All you need to know about Rolls Royce
Born: 1904
Nationality: British
Arguably the most famous name in luxury cars came about in 1904 when engineer, aeronautist and car salesman Charles Stuart Rolls was introduced to Frederick Henry Royce, an electrical and crane manufacturing engineer who had recently built his first 10hp prototype cars because he was dissatisfied with one he had bought. By the end of 1904, Royce had produced several different cars for the Paris Show, and Rolls was selling them in London. The cars were named Rolls-Royce from December 1904, though Rolls-Royce Limited was not formed until 1916.
The underlying principle of the products was rooted in Royce's obsession with smooth, quiet running. This led him to solve a number of engineering problems which made most other cars run rather roughly, including a unique crankshaft development which was used first in the original "silver" cars, the Silver Ghost in 1907.
In 1910, Rolls spent some time pursuing developments in his other passion, aeronautics. He completed the first double crossing of the Channel - England to France to England - on June 2nd 1910, but on July 12th his plane crashed and he became the first Briton to die in an aviation accident.
The famous "Spirit of Ecstasy" motif was designed for Rolls-Royce in 1911 by Charles Sykes, principal illustrator for The Car Illustrated. That year, Royce became ill with cancer and was given only a year to live. But he recovered and lived until 1933. His obsession with perfection led him to abruptly dismiss employees at the works and so disrupt production.
He was persuaded not to visit the plant again and he worked until the end of his life leading a team that produced design schemes only.
At the start of the first World War Royce designed his first aero engine, the Eagle, which was to provide half of the total horsepower used in the air war by the allies.
The Silver Ghost was replaced in 1925 by the new Phantom and featured power four-wheel brakes and an overhead-valve engine. The Phantom I continued in production 1929, being replaced by the Phantom II until 1935, and the Phantom III carried the company through 1939. A year before, the first Wraith was built. It is worth noting that Rolls-Royce did not make a complete car until after the second World War - they made only chassis, the bodies being added by outside coachbuilders
In the second World War, the R-R Merlin aero engine powered the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. Rolls-Royce also developed of the aero gas turbine, pioneered by Sir Frank Whittle. The Welland engine entered service in the Gloster Meteor fighter in 1944.
After the war, car production resumed in 1947, with the Silver Wraith staying in production until 1959, together with the Silver Dawn (1949-1955), the Phantom IV (1950-1956) and the Silver Cloud (1955-1959). The successor Silver Cloud II (1959-1962) and Silver Cloud III 1962-1966) were equally successful, but it is the Silver Shadow model of 1965-1976 and Silver Shadow II between 1977-1981 which really brought the brand to almost a "common" acceptance, with almost 30,000 copies sold between them.
A Phantom IV from the 1950s was the preferred transport of the British monarchy until the late '80s. Other models were the Silver Spirit I, II, and III, the Corniche convertibles (1971-1987), and the Silver Dawn introduced in 1996. Through the 1950s and 1960s R-R had garnered a large part of the world jet engine business. The company floated off the car business in 1973, and in 1998 Rolls-Royce Motor Cars was sold to Volkswagen.
BMW held the rights to the name and the marque for use on Rolls-Royce cars, having acquired them from Rolls-Royce plc for £40 million in 1998. BMW took over responsibility for Rolls-Royce cars from the beginning of 2003, and over 500 units of last year's new Phantom have been made.
• Best Car: Any of the 60 per cent of all R-Rs built that are still roadworthy. For this writer, the 1962 Silver Cloud.
• Worst Car: It was never allowed outside the gate.
• Weirdest Car: John Lennon's newly painted psychedelic 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V, attacked by an old woman with her umbrella, yelling "You swine, you swine! How dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce."