Rolls Royce

It was in Manchester, England on 4 May 1904 that engineer Frederick Henry Royce and
Hon Charles Stewart Rolls, a well-connected pioneer aviator, motorist, and car salesman,
first met.
Rolls had come to see the first Royce car produced and was impressed. At that meeting
the foundations were laid for what was to become one of the most famous car brands in
the world.
In December 1904, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars made its international debut at the Paris
Salon, exhibiting two-, three- and four-cylinder cars. All were respected for their
engineering and design quality, surpassing anything else available at the time.
Within a mere three years from the start of the company, Royce’s brilliance as an
engineer had led to the creation of the immortal Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. This car was
admired for its silence and smoothness, but most importantly, its reliability following its
achievement in 1907 when Claude Johnson drove the car for 14,371 miles virtually nonstop.
Needless to say, sales of the Silver Ghost were good and the small factory at Cooke
Street quickly became inadequate. After a lengthy search, Royce decided to build a new
factory in Derby and a site was bought in Nightingale Road. Royce himself did the
design and the building was completed at a cost of 9,359 pounds.
Tragically, Rolls was to die in a flying accident in 1910, but Royce continued to develop
the Ghost and move the company into other fields, most notably the design and
manufacture of aero engines, such as the Eagle, Falcon and Condor. They proved to be
reliable and the soon established the same reputation of excellence as had the motor cars.
When peace returned, the company resumed motor car production and continued to grow
from strength to strength. New models were introduced, such as the Phantom I and II,
and in 1921 Rolls-Royce took a giant step across the waters and built an additional
factory in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In 1931, an opportunity arose when Bentley Motors went into liquidation. Rolls-Royce
acquired the assets to the company, enabling it to exploit a gap in the market for a more
sporting car, and preventing Bentley’s engineering resources falling into rival’s hands.
The acquisition gave another string to the Rolls-Royce bow.
Around the time of the Second World War, very few cars were built, and production
concentrated on aero engines.
The Merlin engine was a particular focus and in a bid to increase and speed up
production, the Air Ministry commissioned a number of ‘shadow’ factories. Although
Derby remained the hub, a new factory was built at Crewe. Both were retained after the
war, although Crewe became the production facility for the motor cars from 1946.
In 1966, Rolls-Royce took over the UK’s other great aero engine manufacturer, Bristol
Siddeley, to create one of the strongest conglomerates in the world, but there were
problems ahead.
The turning point came in the early 1970’s, when development of the RB211 jet engine
ran into problems. A state-backed rescue was mounted but in 1971 Rolls-Royce Limited
went into receivership and was divided into separate aero and motor car companies.
In 1973, the Motor Car division was floated as a separate entity and was acquired by the
British defense company Vickers plc in 1980. Vickers produced Rolls-Royce and
Bentley motor cars at Crewe right up until 1998, when it sold out to the highest bidder –
Volkswagen.
While Volkswagen took control of the Bentley brand and the facilities in Crewe,
Cheshire, the Rolls-Royce marque was acquired by the BMW Group.
So it was that, in 1998, BMW Group set about building a project team to prepare for the
launch of a new car (Phantom) and plant (Goodwood) on 1st January 2003.
Rolls-Royce Historical Timeline
• 1904-1906 – The Royce Cars
• 1907-1925 – 40/50 hp (The Silver Ghost)
• 1922-1929 – 20 hp
• 1925-1929 – Phantom I
• 1929-1936 – 20/25 hp
• 1929-1936 – Phantom II/Phantom II Continental
• 1936-1938 – 25/30 hp
• 1936-1939 – Phantom III
• 1938-1939 – Wraith
• 1947-1959 – Silver Wraith
• 1949-1955 – Silver Dawn
• 1950-1956 – Phantom IV
• 1950-1965 – Silver Cloud I, II, III
• 1959-1991 – Phantom V, VI
• 1965-1980 – Silver Shadow I, II/Silver Wraith
• 1971-1996 – Corniche I-IV
• 1975-1986 – Camargue
• 1980-1989 – Silver Spirit/Silver Spur
• 1998-2002 – Silver Seraph/Park Ward
• 2000-2002 - Corniche
• 2003-present – Phantom