produced rifles for the war effort. But also, Royce produced his first aero engine - a tradition which was to continue even though Royce himself never set foot inside an aircraft. So successful was it, that Rolls-Royce was responsible for half the aerial horsepower of the allied forces during the conflict.
In 1922 a factory was built in Springfield, Massachusetts, "to help with demand". It was okay, but the American buyer soon found that he preferred the British-built car, and so production was concentrated solely within the UK. In 1931, in the depths of the Great Depression, Rolls-Royce bought their ailing rival, Bentley, so as not to split the market for such cars.
In 1933, Royce - then Sir Henry, 1st Baronet - died. He had been working on the Merlin engine, which would later find fame in the Supermarine Spitfire fighter 'plane. A curious, but oft mis-understood fact, was that the Rolls-Royce interlocking R symbol didn't change from red to black because of Royce's death: it was actually ordered by Royce himself because a number of customers were complaining that the colours were clashing with the colour of the car. One Prince of Wales was particularly vociferous about this.
It was only after the second world war that the company actually started producing whole cars. Up until then, they had only made the chassis and mechanicals - which then went to coachbuilders to be fitted as to the customer's desires. The cars all had separate chassis, though, up until 1965 when, with the Silver Shadow, the company moved to monococque construction, a technique whereby the chassis and body were one unit.
In 1973, Rolls-Royce was nationalised following cost over-runs on its RB-211 jet engine which threatened to bankrupt it. The motor-car business was then separated from the aero engines division, but it was not until 1987 that it was re-privatised. It was sold to Vickers, who had been involved in the aero industry since 1928. Eventually, of course, in 1998, the company changed hands again - this time to BMW while, for the first time since 1931, it would now be possible to buy a Bentley without being thought to have one only because you can't afford the Spirit of Ecstasy on the bonnet!
Rolls-Royce had lost its way in times past - and the nationalisation era can be said to have been dark days for the company. But now, with the Phantom, it once again produces "The Best Car in the World". It's just a pity it can no longer be called British any more...
