Rolls-Royce has long been associated with some of the most high-profile names in the art world. Many leading artists and significant patrons owned and travelled in Rolls-Royce motor cars; in the modern era, the marque has collaborated with influential figures in the contemporary milieu to create Bespoke motor cars that stand as works of art in their own right.

This review celebrates some of the notable artists for whom Rolls-Royce has become part of their legacy and legend, and the wider connections between Rolls-Royce and the art world that have brought so many great practitioners to the brand over the years.



A BRAND BORN FROM ART

Born in 1875, Charles Robinson Sykes won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, where he studied drawing, painting and sculpture. Sykes, who enjoyed a long, varied and successful career as a commercial artist, was hired by The Hon. John Montagu in 1902 to provide the illustrated elements of The Car Illustrated magazine, one of the first to print images in full colour.

Sykes’s work soon caught the attention of Claude Johnson, the first commercial managing director of Rolls-Royce. When Johnson decided Rolls-Royce needed an official mascot, he commissioned Sykes to create one, instructing him to make it look like the imposing Greek statue Nike of Samothrace in The Louvre in Paris. Sykes, however, believed a more ethereal figure would better express his own experience of travelling in Montagu’s Rolls-Royce. He created a delicate figurine now globally known and revered as The Spirit of Ecstasy, which continues to grace every Rolls-Royce motor car to this day.



ART IN MOTION

In the early days, Rolls-Royce supplied motor cars as rolling chassis, on which the owner commissioned bodywork from their chosen specialist independent coachbuilder. Many owners took full advantage of this opportunity for personal expression, creating motor cars that stand as works of art in their own right.

1925 Phantom I – Chassis 94MC

This motor car is based on a 1925 Phantom I chassis, bought new by Mrs Hugh Dillman of Detroit. Unhappy with the cabriolet body built by Hooper & Co in London, Mrs Dillman never took delivery, and the car was sold on to the Raja of Nanpara.

In 1934, a new owner sent the chassis to coachbuilders Jonckheere in Belgium. They gave it a completely new body defined by the large round doors, which allow passengers into either row of seating. Each door features a two-piece window that splits like a pair of scissors down into the door. The design also includes a sloping radiator grille covering the perpendicular original, double side-by-side sunroofs, round spats that cover almost the entire rear wheel, and a side-opening louvered luggage compartment. Bullet-shaped headlights, flowing wings and a long vertical tailfin down the luggage compartment lid finish off the sleek contours of what became known as The Jonckheere Coupé.

The motor car was later acquired by a Mr Max Obie, who painted it gold and charged visitors $1 to view it. In 1991, it was sold to a Japanese collector, then sat largely forgotten until 2001 when it was acquired by its present owners, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA. Now fully restored, the ‘Round Door Rolls-Royce’ has taken top honours at both Pebble Beach and Meadowbrook Concours d'Elegance.

1927 Phantom I – Chassis 76TC

Among the most famous and extravagant examples was a Phantom I commissioned in 1927 by Clarence Gasque as a gift for his heiress wife, Maude. Known as 'The Phantom of Love', it was both a glorious monument to his devotion, and a spectacular indulgence of Maude’s passion for 18th Century French history and design.

With an effectively unlimited budget, coachbuilders Charles Clark & Sons produced an interior worthy of Versailles. Details included a bespoke Aubusson tapestry on the rear seats, a hand-painted ceiling with gilded cornices, and a bow-fronted drinks cabinet based on a Louis XIV chiffonier, topped with an ormolu clock and a pair of French porcelain vases filled with gilded metal and enamel flowers. Cupboards at either end held concealed, fold-down, inward-facing occasional seats also upholstered in Aubusson tapestry. A century later, it remains one of the finest examples of automotive art and craftsmanship ever created; it was displayed at the Goodwood Revival as part of the marque’s 100 Years of Phantom celebrations in 2025.

1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III – Chassis 3CP38

Originally built in 1937 as a six-passenger limousine with occasional seats, this Phantom III was re-bodied in 1946 as a Sedanca de Ville by coachbuilders Freestone & Webb for Sir John Gaul, a colourful and eccentric property developer with a penchant for spectacular cars. To complement its striking Chianti Red paintwork and sham-cane rear doors, the front and rear wings, together with all the brightwork, were finished in copper, earning the motor its nickname, ‘The Copper Kettle’. The sumptuous interior featured comforts including an electrically operated division window, folding tables, a heater, radio, bar and clock in the rear compartment.

In 1954, Gaul sold the car to a Mr L Zimbler in the UK: it then spent time in South Africa and the Netherlands before returning to London in 1964, where it went on sale, fully restored and with 56,000 miles on the clock. By 1966 it had found its way to the USA, eventually entering the Blackhawk Collection in Danville, CA, where it remains among the most popular exhibits. In 2008, the motor car took both First in Class in the Rolls-Royce Pre-War Class and the Lucius Beebe Trophy at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance; it returned to the event in 2017.

1946 Silver Wraith – Chassis WTA45

This motor car was also owned by Sir John Gaul. He initially sent the chassis to Freestone & Webb, creators of his ‘Copper Kettle’, but changed his mind and commissioned Coupe de Ville bodywork from his other favourite coachbuilder, Carrosserie Saoutchik of Paris. It was the first Rolls-Royce to be bodied by a coachbuilder outside the UK after the Second World War, and the only example Saoutchik ever built on a Rolls-Royce chassis.

In typically flamboyant Saoutchik style, the motor car features sweeping curves and reversed elements, sham-canework, carriage-style door handles and faux landau irons. The interior is pure Art Deco in contrasting colours. The motor car was awarded Best of Show at the Monte Carlo Concours in 1948; over 60 years later, following a complete rebuild, it took a Best in Class at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Today, the Coupe de Ville roof, which was welded shut during the motor car’s middle years, has been restored to its original configuration.



THE HOME OF GREAT ART

The team at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood includes its own world-class artisans, who produce one-off pieces for client commissions and Bespoke Collection projects.

In 2023, Rolls-Royce unveiled Phantom Syntopia, a singular Bespoke commission developed over four years in collaboration with Dutch fashion designer and Haute Couturière Iris van Herpen. Inspired by her ‘Weaving Water’ concept and the principles of biomimicry, the motor car translates the fluidity and movement of natural forms into both its iridescent ‘Liquid Noir’ exterior and a highly sculptural interior featuring three-dimensional textiles, the most intricate Starlight Headliner in Rolls-Royce history, and a unique Gallery artwork. As the first Rolls-Royce to incorporate a tailored fragrance, it delivered a fully immersive, multi-sensory experience, pushing the boundaries of craftsmanship, innovation and personalisation.

Two years later, Rolls-Royce presented three Bespoke motor cars inspired by the ancient mural paintings of Dunhuang in China, which date back over 1,000 years. Commissioned through Private Office Shanghai, the centrepiece of the interior is a hand-painted Bespoke Gallery artwork. The composition presents a landscape painting on black leather, completed with the Silken Spirit motif embroidered in white and black thread, evoking the movement of flying apsaras – celestial beings in Buddhist culture – which are prominently portrayed in the ancient murals.

Rolls-Royce has also exhibited at the prestigious London Craft Week; founded in 2015, this city-wide festival celebrates exceptional craftsmanship across multiple sectors and disciplines. A curated programme shines a light on the creative talent behind some of the world’s most beautiful objects, telling stories of their inspiration, process and materials. Today, it features over 1,000 makers from more than 30 countries.

In 2025, Rolls-Royce presented an exquisite artwork inspired by the rich flora and fauna of the British Isles. A collaboration between makers from the Interior Surface Centre, the Exterior Surface Centre and the Interior Trim Centre, the triptych captures the essence of woodland life at three moments over a 24-hour period.

For London Craft Week 2026, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unveiled four new craft techniques inspired by historical craftsmanship: 3D leather hand-sculpting, 3D metal hand-sculpting, 3D veneers and beadwork application. These innovations were presented in two works built at the scale of a Phantom Gallery.



ART FOR A CAUSE

Phantom VIII provided the canvas for a one-of-one work by artist Marc Quinn, offered as the headline lot in an auction at the marque’s ‘Dine on the Line’ charity event in 2019. Quinn created a bespoke artwork featuring the iris of the winning bidder’s daughter, inspired by his series of paintings, We Share Our Chemistry with the Stars.

In 2022, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Greater China worked with Spanish artist Javier Calleja to produce a series of 1:8 scale models of Ghost featuring abstract representations of a child’s portrait. One of the pieces was auctioned to raise funds for a charity foundation supporting mental health and well-being initiatives.

Some years earlier, Rolls-Royce had commissioned 12 leading artists, including Gavin Turk, Charming Baker, Stuart Semple, Richard Wentworth, Mark Wallinger, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Maggi Hambling, Yinka Shonibare and Natasha Law to create unique artworks based on miniatures of Ghost to raise funds for a breast cancer charity.



THE PHANTOM GALLERY: A NEW CANVAS

With the introduction of Phantom VIII, Rolls-Royce reimagined the motor car interior as a space for artistic expression. At its heart is the Phantom Gallery: a full-width, glass-enclosed fascia that spans the dashboard, designed to house commissioned artworks. Seamlessly integrated and permanently displayed, it transforms Phantom into a curated exhibition space.

The Gallery marked a significant evolution in the marque’s relationship with the art world; where Rolls‑Royce motor cars have long inspired artists, the Gallery provided a new platform for art itself. Clients collaborate with leading artists, designers and the marque’s own artisans at the Home of Rolls‑Royce to create entirely bespoke works, making each Phantom a rolling gallery unique to its owner.

Notable recent commissions demonstrate the breadth of possibility. The Phantom Centenary Private Collection contains a special Anthology Gallery, the dramatic composition of which features 50 3D-printed, vertically brushed aluminium ‘fins’ interlaced like pages of a book. Each fin is composed of sculpted letters that can be read from both sides, forming quotes drawn from a century of press acclaim.

Phantom Oribe was developed in collaboration with Hermès; for its Gallery, Hermès commissioned an artwork based on a design by the celebrated French artist and illustrator Pierre Péron (1905–1988) who created many of the House's iconic scarves. The work, inspired by the famous Hermès horse motif, is hand-painted on Open Pore Royal Walnut and is presented as though staged in an art gallery, behind glass.

In the Koa Phantom, the Gallery incorporates rare, open-pore Hawaiian Koa wood, selected and bookmatched to create a serene, landscape-like composition, underscoring the client’s personal connection to place and nature.

Through the Phantom Gallery, Rolls-Royce has defined a new typology within the art world: a private, mobile exhibition space, experienced not in a public gallery, but in moments of quiet reflection. It is a contemporary expression of the marque’s enduring dialogue with artists and patrons alike – and a powerful articulation of Phantom’s position not only as a motor car, but as a work of art in its own right.



AN ENDURING CONNECTION

Since its earliest days, Rolls-Royce has so often been the mode of transport chosen by the world’s most influential figures – and the art world is no different. From master artists to the world’s most notable collectors, it is no surprise that such influential figures would travel in this fashion, with Rolls-Royce offering a luxury experience that is akin to viewing the exquisite pieces of art these individuals became known for.

A Place of Sanctuary

In 1947, aged 77, Henri Matisse embarked on what he regarded as his masterpiece: not a painting, but a chapel for the Dominican convent in Vence, a small town near Nice. Matisse eventually spent more than four years working on the Chapelle du Rosaire (Chapel of the Rosary) designing its architecture, stained-glass windows, interior murals and ceramics, liturgical furnishings and even the priests’ vestments. Throughout the construction work, he made constant trips up the hill from his studios in the upper-class Nice suburb of Cimiez to the site –now often known simply as the Matisse Chapel – in a Rolls-Royce.

An Unforgettable Scene

Anyone rejoicing in the title Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol, is always likely to attract attention. But the Spanish artist better known by his abbreviated name, Salvador Dalí, nevertheless went out of his way to occupy the limelight. Having shocked the art world with his surrealist images of nightmarish landscapes, chimeric animals, suggestive food and melting clocks, he was eager to bring his unique brand of excess and eccentricity to a wider audience.

In 1955, he was asked to give a lecture at the Sorbonne in Paris. Seeing a golden opportunity to create a moment in modern art, Dalí borrowed a friend’s white Phantom and filled it with 500kg (1,100lb) of cauliflowers.

After a wild ride through the streets of Paris in his brassica-laden conveyance, Dalí pulled up outside the august university and flung open the Phantom’s doors, sending the cauliflowers cascading to the ground. How many now remember his exposition on ‘Phenomenological Aspects of the Paranoiac Critical Method’ is debatable, but in the public consciousness, Dalí had well and truly arrived.

Famous for More than 15 Minutes

Dalí spent every autumn and winter in New York City, where he based himself in a suite at the St Regis Hotel in Manhattan. It was here, in 1965, that he first met a young visual artist named Andy Warhol. This seminal moment in art was captured by British photographer David McCabe, who later recalled: ‘Dalí turned the whole event into theatre. Andy was petrified.’

Warhol was Dalí’s natural successor and became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Unlike his mentor, however, he actually owned a Phantom: a 1937 model that had been converted into a shooting brake around 1947. In 1972, Warhol and his Swiss agent, Bruno Bischofberger, happened to pass an antique shop in Zurich where it was on sale. Warhol bought it on the spot and shipped it to New York. He owned the car until 1978, when he sold it to his friend and manager, Fred Hughes.

Power and Patronage

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908-1979) served as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford; he was also Governor of New York from 1959 to 1973. Arguably, his more enduring legacy was as a leading patron of the arts: Alfred Barr, founding director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) observed that ‘Nelson needs art more than any man I know’.

Rockefeller was also a passionate car collector and owned a number of Rolls-Royce motor cars during his lifetime. One notable example is his 1929 Phantom I, manufactured at Rolls-Royce’s former US plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, with coachwork by in-house coachbuilder Brewster. It is one of only 10 ever produced with the Brougham de Ville’s ‘Riviera Town Car’ body style, and the only one to be decorated in pure gold. Its most arresting feature is the passenger cabin set at the extreme rear of the chassis, accentuating its extended wheelbase. Rockefeller’s name can still be seen on the gold-varnished wicker on the rear. He also owned a 1936 25/30H.P. Sedanca Coupé, with distinctive maroon and black coachwork by Gurney Nutting.

Rockefeller took delivery of his 1966 Phantom V, one of just three Sedanca de Ville motor cars produced by coachbuilders James Young and refinished to his order in Black over Primrose Yellow, a few days before being sworn in as Vice President of the United States in 1974.

On the Beaton Track

Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton CBE (1904-1980) was an artistic polymath; though best known as a fashion, portrait and war photographer, he won three Academy Awards and four Tony Awards as a costume and set designer for screen and stage, and was also a noted diarist, painter and interior designer. An artist-patron of extraordinary reach and depth, he photographed Queen Elizabeth II and dressed Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady.

Beaton used a 1946 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, driven by a chauffeur, to convey him from the whirl of London high society to the peace of his country home at Reddish House in Wiltshire.

There is Nothing like a Dame

At the height of her fame, Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) was one of the most eminent and popular painters in Britain. In 1936, she became only the third woman to be elected as a full member of the Royal Academy – her 1965 retrospective was the first for a woman in the RA’s history – and her success in the then male-dominated British art establishment helped secure greater status and recognition for other female artists.

Dame Laura was greatly interested in and inspired by marginalised communities and individuals, including Romani people and circus performers. In the mid-1930s, Dame Laura befriended and painted groups of Romani women at Epsom and Ascot racecourses, using an old Rolls-Royce she rented from an undertaker as her mobile studio. The motor car, which is sadly unidentified, was large enough to accommodate her easel when it was raining; in fine weather, she would climb on the roof, which gave her a splendid vantage point above the heads of the race-day crowds.

• Rolls-Royce celebrates triple anniversary of three Goodwood-era Experimental motor cars
• 101EX, 102EX and 103EX record 20, 15 and 10 years respectively in 2026
• Essential proving grounds for battery electric technology and Bespoke individualisation
• Part of a through-line of EX motor cars extending back to 1EX in 1919

“Throughout its history, Rolls-Royce has created Experimental, or EX, motor cars, as part of its product development process. But an EX motor car is not a concept created to ‘test the waters’: it is fully realised, drivable, and informed by our deep understanding of our clients’ needs and desires. Each of the three EX cars marking their anniversary this year has made an immense contribution to the development of Goodwood-era models such as the legendary Phantom Coupé, Spectre and the coachbuilt Sweptail, as well as introducing the world to Bespoke through expressions like our signature Starlight Headliner. In their innovation, creativity, dynamism and engineering accomplishment, they perfectly translate the technical brilliance of Sir Henry Royce and the pioneering vision of Charles Rolls into the modern age.”
Bernhard Dressler, Director of Engineering, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


In 2026, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks a special triple anniversary; three groundbreaking Experimental – or EX – motor cars, built during the Goodwood-era, are recording 20, 15 and 10 years since their respective unveilings.

Each of these motor cars played a foundational role in establishing Rolls-Royce’s contemporary design language, technology, engineering hallmarks and commitment to Bespoke individualisation. Unlike conventional concept cars, which are used to ask the market what it wants, EX motor cars are developed to answer specific needs and desires, identified through Rolls-Royce’s deep understanding of its clients and a clear view of what comes next. They allow Rolls-Royce’s engineers to evaluate innovative technologies, advanced production methods, and bold new material palettes.

The three Goodwood-era EX cars are part of a through-line going back to 1EX, which Henry Royce built in 1919. When Royce found his new Phantom II, launched in 1929, too large and heavy for his own use, his designers produced a lightweight Experimental version, 26EX, on an adapted short chassis. It proved ideal for high-speed, long-distance touring on Europe’s smooth, straight roads, and entered production as the now rare and highly prized Phantom II Continental. During the early-to-mid 1930s, Rolls-Royce built 30EX and nine further experimental cars under the codename Spectre as part of the V12 engine development programme that would enter production in 1936 as Phantom III. Drawing inspiration from those experimental Phantom III motor cars, the name Spectre was later revived for the marque’s first battery electric motor car, unveiled in 2022. The last of the pre-Goodwood EX motor cars, 45EX, was built in 1957.


101EX, UNVEILED IN 2006 – 20 YEARS AGO

101EX made its debut at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show. A full four-seat coupé with twin coach doors, it was built on the same aluminium spaceframe as Phantom VII, but is 240 mm shorter. Combined with bodywork constructed from carbon fibre composite, and power from a 6.75-litre V12 engine, it was designed to have a more performance- and driver-focused character than its larger sibling. It also has a lower roofline and shallower glass area; the Pantheon grille is discreetly reclined and extended back across a brushed aluminium bonnet and windscreen surround.

The interior features the first-ever Starlight Headliner. Comprising hundreds of fibre-optic ‘stars’, it proved an instant sensation and is now a fundamental element of almost every Rolls-Royce motor car, with its own almost unlimited potential for Bespoke individualisation. Like its predecessor – 100EX, unveiled in 2004 – 101EX would find lasting fame as a series production car; the legendary Phantom Coupé, launched in 2008.

Phantom Coupé, together with the closely related Phantom Drophead Coupé, was foundational to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ development as a modern House of Luxury. They introduced the world to the full possibilities of Bespoke, informed by the company’s growing understanding of the wider luxury market, and the idea of a Rolls-Royce as a canvas for deep, Bespoke individualisation. 101EX also gave designers and engineers vital insights into materials and construction techniques that would inform the development of the first Coachbuild project of the modern era: Sweptail, presented in 2017.


102EX, UNVEILED IN 2011 – 15 YEARS AGO

102EX has a unique place in history as the first battery electric vehicle (BEV) ever built by Rolls-Royce. Also known as the Phantom Experimental Electric (EE), it was created as a one-off, working test bed for alternative drive-train technologies, and thus represented the first tangible step on the road that would lead to the advent of Spectre, more than a decade later.

One of the most significant engineering challenges was converting everything that runs directly off the engine in a standard motor car, from power steering and ABS to heating and audio, to battery power. 102EX had what was then the largest capacity battery fitted to a motor car anywhere in the world: its wireless induction charging system was also a world first.

Following its Geneva debut, 102EX embarked on a year-long ‘world tour’ of client, media and public events, culminating in a landmark appearance at the prestigious Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This gave owners, VIPs, media and enthusiasts the opportunity to discover Rolls-Royce’s emerging drivetrain technology and share their experiences and impressions; this information proved crucial to engineers’ understanding of the potential and practicalities of BEVs. 102EX’s international odyssey would later be eclipsed by the 2.5 million kilometres Spectre accumulated in some of the world’s most hostile climates and challenging terrain for its own pre-launch testing.


103EX, UNVEILED IN 2016 – 10 YEARS AGO

In 2016, the marque commissioned a special ‘Vision’ motor car named 103EX, which would define the future of luxury. Hand-built using the most advanced materials, and powered by a zero emissions powertrain, it revealed a future in which Rolls-Royce offered clients a completely personal, effortless and autonomous experience.

The passenger cabin, known as ‘The Grand Sanctuary’, surrounds occupants with precious and contemporary materials carefully chosen to create a feeling of lightness, simplicity and effortless elegance. The seats are replaced with an opulent sofa, which, thanks to artful lighting, appears to ‘float’ within the cocoon of the cabin.

At 5.9 metres long and 1.6 metres high – the same dimensions as Phantom Extended – 103EX guarantees a Grand Arrival for its owner. For the first time, the Spirit of Ecstasy was made in glass and illuminated from below.

As well as an all-electric powertrain, 103EX includes a digital assistant called ‘Eleanor’. The choice of name was inspired by Eleanor Thornton, who was believed to have been sculptor Charles Sykes’ muse for the original Spirit of Ecstasy mascot. Within the Vision motor car, Eleanor was conceived to enable fully autonomous driving while also facilitating a seamless digital interface between motor car and owner. This forward-looking concept anticipated aspects of today’s Whispers app, which provides clients with a curated digital connection to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.


UNITED BY HERITAGE

Although these three motor cars are very different in conception and execution, they share a single, highly exclusive, distinguishing feature.

The use of the Rolls-Royce Badge of Honour, with its overlaid double ‘R’ for the founders’ second initials, can be traced back to the earliest days of the brand, with the first examples appearing on Rolls-Royce 10 H.P. motor cars in 1905. The first badges featured the ‘RR’ symbol in red on a silver background, but in 1931, the process began to change the lettering to black – a style that has remained ever since.

However, the original-style red badge has periodically resurfaced over the decades – albeit rarely and on a highly restricted basis. In 1979, to mark the company’s 75th anniversary, Rolls-Royce fitted red badges to all 212 examples of the Silver Shadow II Anniversary model, together with a single Camargue and the sole Silver Wraith II. Red badges were also specified for the final series of 25 Corniches, the turbocharged Corniche S.

This practice continues today, with red badges occasionally assigned to carefully selected motor cars. Most notably, they have also been fitted to all the Goodwood-era EX models – including the three celebrating their anniversaries this year. This shared feature underlines their historic importance to Rolls-Royce, preserving a through-line of innovation, experimentation and challenging of convention that can be traced back to the marque’s foundation.

• Le Rossignol: the name of the house in which Sir Henry Royce’s designers and engineers lived in the South of France
• French for ‘the nightingale’, Le Rossignol was named as a tribute to Rolls-Royce’s Derby factory
• Henry Royce personally designed the Derby factory on Nightingale Road
• Nightingale Road was home to Rolls-Royce motor car production from 1908 to 1939
• Royce later built Le Rossignol near Villa Mimosa, his residence in the South of France
• Le Rossignol reflects Royce’s pursuit of creative focus and deep connection with the Côte d’Azur

 
“The time Sir Henry Royce spent on the French Riviera offers a more private view of how he worked. Le Rossignol, which was purpose-built as a residence for his designers and engineers, adjacent to his house, became a setting for focused creativity, where ideas were formed, tested and refined. That it was named as a heartfelt tribute to Nightingale Road, the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby which Sir Henry himself personally designed, only adds to the significance of this special location in Rolls-Royce’s story. Sir Henry’s closeness to his creative team, and his belief in their ability to achieve remarkable things, remains a point of pride at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars today. It lives on in the work that demands the most from us and matters most to our clients.”
Domagoj Dukec, Director of Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

During the later years of his life, Sir Henry Royce spent each winter at his private residence on the French Riviera. The villa, named La Mimosa, was built in the hills above the village of Le Canadel in 1911, after Sir Henry had visited the area during a period of rest after the intense effort of establishing Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing base at Nightingale Road, Derby.

In addition to La Mimosa, Royce had two other houses built: Le Bureau served as a design studio, and Le Rossignol – French for ‘the nightingale’ – was the house in which the designers and engineers lived. It was very important to Royce that the designers and engineers were close to him, so they were able to bring their respective visions to reality quickly.

Le Rossignol’s naming was a heartfelt tribute to Nightingale Road, where Royce had personally designed the factory buildings, down to their internal layout, in 1908. He also revealed his genius for logistics, orchestrating the transfer of plant and machinery from the previous Manchester site without a single day’s delay in production. The name Le Rossignol commemorated Sir Henry’s achievements in Derby, and reflected the purpose of this new building: a quiet space where ideas could be developed, tested and perfected to Royce’s standards.

Royce often invited his most trusted engineers and designers to visit him at La Mimosa, many of whom stayed at Le Rossignol while working closely with him. Despite the tranquillity of the French Riviera, he remained obsessive in his commitment to precision and productive use of time.

One visiting engineer recounted how he was once invited to listen to some records with Royce. Expecting an evening of music, he was instead handed a set of recorded French language lessons. When the guest remarked that this was not what he had anticipated, Royce replied: “No time for leisure. We must use every moment to learn.”

Yet even with such discipline, Royce found moments of pleasure on the Riviera. In a rare moment of levity, he was photographed on the balcony of La Mimosa, playing the flute in the sunshine with the renowned British sculptor Francis Derwent Wood. He also took every opportunity to test his creations on the winding corniches near Le Canadel, often driving them himself.

Even when unwell, Royce couldn’t resist the thrill of his motor cars’ performance. On one journey back to England for emergency surgery, with Commercial Managing Director Claude Johnson at the wheel, Royce noticed a car gaining behind them and urged Johnson to accelerate, insisting: “A Rolls-Royce should never be overtaken.” As the motor car drew closer, Royce recognised its outline and said: “Don’t worry. It’s one of ours.”

The Riviera remained Royce’s sanctuary until his death in 1933, and was a place where nature, design and discipline coexisted. The legacy of Le Rossignol, both as a name and a place of disciplined creation, endures quietly within the Rolls-Royce story: an echo of the brand’s creative heritage that continues to inspire today.

INTRODUCTION

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has a longstanding relationship with the world of yachting, through a shared interest in harnessing fine materials and craftsmanship in the pursuit of performance and an overlapping clientele. Historically and in the modern era, racing yachts have informed key elements of Rolls-Royce’s design language, and provided direct inspiration for motor cars, including the fabled Phantom Drophead Coupé and the Boat Tail Coachbuild commissions.


A SHARED HERITAGE

The links between the marque and the maritime world are deep, personal and predate the marque’s foundation. Charles Rolls’ family owned the substantial but graceful Santa Maria – a 154ft (47m), 235 ton single screw schooner, powered by a twin cylinder 80HP steam engine, typical of fashionable late Victorian and early Edwardian nautical society. Logbooks and records from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries show Santa Maria taking the family on frequent cruises from Shoreham on the south coast of England to the Mediterranean, where her ports of call included Cannes, Naples, Malta and Monaco, still favoured destinations and/or home ports for the many Rolls-Royce clients who are also yacht owners.

After graduating from Cambridge in 1898, six years before his historic first meeting with Henry Royce, the youthful Rolls briefly served as her Third Engineer. This was his foundational engineering role before fulfilling his true vocation as a pioneer of both motoring and aviation. His fellow motoring enthusiast, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu was, like so many of the marque’s aristocratic early adopters, also an active yachtsman and motorboat racer.


MAKING WAVES

In the decades that followed, Rolls-Royce forged deep connections with the maritime world, much as it did in aviation, as a world-class engine manufacturer. In the early 1960s, the graceful Riva Caravelle yachts were powered by Rolls-Royce engines, combining Italian craftsmanship with British engineering excellence. (Between 1989 and 1997, Vickers owned both Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Riva.) In 1965, Rolls-Royce collaborated with the leading Italian boatbuilder, Avonautica Rio, to develop the ‘Rolls-Rio’ – a stunning open luxury wooden sports boat, in the celebrated Italian style, powered by a marine-adapted version of the Rolls-Royce V8 engine which powered the Silver Cloud II.

From 1954 to 1997, Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia was the official vessel of the British Royal Family, the late Queen Elizabeth II describing it as “the one place I can truly relax”. Now permanently berthed at Ocean Terminal in Leith, Edinburgh, as a five-star tourist attraction, during her service life, HMY Britannia famously carried a Rolls-Royce Phantom V Park Ward limousine for the Queen’s use when the yacht docked in foreign ports. The motor car was hoisted on and off the deck using a small crane, or davit, and kept in a garage on the Shelter Deck: in order to fit inside, it had to have its bumpers removed, then reattached at the destination.


ON LAND AND SEA

The strongest historical connection between Rolls-Royce and yachting lies in their shared clientele. During the early 20th century, yacht-racing was a highly prestigious and exclusive pursuit, attracting many of the same wealthy British and American industrialists, financiers, aristocrats and entrepreneurs who were also Rolls-Royce owners.

Then as now, the pinnacle of this rarefied sport was the America’s Cup. For many, this reached its own zenith in the 1930s, when it was contested by the peerless J-class yachts. With their elegant proportions, long overhangs, sweeping lines and enormous sail plans, these classic high-performance vessels combined beauty with breathtaking speed, and are still revered as floating works of art.

One example, Endeavour, was owned by Sir Thomas ‘Tommy’ Sopwith. Another aviation pioneer, whose designs included some of the most influential machines of the First World War, Sopwith ran a Rolls-Royce dealership early in his career, and owned an extensive collection of Rolls-Royce motor cars throughout his life. Similarly, the media magnate Sir William Berry, Viscount Camrose, owned both a J-Class yacht, named Cambria, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom II.


THE LANGUAGE OF SPEED

In the early 20th century, Rolls-Royce motor cars were frequently bodied in styles directly inspired by yachts, incorporating materials such as mahogany and construction methods derived from traditional boatbuilding.

In Rolls-Royce’s contemporary design language, the lower line of the bodywork – known as the ‘waft line’ – borrows directly from yacht design. A defining feature of Phantom, Ghost, Cullinan and Spectre, it creates an uncomplicated sense of motion by reflecting the road passing beneath it, much as a yacht hull reflects the water as it cuts through it.

Launched in 2007, Phantom Drophead Coupé was designed to evoke a classic motor yacht at speed, with a dynamic rise in the waistline over the rear wheels, and graceful lines sweeping up towards the front. Completing the nautical theme, the tonneau cover, boot lining and rear passenger cabin were finished in bleached teak decking.

A decade later, the first Coachbuilt motor car of the modern era, ‘Sweptail’, was inspired by classic yachts in the commissioning client’s personal collection. It was followed in 2022 by the triptych of Boat Tail Coachbuild commissions, which, like their 20th Century predecessors, feature a rear deck inspired by classic yachts, with extensive use of wood and a sculptural, hull-like form.

Most recently, Spectre – the marque’s electric super coupé – continues this lineage. Its design was informed by J-class racing yachts, with a vertical bow line leading the eye rearwards to the sweeping fastback form.


ON COMMON GROUND

The present-day Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood is located close to Chichester Harbour, the largest recreational boating harbour in Europe. A designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, its tidal waters flow through a direct channel connection at the harbour mouth into the eastern Solent, and onward into the Solent itself – one of the world’s most important maritime and yachting centres, and home to one of the most active sailing communities anywhere.

Cowes, at the very heart of the Solent, is the birthplace of organised international yacht racing and international sailing culture; it is also home to Cowes Week, one of the longest-running regular sailing regattas in the world. The world’s oldest international sailing trophy, the America’s Cup, originated from a race that began in the Solent. Many other competitive offshore sailing races also either begin or are culturally rooted there, including the Fastnet Race and the Round the Island Race​, which both start and finish off Cowes. In addition, the round-the-world sailing competition, known today as the Ocean Race, originally started and finished in Portsmouth.

The decision to establish the modern Home of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars at Goodwood was shaped in part by its proximity to one of the world’s most concentrated centres of maritime craft skills. Across the Solent region, generations of specialist knowledge endure through bespoke boat builders, naval architects and master shipwrights.

• An overview of coachbuilding at Rolls-Royce from the 1900s to the present day
• Virtually all Rolls-Royce motor cars were coachbuilt until the 1950s
• Tradition all but died out with the introduction of monocoque construction
• Contemporary renaissance sparked by Rolls-Royce in 2017 with Sweptail
• New standards of innovation, excellence and ambition set by Boat Tail and Droptail
• An established part of the marque’s offer, with the new extension at the Home of Rolls-Royce adding further capacity and capability

INTRODUCTION

This Press Kit provides an overview of the history of coachbuilding at Rolls-Royce, the marque’s contemporary capabilities and notable examples of Coachbuild motor cars past and present. For more detailed information about Sweptail, Boat Tail and Droptail and the materials and techniques used in their manufacture, please refer to the specific product Press Releases.

Coachbuilding is the art and science of creating bespoke bodywork on a pre-assembled chassis, a craft that predates the motor car itself. At one time all but extinguished by mass production, coachbuilding today lives on at the Home of Rolls-Royce, drawing on more than a century of experience and the marque’s unique Bespoke capabilities.

Today, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild allows a small, select group of clients to collaborate fully with the Rolls-Royce team in creating a genuinely unique, utterly personal motor car unlike any other. Coachbuild enables them to specify their motor car’s actual physical form, with body panels hand-sculpted by specialist craftspeople at the Home of Rolls-Royce. Coachbuild also opens up new possibilities in materials, methods, engineering and technology, free of the restrictions of conventional series production.

Every Coachbuild project is a true one-off, undertaken on the strict understanding that it will never be replicated. These creations are far more than motor cars; they are authentic works of automotive art that represent a highly expressive and enduring legacy for their owners.


THE GENESIS OF COACHBUILDING

Rolls-Royce was founded in an era when car manufacturers generally produced ‘rolling chassis’, which were sent to specialist coachbuilders to be fitted with bodywork to the client’s specification. Some of these coachbuilders had simply switched from making horse-drawn vehicles; others had begun capitalising on the new opportunities the motor car presented.

These pre-Edwardian car bodies were built in much the same way as their horse-drawn predecessors. It quickly became apparent that, when applied to motor cars, their traditional materials and methods were unequal to the speeds of 30 to 40 miles per hour they were now being subjected to. The art of coachbuilding would have to adapt to the new reality.


COACHBUILDING AND ROLLS-ROYCE: A BRIEF HISTORY

As the 1920s dawned, mass-market car makers increasingly brought body construction in-house, where engineers could address emerging issues such as vibration and torsional stress. Luxury marques like Rolls-Royce, however, continued to outsource coachwork to specialist houses for several more decades.

Until the 1930s, most coachbuilders remained true to long-established practice, which involved assembling a wooden frame, usually in ash, onto which aluminium or steel body panels were typically nailed, tacked or screwed. As materials improved and motor cars’ speeds increased, frames were increasingly made from metal tubing or angle-iron.

This traditional craft was eventually replaced by semi-monocoque construction, with subframes for the mechanical components. In the case of Rolls-Royce, this occurred in October 1965 with the introduction of Silver Shadow. Contrary to popular belief, this did not mark the end of coachbuilding at Rolls-Royce. The Phantom VI, built on a separate chassis, remained in production, albeit in small numbers, until 1993, with coachwork supplied by Rolls-Royce subsidiary H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward Ltd.


SOVEREIGNTY OF DESIGN

Although a coachbuilt Rolls-Royce could, in theory, be any shape the client desired, in practice, there were constraints. Rolls-Royce motor cars were designed on proven technical principles that were, to Henry Royce at least, unarguable and inviolable. By insisting on fixed dimensions for the bulkhead behind the radiator, he was able to ensure the bodywork maintained the essential proportions that visually identified it as a ‘true’ Rolls-Royce.

Those proportions remain essential to the marque’s design language. Every Rolls-Royce motor car maintains the 2:1 ratio of body height to wheel diameter first established with the Silver Ghost in 1907. The body shape is defined by three fluid lines running the length of the motor car: the ‘waft line’ that gives the car its sense of movement; the ‘waist line’ that lends it purpose and presence; and the silhouette, which expresses its individual character. It is also graced with the Pantheon grille, crowned with the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine.

Coachbuild clients and designers enjoy considerable creative freedom within these fundamental parameters.


GREAT COACHBUILT ROLLS-ROYCE MOTOR CARS OF THE PAST

40/50HP Phantom I Brougham De Ville (1926)

The great coachbuilders paid as much attention to the interior as the exterior of the cars they created. Among the key elements were the instrument dials, which frequently transcended merely displaying essential information to become miniature works of art in their own right.

In 1926, the 40/50HP Phantom I Brougham De Ville, known as ‘The Phantom of Love’ was built by Charles Clark & Son Ltd of Wolverhampton for Clarence Warren Gasque, an American businessman of French ancestry living in London, as a gift for his heiress wife, Maude. Gasque commissioned an interior to recreate the Rococo ambience of a salon in the Palace of Versailles, with polished satinwood veneer panelling, Aubusson tapestries and a painted ceiling inspired by a sedan chair owned by Marie Antoinette. It also included a remarkable French ormolu clock, mounted on the partition between the front and rear cabins – an extraordinary detail that represents the pinnacle of the instrument maker’s art.

17EX (1928)

By 1925, Henry Royce was concerned that the weight and size of some of the coachwork fitted to Rolls-Royce chassis was affecting the motor cars’ performance – a fact its competitors gleefully seized upon. In response, Henry Royce built an experimental Phantom with an open, lightweight, highly streamlined body. Dubbed 10EX, this was the foundation for a series of motor cars that provided crucial new insights into overcoming air resistance and represented a giant leap forward in automotive design.

The fifth in the series, 17EX, was completed in January 1928. It was capable of speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour and, because Royce was adamant that even his experimental motor cars should look as good as any that bore his name, was finished in blue to the marque’s exacting standards.

The colour blue has long been associated with dependability, stability and calm; it is also highly visible at speed, as demonstrated by the record-breaking cars and boats of Royce’s good friend, Sir Malcolm Campbell.

Phantom II Continental Drophead Coupé (1934)

Co-creation has always been at the heart of coachbuilding. Having commissioned a design for their perfect motor car, the customer worked with the designers and manufacturing specialists to produce a final design that was technically achievable. The coachwork would then be completed to the customer’s satisfaction.

This 1934 Phantom II Continental Drophead Coupé, designed by A. F. McNeil and built in London by Gurney Nutting & Co., is considered one of the most exotic and beautifully balanced examples of boat tail coachwork ever created. The sweeping concave curves at the rear rise upwards to the razor-edged varnished rear deck. A design that has stood the test of time well, it remains a fine example of sporting elegance.

As a historical aside, McNeil’s protégé and successor, John Blatchley, was responsible for two of the most successful Rolls-Royce models of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the Silver Cloud and Silver Shadow.

Phantom VI limousine (1972)

The Phantom VI was the last Rolls-Royce model to be constructed with a separate chassis, and was thus the swansong of the coachbuilder’s art. This example was designed and built by H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward Ltd, then a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce. Much like a Goodwood era Private commission, it was based on the production model, but included numerous additional features specified by the customer. Indeed, so lavish and comprehensive were the enhancements that the marque produced a special promotional brochure for prospective patrons based on this motor car, highlighting the scope of its bespoke capabilities.

In addition to flower vases, a state-of-the-art sound and television system and a refrigerator for cooling wines and picnic food, the car was equipped with burled walnut picnic tables. Stored in the luggage compartment, these could be fixed to the front wings for alfresco dining; driver and passenger perched on a pair of ‘toadstool’ seats clipped to the front overriders.


CONTEMPORARY COACHBUILDING AT THE HOME OF ROLLS-ROYCE

Bespoke has been central to the marque’s offering and experience since production began at Goodwood in 2003. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars constantly seeks to create personal and deeply meaningful luxury products that reflect its clients’ ambitions and personal codes of luxury. Rolls-Royce’s unparalleled Bespoke capabilities enable clients to bring these desires to life through the commission of beautiful, handcrafted and truly individual Rolls-Royce motor cars.

A small group of exceptional individuals wished to elevate this remarkable, deeply personal experience even further and move beyond the canvas of existing Rolls-Royce products. Recognising this demand, and drawing on more than a century of experience, as well as its unique Bespoke capabilities developed in the modern era, the marque has defined a new coachbuilding movement.

The renaissance of contemporary coachbuilding began in 2017 with ‘Sweptail’, a bold two-door coupé created in response to a client’s wish to reprise the art of coachbuilding in partnership with Rolls-Royce. With its sharply tapered outline and full-length glass roof, it can be characterised as the Extrovert. It was followed by the unveiling of Boat Tail in 2021, a highly social open-top that amplified its clients’ love of hosting – a motor car that unashamedly represents the Hedonist.

Droptail, introduced in 2023, marked the third chapter in this remarkable story. For Droptail, the focus was placed on creating an intimate and cosseting interior, which would also serve as an unprecedented canvas for highly bespoke wood craft. Droptail captures the charm and embrace of two-seat motoring – it truly is the Romantic.


GOODWOOD-ERA COACHBUILT MOTOR CARS

Sweptail (2017)

In 2013, Rolls-Royce was commissioned to create a coachbuilt two-seater coupé featuring a large panoramic glass roof, inspired by the beautiful coachbuilt motor cars from the marque’s golden era in the 1920s and 1930s.

The first fully coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern Goodwood era, Sweptail’s defining feature is its raked rear profile, with the roof-line tapering in a sweeping gesture to a ‘bullet-tip’ that houses the centre brake light. The coachbuilt bodywork wraps under the motor car with no visible boundary to the surfaces, like the hull of a racing yacht. The underside of the motor car describes a progressive upward arc at the rear departure angle, producing the swept tail that gives the car its name.

With its clean lines and grandeur, and contemporary, minimalist handcrafted interior, Sweptail caused an international sensation when it was revealed in 2017. Four years in the making, it is now regarded as a true modern classic and the world’s greatest two-seater intercontinental tourer.

Boat Tail (2021-2022)

During the 20th century, a number of Rolls-Royce motor cars were built with a beautiful and distinctive body shape known as the Boat Tail. The nautical design was inspired by the great J-Class racing yachts that contested the sport’s ultimate prize, the America’s Cup, in the 1930s. In 2021, Rolls-Royce revived the Boat Tail design with the second fully coachbuilt commission of the modern Goodwood era. Boat Tail is entirely hand-built, with the body panels fashioned from single sheets of aluminium.

Three Boat Tails were completed, each unique to its commissioning client. The first two were unveiled at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in 2021 and 2022. At the request of its owner, the third was never exhibited in public, and no official images have ever been released.

Boat Tail (First Chapter) (2021) The first Boat Tail was commissioned by longstanding Rolls-Royce clients, and drew inspiration from a 1932 Rolls-Royce Boat Tail they had lovingly restored as part of their extensive private collection. The motor car is finished in a rich, complex blue embedded with metallic and crystal flakes. The rear deck is swathed in Caleidolegno veneer normally reserved for interior surfaces and specially adapted for exterior use, inlaid with brushed stainless steel pinstripes. At the press of a button, the deck opens in a sweeping butterfly motion to reveal an intricate Hosting Suite, complete with cocktail tables, interlocking stools made by Italian furniture house Promemoria, and even a parasol to shelter from the sun. A unique double refrigerator houses the clients’ preferred vintages of Armand de Brignac champagne.

The interior is finished in leather in two shades of blue with a soft metallic sheen applied to the surface. The centrepiece of the fascia is a pair of unique BOVET 1822 reversible timepieces commissioned by the client; a hand-crafted aluminium and leather case in the glove compartment contains a cherished Montblanc pen. The instrument panel dials are finished with guilloché, an intricate decorative technique more commonly seen in fine jewellery and watchmaking.

Boat Tail (Second Chapter) (2022)

The second Boat Tail to be completed was commissioned by a client whose family business grew from his father’s origins in the pearling industry. At the start of the commissioning process, the client presented Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers with four pearl shells: these inspired the exterior colour, which was then one of the most complex Bespoke finishes ever created by Rolls-Royce. A shimmering blend of oyster and soft rose with large white and bronze mica flakes adding a pearlescent quality, it changes subtly under different light conditions. The contrasting cognac-coloured bonnet contains fine bronze and gold-coloured aluminium mica flakes under a crystal and iced matt clear coat.

The rear deck, which houses Boat Tail’s unique ‘butterfly-design’ hosting suite, is made from Royal Walnut veneer, inlaid with rose gold-plated pinstripes. The interior is finished in cognac and oyster-coloured leathers and Royal Walnut veneer, with rose gold and mother-of-pearl accents throughout.

The centrepiece of the dashboard is a timepiece made from mother-of-pearl; the same material appears on the control switches and instrument dials.

Droptail (2023-2024)

Droptail represents a renaissance of the roadster body type, which breaks free from the four-seat convention previously associated with Rolls-Royce. In capturing this spirit, designers studied the 1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost ‘Sluggard’, the 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom Brewster New York Roadster and the 1925 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Piccadilly.

Droptail has two very distinct characters: a lithe, open-top roadster; and with the carbon-fibre roof installed, a dramatic coupé. Since each client wished to use their motor car around the world in multiple climates, the roof incorporates electrochromic glass that adjusts the amount of light entering the interior. In a technique reserved exclusively for Droptail, the body is a rigid monocoque in which steel is used for the load-bearing front wing and door sections, and carbon fibre from the B-pillar rearwards: the rear quarter panels are the largest carbon fibre panels ever created for a Rolls-Royce motor car.

La Rose Noire Droptail (2023)

The first to be unveiled was La Rose Noire Droptail, inspired by the Black Baccara rose, an intense, velvet-like flower that originates in France. The exterior is finished in the lustrous and complex True Love red, a completely new paint process perfected over 150 iterations; like the Black Baccara rose, it appears to change colour depending on the viewpoint.

The interior features the most complex parquetry ever created at Rolls-Royce, with an abstract depiction of falling rose petals formed using 1,603 Black Sycamore veneer triangles, each cut, sanded and precisely positioned by hand.

The fascia incorporates an integrated one-off timepiece by Audemars Piguet, specially commissioned by the client. The 43mm Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date is removable, so it can be attached to a strap and worn. The motor car also includes a unique Champagne Chest finished in rose-petal parquetry.

Amethyst Droptail (2023)

Inspired by the eponymous gem – the birthstone of the commissioning clients’ son –Amethyst Droptail is finished in a soft purple main body colour with a delicate silver undertone. Named Globe Amaranth in tribute to a flower native to the clients’ home region, fine flecks of powdered aluminium reflect the light, creating a subtle iridescent effect. The deep purple Amethyst contrast paint on the upper coachwork contains red, blue and violet mica flakes to give a subtle metallic sheen. Inside, the primary Amethyst leather is finished with a subtle pearlescent lacquer.

Amethyst Droptail features the most extensive wooden surface area in Rolls-Royce history, extending from the fascia and doors to the shawl panel, cantilevered ‘plinth’ centre armrest and onto the rear deck. The deck was made using a new veneering process developed specifically for this project: the protective coatings, also unique to Amethyst Droptail, have been granted their own patent.

The fascia is graced with a unique timepiece commissioned by the client from the renowned Swiss haute horlogerie maison, Vacheron Constantin. Handmade in Geneva, the timepiece, named ‘Les Cabinotiers Armillary Tourbillon’, has an intricate hand-wound movement and is securely housed in a specially designed holder, enabling it to be removed and stored separately from the motor car if desired.

Arcadia Droptail (2024)

This commission takes its name from the mythical realm of Arcadia, depicted in Ancient Greek mythology as ‘Heaven on Earth’ – a land renowned for its extraordinary natural beauty and perfect harmony.

Arcadia Droptail is finished in a calm, natural duotone white, which appears as a solid colour at first glance, with aluminium and glass particles creating depth and shimmer when the light strikes it. In a key departure from the other Droptails, the carbon fibre used to construct the lower sections of Droptail is painted in the solid Bespoke silver colour rather than left fully or partially exposed. The wood elements are made from Santos Straight Grain, which has one of the finest grain types of all the woods used by Rolls-Royce. Despite its delicacy, it appears throughout Droptail, including the aerodynamically functional rear deck section, which is made up of 76 separate pieces.

The leather interior is finished in two entirely Bespoke hues, named after the client and reserved exclusively for their use. The main leather colour is a Bespoke White, continuing the exterior paint theme, while the contrast leather is a Bespoke tan colour that complements the veneer.

The fascia incorporates the most complex Rolls-Royce clock face ever created. Developed by Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers and craftspeople, it incorporates an exquisite geometric guilloché pattern in raw metal with 119 facets, and partly polished, partly brushed hands and 12-hour markers or chaplets, each just 0.1mm thick.


THE FUTURE OF COACHBUILDING AT ROLLS-ROYCE

As clients’ desire for extraordinary expressions of contemporary Rolls-Royce coachbuilding continues to grow, Rolls-Royce is building for an even more ambitious future.

The marque’s site extension at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, which is scheduled for completion in 2029, will provide additional space and state-of-the-art facilities for Bespoke and the marque’s Coachbuild division, enabling more and increasingly complex commissions to be undertaken.

• One of the most famous, instantly recognisable emblems associated with the marque
• Design first registered as the ‘official’ Rolls-Royce mascot in 1911
• Origins and inspiration still a matter of conjecture, centred around two main theories
• Private Collections have been inspired by and have featured unique incarnations of the Spirit of Ecstasy during the contemporary Goodwood era
• ‘The Whisper’ and other Spirit of Ecstasy figurines are on permanent display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu

INTRODUCTION

This press kit provides an overview of the Spirit of Ecstasy – the enduring emblem of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since 1911. It traces her origins, evolution and continuing relevance within the marque’s cultural and creative narrative. For information about Phantom, Ghost, Cullinan and Spectre – including Extended and Black Badge variants – and the materials and techniques used in their manufacture, please refer to the specific product press kits.

MORE THAN A FIGUREHEAD

The Spirit of Ecstasy mascot has a unique place at the heart of Rolls-Royce. Her origins are the stuff of legend and myth as well as recorded fact, with some details still veiled in mystery and intrigue. She is widely recognised, respected and admired, with a poise and grace that have secured her enduring recognition. To clients and enthusiasts around the world, she personifies ambition, achievement, excellence and success, just as she has since she first took her place on the prow of a Rolls-Royce motor car more than a century ago.

Like Rolls-Royce and its products, the Spirit of Ecstasy has changed over time. At various points in her long life, she has adopted different stances, sometimes stood slightly taller or shorter, and allowed the wind to sculpt her flowing garments in subtly altered forms. Yet she is also truly ageless: today, she more closely resembles the original drawings made in 1911 by her creator, the illustrator and sculptor Charles Sykes, than she has ever done.

For Rolls-Royce, she is far more than a mascot or symbol. She provides a tangible connection to the company’s heritage through her richly layered story, involving many of the foundational characters in Rolls-Royce’s own history, including the company’s first managing director, Claude Johnson. She inspires greatness; every motor car handmade at Goodwood has to be worthy of her presence.

Perhaps most of all, since, she is believed to be based on the vivacious, assertive and complex Eleanor Thornton, serving as a reminder of the essential human dimension to what Rolls-Royce is and does. Every Rolls-Royce motor car is created by hand for an individual customer; a reflection of their unique personality, and the realisation of their dreams, desires and vision.

ORIGINS OF AN ICON

Today, the ability to commission highly individualised Bespoke details for their motor car remains central to the marque’s relationship with its clients. But in fact, this merely continues a desire for personalisation that emerged in the marque’s very earliest days.

By 1910, just six years after the marque’s formation, it was already an established custom among owners to decorate their radiator grilles with specially commissioned mascots. To the chagrin of General Managing Director, Claude Johnson, these were often in the form of cartoonish animals or comical characters. He therefore decided to create an ‘official’ mascot that would protect the company’s products from what he decried as these ‘unsightly’ additions.

Among Johnson’s wide social circle was the motoring pioneer Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. As founder and editor of The Car Illustrated magazine, his lordship employed an illustrator, Charles Sykes, many of whose wonderful designs for advertisements and magazine covers are conserved at London’s world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A).

Sykes was also an accomplished sculptor. Around that time – the precise date remains a mystery – Sykes had produced a mascot for Lord Montagu’s Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost: an aluminium statuette of a young woman in fluttering robes, which he named ‘The Whisper’. This original piece, together with other Spirit of Ecstasy figurines, is now on permanent display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

Impressed and inspired, Johnson asked Sykes to create a new mascot for Rolls-Royce. In one version of the story, upon receiving Johnson’s commission, Sykes subtly reinterpreted ‘The Whisper’ to create what became known as the Spirit of Ecstasy. An alternative view is that on a trip to Paris, Johnson had been impressed by the artistry of the Grecian marble statue of The Winged Victory of Samothrace, Goddess of Victory, sculpted in 190BC and exhibited in the Palais du Louvre since 1883. Some authorities have suggested that it was from this ancient Hellenic masterpiece that Johnson asked Sykes to draw his inspiration.

The Spirit of Ecstasy’s final form lends credence to both theories. She appears as an ethereal young woman leaning forward eagerly, her arms stretched back behind her, with flowing robes appearing to give her wings. Her serene expression offers no clues to the mysteries that still surround her.

WHERE MYTH MEETS REALITY

One of the most enduring of those mysteries was whether the Spirit of Ecstasy was in fact modelled on a real person. It was long suspected, and has now been confirmed, that Sykes’ inspiration for ‘The Whisper’ was a young woman named Eleanor Thornton, who played a crucial, complex and somewhat controversial role in the Rolls-Royce origin story.

Born in 1880, little is known of her early life. She first appears in the early 20th century as assistant to Claude Johnson, then in his pre-Rolls-Royce incarnation as General Secretary of the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club, or RAC). During this time, she rented rooms in an artists’ colony in Chelsea, where she acted as an out-of-hours life model for her fellow residents, one of whom was Charles Sykes. She became his favourite muse and posed for him on many occasions over the years that followed.

Their stories became even more closely entwined when Johnson introduced Thornton to his motoring comrade, and Sykes’ boss, Lord Montagu, who was instantly captivated by her vivacity, confidence and beauty. Bonds of friendship notwithstanding, Montagu promptly poached her as his own assistant, and almost immediately, they embarked on a long, heartfelt love affair.

It was while Sykes and Thornton were working together for Montagu at The Car Illustrated magazine that Sykes produced ‘The Whisper’. Whether the mascot was a token of appreciation from Sykes to his friend and employer, or made at Thornton’s instigation as a gift for her lover, is where the mystery lingers. Whatever the truth, Montagu displayed it on every Rolls-Royce motor car he owned until his death in 1929. It was, perhaps, the only way he could acknowledge his sincere and enduring love for Eleanor, who died in 1915, and which, owing to its potential for scandal, had always remained a closely guarded secret.

THE MARK OF EXCELLENCE

The design was registered as the company’s intellectual property in 1911 and became both a defining feature of the Rolls-Royce brand and one of the most famous and recognisable emblems in the world. In 1920, the Spirit of Ecstasy was entered into L’Auto’s ‘Concours des Bouchons de Radiateurs’ at the Paris Salon – a contest to identify the finest motor car mascot of its day. Charles Sykes was awarded Premier Prix, the gold medal. This recognition helped solidify the sculpture’s reputation in the early years of automotive culture and elevated both the artist and the emerging icon internationally.

Even then, however, she was not immediately or universally accepted. In the 1970s, some countries attempted to ban mascots on safety grounds. In Switzerland, for example, customers weren’t allowed to display her at all, and on receiving their motor cars found her placed in the glove compartment. Rolls-Royce’s typically elegant and ingenious solution was to mount the mascot on a spring-loaded base, allowing her to sink into the radiator out of harm’s way at the merest touch. This retraction mechanism has evolved into a smooth, graceful movement known as ‘the rise’ and is a feature on every Rolls-Royce motor car hand-built at Goodwood.

As the marque’s most important and recognisable emblem, the Spirit of Ecstasy is offered to patrons in carefully selected finishes: solid silver, 24-carat gold-plated and black carbon fibre.

SPIRIT OF INNOVATION

As they were in the beginning, the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine is made by ‘lost wax casting’, a practice that dates back over 5,000 years. Amazingly, Charles Sykes himself, assisted by his daughter Josephine, personally cast, inscribed and finished the Spirit of Ecstasy mascots right up until 1939.

In preparation for the launch of Phantom VII in 2003, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars rejuvenated the Spirit of Ecstasy by introducing the modern investment casting process.

The first step was to digitally ‘map’ the original Spirit of Ecstasy, manipulating and enhancing individual details to create a perfect three-dimensional computerised image. To ensure even the finest details were precisely replicated, the injection mould was formed by skilled craftsmen using cutters measuring just 0.2 mm in size. This cast tool was used to produce a highly accurate wax model of the figurine, which was then coated in ceramic. After this coating had dried, the wax was melted away, leaving a perfect mould from which the new cast would be taken.

Each figurine is made by filling the mould with molten stainless steel, at a temperature of 1,600°C. Once the steel has cooled, the mould is opened to reveal the Spirit of Ecstasy in its finished form. The final transformation takes place in the Finishing Department, using a process called peening. The casting is blasted by millions of stainless-steel balls, just 0.04 mm in diameter, which help to polish the surface without being abrasive. After machining, a final mirror polish and stringent quality assurance checks, the completed figurine takes her rightful place above the iconic Rolls-Royce grille.

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE

In 2020, as part of a wider update of the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars brand identity, a new abstract graphic element informed by the Spirit of Ecstasy was developed. Known as ‘The Expression’, this two-dimensional interpretation encapsulates the qualities of the Spirit of Ecstasy in a contemporary visual form for use across the marque’s corporate identity and reflects the company’s vision as a modern House of Luxury.

Rolls-Royce reimagined its iconic Spirit of Ecstasy figurine in 2022, to grace the bonnet of its first all-electric motor car, Spectre, 111 years to the day since the Spirit of Ecstasy was first registered as intellectual property of Rolls-Royce on 6 February 1911.

The figurine was remodelled to feature a lower, more dynamic stance that brought her much closer to the drawings made by her original creator, Charles Sykes, in the early years of the 20th century.

This version of the Spirit of Ecstasy stands 8.27cm tall, compared to the previous 9.5cm. Her robes, which flow behind her in the slipstream – often but erroneously characterised as ‘wings’ – are subtly reshaped to make them more aerodynamic and realistic. Rather than standing with her feet together and tilting at the waist, she is braced for the wind, one leg forward, body tucked low, her eyes focused eagerly ahead. These changes have both practical and stylistic benefits, contributing to Spectre’s remarkable performance as the most aerodynamic Rolls-Royce ever created, with a drag coefficient of just 0.25 cd.

CELEBRATING IN STYLE

In the modern era, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has celebrated landmarks in both its own history and that of the Spirit of Ecstasy through Private Collections, events and unique editions of the figurine itself. Notable expressions include:

• Phantom Centenary Private Collection (2025): Marking the 100th anniversary of its pinnacle product, Phantom, the Private Collection is the most intricate and technologically ambitious ever undertaken by the designers, engineers, production specialists and craftspeople of the marque’s Bespoke Collective. Each motor car is crowned with a unique reimagining of the Spirit of Ecstasy, based on the first figurine ever fitted to a Phantom. Cast in solid 18-carat gold for strength, then plated in 24-carat gold for a flawless, tarnish-resistant finish, the piece was tested by the London Assay Office and awarded a full UK hallmark together with a specially developed ‘Phantom Centenary’ mark. The base of the figurine is finished with hand-poured white vitreous enamel delicately inscribed with the collection’s name.
  
  
• Phantom Scintilla Private Collection (2024): Inspired by the Spirit of Ecstasy’s grace, dynamism and ethereal beauty, and limited to just 10 models, the interior of each motor car is filled with design elements, textures and a continuous graphic inspired by the Spirit of Ecstasy’s expressive, dynamic form. Claude Johnson’s original brief for a Rolls-Royce mascot is displayed on an embossed plate concealed in the glove compartment. These words, written in 1910, also capture the essence of Phantom Scintilla: ‘Speed with silence, the absence of vibration, the mysterious harnessing of great energy, and a beautiful living organism of superb grace’. For Scintilla, the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine is also rendered in a ceramic finish – alluding to the figurine’s origins and the aforementioned Classical Grecian sculpture, The Winged Victory of Samothrace.
  
  
• The Spirit of Ecstasy Centenary Private Collection (2011): Celebrating the mascot’s 100th anniversary and limited to just 100 Bespoke Phantom models, the Private Collection featured exclusive body colours, leather combinations, wood veneers and interior details. Each motor car features a specially commissioned Spirit of Ecstasy in solid silver, with six hallmarks (including two designed specifically for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars) on a black-gold-plated illuminated base.

A CONTINUING LEGACY

Today, the Spirit of Ecstasy remains the marque’s defining symbol, advancing with each new chapter while preserving the quiet authority that has distinguished her since 1911. As tastes, technologies and cultures continue to evolve, she endures as a constant expression of the marque’s values – a steady presence that guides the future while remaining true to the heritage that shaped her.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks 10 years of Black Badge following its debut in 2016
• Black Badge set a bold template for modern super-luxury that echoes across the sector
• 1928 20 H.P. with black grille and Spirit of Ecstasy archived as early aesthetic precedent for Black Badge
• The spirit and attitude of Black Badge trace back to John Lennon’s all-black 1964 Phantom V
• The current Black Badge portfolio includes Black Badge Spectre, Black Badge Ghost and Black Badge Cullinan
• Black Badge has inspired Bespoke commissions across gaming, sneakers and street art

“From the outset, Black Badge was created to welcome a new generation of clients into Rolls-Royce: individuals who express their success unapologetically and with conviction. By serving them with the care and precision that defines the wider Rolls-Royce experience, we have made the marque relevant to many clients who may never have previously considered it. This has supported the measured and sustained growth of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars over the ten years since Black Badge was introduced. Proof of its success is also evident beyond our own performance: Black Badge has established an aesthetic and experiential template that echoes throughout the luxury sector. I am excited to drive the further evolution of Black Badge in the years ahead.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

From the very beginning, Rolls-Royce has been defined not only by elegance, craftsmanship and superlative engineering, but by individualism, rebellion and a willingness to defy convention. This spirit was embodied by the marque’s founders themselves. Although their backgrounds could scarcely have been more different, both Sir Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls rejected the limitations of their circumstances in pursuit of greatness.

Henry Royce overcame poverty, illness and a lack of formal education to become one of the world’s great engineers, creating what the media describes as ‘the best car in the world’, and ultimately being knighted for his achievements. Charles Rolls, born an aristocrat and educated at Cambridge University, could have lived a life of privilege. Instead, he chose the danger and discipline of early motor racing and aviation, becoming a pioneer in both. Today, both men would be described as disruptors: visionaries who shaped the world by daring to do things differently.

That same spirit of self-expression and creative defiance has echoed through Rolls-Royce’s history ever since. It found its most contemporary and powerful expression in Black Badge, the marque’s alter ego.


EARLY PRECEDENT: 1928 ROLLS-ROYCE 20 H.P. BREWSTER BROUGHAM

During the ongoing digitisation of the Rolls-Royce archives, marque historians formally documented a motor car whose daring specification anticipated the Black Badge aesthetic by almost a century.

In 1928, a Rolls-Royce 20 H.P. Brewster Brougham was delivered with a striking and highly unusual addition: its Spirit of Ecstasy and radiator grille were finished in black rather than the traditional bright metal. This treatment would have been exceptional at a time when polished chromium symbolised modernity and prestige. Yet this client chose a darker, more assertive expression, anticipating by almost a century the codes that would later define Black Badge.

The motor car was commissioned by J. E. Aldred, a founding financier of Rolls-Royce of America, Inc. Configured for his use in New York during the late 1920s, it reflected the tastes of a new, cosmopolitan generation who expressed their success through bold, progressive design. That sensibility extended beyond the motor car: Aldred later commissioned the landmark Aldred Building in Montreal, a striking Art Deco tower defined by geometric forms and rich, dramatic interiors. His decision to specify a black Spirit of Ecstasy and radiator grille was entirely consistent with this confident, urban aesthetic, which continues to shape Black Badge commissions today.


THE FIRST TRUE EXPRESSION: 1964 ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM V

While earlier motor cars anticipated elements of this darker aesthetic, the spirit of Black Badge can be traced to a single, remarkable motor car. In 1964, The Beatles released A Hard Day’s Night, galvanising their status as the most famous band on Earth. That December, John Lennon ordered a new Rolls-Royce Phantom V from R. S. Mead of Maidenhead. He specified that it should be black everywhere, inside and out, including all the brightwork normally finished in chromium or stainless steel. Built by coachbuilders Mulliner Park Ward, his Phantom V was delivered in deep black gloss, including its bumpers and wheel discs. Only the Pantheon grille and Spirit of Ecstasy remained in chrome.

The motor car also featured darkened, reflective Triplex Deeplight glass in the rear doors, quarterlights, backlite and division. Lennon explained why in a 1965 interview with Rolling Stone: “It’s for when you’re coming home late. If it’s daylight when you’re coming home, it’s still dark inside the car. You just shut all the windows, and you’re still in the club.”

Inside, the rear suite was trimmed in black Bedford cord cloth with black nylon rugs, while the front featured black leather. It carried electric aerials for a radio and a Perdio Portarma television, along with seven pieces of black fitted luggage. Reports of a record player, fridge, telephone and even a pull-out bed persist, though these may have been later additions.

This motor car, uncompromising in its subversive intent and unapologetically unique, is now regarded as the spiritual progenitor of Black Badge.


A NEW GENERATION

It would take more than half a century and a technological revolution for this aesthetic to re-emerge as the defining expression of rebellion in luxury. In the early 2010s, a new generation of entrepreneurs began approaching Rolls-Royce. They had built their success at a young age, frequently leveraging new technologies and platforms to completely reshape industries. They projected their influence unapologetically, demanding exquisitely crafted products and uncompromising experiences, but with a dynamic edge and a defiant attitude that reflected their lives, their ambitions and their daring. Their taste defined new codes of luxury: darker in aesthetic, more assertive in character and bolder in design.

As the world’s pre-eminent super-luxury brand, they were naturally drawn to Rolls-Royce, and celebrated the marque’s effortlessly powerful V12 powertrain, commanding design and peerless material palette. Yet, they requested a more disruptive treatment that reflected the personal worlds they were creating: dramatic, expressive and modern.


THE FORMIDABLE ALTER EGO

Crafting an officially sanctioned response to this group was the subject of careful internal debate. It would require the marque to create a dedicated space within the brand for a more daring expression of Rolls-Royce, one that could coexist with its contemporary, classically inspired and globally celebrated identity. The result was Black Badge.

Black Badge motor cars introduced vivid new colours and technical materials, matched by a more powerful, agile and sonorous dynamic character, tailored to self-drivers who wanted to wield the power of a Rolls-Royce themselves, rather than be chauffeured. To signal their commitment to this disruptive group, designers cloaked the marque’s most precious assets – the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine, Pantheon grille and double-R ‘Badge of Honour’ – in black.

Black Badge motor cars were also given a symbol of their own: the mathematical symbol for infinity, marking the birth of a distinct universe within Rolls-Royce. It evokes the seemingly endless surge of power delivered by Black Badge-tuned V12 engines and honours Sir Malcolm Campbell, who piloted the Rolls-Royce-powered Blue Bird K3 hydroplane to a record-breaking 130 mph in the 1930s, carrying the same emblem, and expressing the same audacious spirit.


ENGINEERED DARKNESS

Rolls-Royce designers wished to present this bold new expression of the brand to the world in a signature treatment: one of the motor car industry’s darkest blacks. To create it, 45 kg (100 lbs) of paint was atomised and applied to an electrostatically charged body-in-white before being oven-dried. The motor car then received two layers of clear coat before being hand-polished by four craftspeople to produce the marque’s signature high-gloss piano finish.

At between three and five hours in duration, this operation was entirely unknown in series production, creating a unique and peerless intensity. This depth of darkness also provided the perfect canvas for a bright, high-contrast, hand-painted Coachline.

To match the dramatic coachwork, the marque’s Bespoke Collective of designers, engineers and craftspeople collaborated to develop a process that allows Rolls-Royce hallmarks such as the highly-polished Spirit of Ecstasy and Pantheon grille to be presented in black. Instead of painting these icons, a specific chrome electrolyte was introduced to the traditional chrome plating process that is co-deposited on the stainless-steel substrate, darkening the finish. Its final thickness is just one micrometre – around one hundredth of the width of a human hair. Each of these components was precision-polished by hand to achieve a mirror-black chrome finish before it was fitted to the motor car.

Specially designed Black Badge wheels enhanced the stance and presence of the motor car, signalling a more intense dynamic character. This was enabled through a Bespoke engine tuning that increased the power and torque output from the marque’s signature powertrain. Unique transmission and throttle calibrations to better exploit this increased potency were introduced, the chassis was lowered, reinforced and subtly stiffened, and a distinctive exhaust system that announced Black Badge’s arrival was fitted.

All V12 Rolls-Royce motor cars are equipped with a discreet ‘Low’ button on the gear selector stalk, allowing the driver to hold lower gears when required. In Black Badge motor cars, this existing control was recalibrated to access an additional reserve of power, reflecting the subtle and considered manner in which Rolls-Royce engineers approached this more urgent treatment.

Inside, new materials were developed that reflected Black Badge motor cars’ enhanced dynamism, drawing on technical palettes from the world of aerospace. Rolls-Royce artisans explored surfaces including carbon fibre through an entirely new lens, celebrating its intricate weave as a source of beauty rather than function. It was interlaced with fine threads of aluminium just 0.014 mm in diameter, then finished with six coats of lacquer, cured for 72 hours and hand-polished to a deep lustre.

Mirror-finished metal surfaces were also darkened in line with the Black Badge aesthetic. Interior brightwork, including the marque’s distinctive ‘eyeball’ air vents and Bespoke Audio speaker frets, was treated using a technique called Physical Vapour Deposition, one of the few metal-colouring processes that ensures parts will not discolour or tarnish over time, or with repeated use.

When clients experienced the motor cars for the first time, their response was emphatic: Rolls-Royce had perfectly captured the spirit these individuals wished to project by applying its uncompromising approach to craft to a bold new aesthetic philosophy.


THE BLACK BADGE CANON

The Black Badge legend was established in 2016 with the debut of Black Badge Wraith and Black Badge Ghost at the Geneva Motor Show. The dynamic intent of Black Badge was confirmed almost immediately. At the Goodwood Festival of Speed that same year, a Black Badge Wraith was driven up the rain-soaked hill by racing driver Justin Law and recorded one of the fastest timed runs ever achieved by a Rolls-Royce motor car, placing it among the five quickest road cars of the weekend. In doing so, it outpaced several purpose-built mid-engined sports cars, demonstrating that Black Badge delivered not only visual intensity but genuine dynamic substance.

Black Badge Ghost and Black Badge Wraith were followed by Black Badge Dawn in 2017 and Black Badge Cullinan in 2019. While Black Badge motor cars were often presented in a signature dark treatment, many clients drawn to the marque’s alter ego chose to express it in vividly individual ways. They commissioned notably vibrant exterior hues, either selecting from Rolls-Royce’s prêt-à-porter palette of more than 44,000 colours or creating entirely new Bespoke finishes of their own. Inspirations included a vivid lime green recalling the Australian green tree frog, a luminous red inspired by the blossoms of the ‘Ōhi‘a lehua, and a deep, iridescent purple drawn from the exotic butterfly Rhetus periander.

As the Black Badge universe grew, so too did the experiences that surrounded it. Black Badge ownership came to encompass gatherings and moments that echoed the bold, disruptive spirit of the motor cars themselves, from private night-time driving experiences on closed airport runways and immersive takeovers of underground music venues to highly choreographed handovers staged in dramatic industrial settings.

This culminated in the launch of Black Badge Spectre, with a highly exclusive fleet of clandestine motor cars. Following the launch of Spectre, clients made clear that they were eagerly anticipating its Black Badge counterpart. In response, Rolls-Royce granted a select group early access to these specially commissioned motor cars, ahead of the official reveal in 2025, on the strict condition that their ownership would remain secret – an unprecedented gesture that reflected both the confidence of the marque and the discreet, rebellious spirit of these clients. Their unequivocally positive response to Black Badge Spectre, and the motor car’s daring treatment that had been developed in their image, provided strong validation of the most powerful Rolls-Royce in history.


A DECADE OF INFLUENCE

In the decade since it was created, the disruptive clients for whom Black Badge was conceived have embraced Bespoke with the same conviction that first drew them to Rolls-Royce. They have worked directly with the marque’s designers, engineers and artisans to translate their own unique codes of collecting and connoisseurship into Black Badge motor cars, creating commissions that draw on influences far beyond the traditional luxury canon. These range from vintage video-game culture and collectable sneakers to graffiti art, land-speed records, influential nightclubs, and even the digital economy.

Notable examples of these landmark private collections and private commissions include Black Badge Adamas (2018); Black Badge ‘Neon Nights’ paint trilogy (2020); Black Badge Landspeed (2021); Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow (2023); Black Badge Cullinan ‘Blue Shadow’ (2023); Black Badge Ghost Ékleipsis (2023); and Black Badge Ghost Gamer (2025). This spirit has also extended into the marque’s collectables, with the Cameo desktop sculpture and Rolls-Royce luggage now available in the same subversive treatment.

As Black Badge enters its second decade, the template it has set echoes across the super-luxury sector. Demand continues to grow for ever more expressive interpretations of Black Badge around the world. Rolls-Royce will respond with an expanding portfolio that further intensifies the Black Badge experience for those who continue to shape luxury on their own terms.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars reflects on its inaugural participation at the Oberoi Concours d’Elegance
• The marque celebrated its historic and enduring bond with India, and reinforced the marque’s commitment to the Indian market
• Black Badge Spectre showcased as a compelling bridge between the marque’s storied past and its future, reinforcing its place as a Goodwood-era collector canon

“India occupies a unique and highly meaningful place in the story of Rolls-Royce, past, present and future. We see a new generation of clients who bear a deep-seated appreciation for Bespoke craftsmanship and the depth of our heritage in equal measure. Oberoi Concours d’Elegance is an event that mirrors our own values of excellence and rarity, and it is a profound pleasure to engage with the Indian classic car community and meet so many enthusiasts and owners who continue to preserve the legacy of our motor cars. Their passion ensures that the spirit of Rolls-Royce remains as vibrant today as it was a century ago.”
Irene Nikkein, Regional Director Asia-Pacific, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


Rolls-Royce Motor Cars reflects with satisfaction on its inaugural participation at the Oberoi Concours d’Elegance, recently held at The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur. This debut marked a significant moment in the marque’s history in India, a region that has been intrinsically linked with the spirit of Rolls-Royce for over a century.

Held for the second time, Oberoi Concours d’Elegance brought together some of the world’s rarest and historically important automobiles and motorcycles, many owned by Indian royalty and private collectors and preserved over generations. The event’s close affinity with Rolls‑Royce was reflected in a dedicated ‘Pre-War Classics – Rolls Royce’ class, a period which not only celebrated the marque’s historic presence in India but also underscored the country’s unique role in shaping Rolls-Royce’s legacy.

Set against the ethereal backdrop of Lake Pichola, the Rolls-Royce lounge on the sprawling garden lawns of The Oberoi Udaivilas served as a meeting point for brand enthusiasts and some of the world’s most discerning collectors, celebrating the pinnacle of automotive excellence in one of the region’s most breathtaking settings.

In a compelling bridge between the marque’s storied past and its next chapter of timeless luxury, Rolls-Royce displayed Black Badge Spectre at the event. Spectre fulfils a prophecy made by Charles Rolls in 1900, who predicted that the electric car would be “perfectly noiseless and clean”. As the world’s first ultra-luxury electric super coupé, Spectre is increasingly recognised by clients and collectors alike as a motor car of lasting significance.

Spectre’s status as a future classic is also underpinned by exceptional engineering. Conceived with the same commitment to longevity and resilience as every Rolls-Royce, it delivers what many have regarded as the perfect execution of an electric powertrain.

Rolls-Royce’s presence at the Oberoi Concours d’Elegance reflected the growing importance of India within the marque’s global strategy, both as a historic heartland and as a dynamic, forward-looking luxury market. The country emerged as the highest growth market in the Asia-Pacific in 2025, achieving double-digit growth for four years consecutively. As Rolls‑Royce continues to evolve – marrying timeless craftsmanship with technological progress – the company remains dedicated to meaningful engagement with markets and communities that value permanence, provenance and Bespoke expression.

• Rolls-Royce reflects on its bold heritage of powerful and beautiful coupé motor cars
• Chronicles Rolls-Royce coachbuilt two-door bodies from the earliest chassis
• Details Goodwood-era revival of the coupé with 100EX, 101EX and Phantom variants
• Highlights Wraith’s transformational influence on the Rolls-Royce brand
• Details Dawn’s impact as a modern expression of the classic drophead coupé
• Celebrates Spectre as the marque’s first ultra-luxury electric super coupé and continuation of a rich legacy

INTRODUCTION

This Press Kit explores the significance of the coupé in Rolls-Royce history – a body style associated with power, presence and proportion. From the earliest coachbuilt two-door motor cars commissioned on rolling chassis, through the return of fixed-head and drophead coupés in the Goodwood era, to Spectre – the world’s first ultra-luxury electric super coupé – it traces how this form has evolved alongside advances in technology and craftsmanship.


THE COUPÉ ORIGIN STORY

The term ‘coupé’ comes from the French word coupé, meaning ‘cut’. Originally applied to horse-drawn carriages in the 18th century, it was adopted in the early days of motoring to describe a two-door motor car with the driver and up to two passengers in an enclosure with a single bench seat.

Those pioneering days saw a rapid proliferation of automobile body styles, with an expansive variety of terminology in use. To bring order, in 1916, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) formally classified coupés into two primary categories. It defined a coupé as a fully enclosed motor car operated from the inside with seats for two or three and sometimes a rear-facing fourth seat. If the motor car had a folding top, it was properly called a Coupelet – a name now lost to time.


COUPÉS AND COACHBUILDERS

Until the mid-20th century, clients would purchase their motor car as a rolling chassis, then commission a coachbuilder of their choice to create a body to their exact specifications. The coachbuilder assembled a skeletal wooden frame, usually in ash, onto which aluminium or steel body panels were then pinned or welded.

This traditional construction method allowed for near-limitless design possibilities, with each body being as much a work of art as a feat of engineering. The process was entirely bespoke, with clients working hand-in-glove with designers and artisans to create designs tailored to their personal requirements.

During the 1920s and 1930s, British luxury marques introduced the terms ‘fixed-head coupé’ (FHC) and ‘drophead coupé’ (DHC). A fixed-head coupé featured a solid, non-removable roof; a drophead coupé had a mechanical canvas roof that opened and closed.

In Britain, firms such as Park Ward, H. J. Mulliner, Hooper, James Young, Vanden Plas and Freestone & Webb became legendary for their work on both types, all of which had two doors. This period saw stylists working alongside engineers, and the coupé acquired the graceful, athletic form we still associate with the concept today. That legacy continues to influence automotive design, with fixed-head and drophead coupé coachwork remaining highly prized by collectors and enthusiasts alike.

Some of the most valuable and celebrated Rolls-Royce motor cars ever created take the form of coupés; from the streamlined 1934-bodied ‘round-door’ Jonckheere Phantom I and the elegant 1939 Vanvooren Phantom III, to the theatrical 1957 Freestone & Webb ‘Honeymoon Express’ Silver Cloud and the timeless 2017 Sweptail, these motor cars affirm the coupé body style as the space in which Rolls-Royce has explored some of its boldest ideas.


COACHBUILT ROLLS-ROYCE COUPÉS

Rolls-Royce chassis – particularly the shorter wheelbase models – had been fitted with two- and four-seater coachwork with two doors (or, in the case of early Silver Ghosts, no doors) from the beginning. The style evolved through the 1920s from short, upright passenger compartments, often with external ‘dicky’ seats at the rear, to more stylish flowing coachwork that would come to define today’s coupés.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the drophead coupé was a popular alternative to Rolls-Royce’s new Standard Steel-bodied motor cars. While these factory-built bodies brought greater consistency, this shift in construction increasingly made true custom coachbuilding technically complex and economically unviable. By the early 1960s, most of the traditional coachbuilders had gone, with Rolls-Royce one of a small number of brands still producing rolling chassis on which a coachbuilder could create bespoke bodywork.

Against this backdrop, coachbuilders H.J. Mulliner and Park Ward merged and were subsumed into Rolls-Royce as a wholly owned division. Alongside James Young, the new entity offered drophead and fixed-head coupé designs built on the marque’s Silver Cloud chassis. Following the introduction of the SY (Silver Shadow) range of monocoque motor cars, Rolls-Royce continued to produce fixed-head and drophead coupés, in the guise of the Corniche two-door saloon and Corniche convertible.

The Corniche two-door saloon was discontinued in 1981. The convertible remained in production until 1987, despite the launch of the new Corniche II in 1986, which was itself replaced by Corniche III in 1989. The model’s last iteration, Corniche IV, was introduced in 1992, with the final run of 25 motor cars designated Corniche S. These were graced with numerous mechanical enhancements, including a Garrett T4 turbocharger that boosted engine power by 50%, making them the fastest, best-handling Corniches ever made. They were easily identifiable by their alloy wheels and red ‘RR’ badges.

With this final first chapter complete, the end of Corniche convertible production in 1995 also marked the conclusion of a line of Rolls-Royce coupés dating back to the marque’s inception. Yet, the legacy these motor cars left behind was indelible, as was the constellation of clients who chose them. Sammy Davis Jr., Elizabeth Taylor and Tony Curtis were among proud Rolls-Royce coupé owners, cementing the marque’s association with glamour, power and presence.


ROLLS-ROYCE COUPÉS IN THE GOODWOOD ERA

Production may have ended, but client demand for fixed-head and drophead Rolls-Royce coupés never ceased. Reviving these body styles was made possible by the innovative technology and construction techniques brought in with the first Rolls-Royce motor car produced at Goodwood, Phantom VII.

Phantom VII was constructed on an aluminium spaceframe with a modular, scalable design. This allowed designers to adapt the original four-door saloon into two-door fixed-head and drophead variants without compromise.

Creating a new two-door, four-seater drophead coupé derived from an existing model was very much in keeping with Rolls-Royce tradition and precedent. However, earlier motor cars’ rigidity had often been compromised, resulting in inferior handling as well as rattles and shakes – issues unacceptable for Rolls-Royce’s renaissance. The design team knew that Phantom’s aluminium spaceframe would provide the necessary torsional strength, so work began on an experimental model, which, following long-established Rolls-Royce practice, was codenamed 100EX – EX standing for ‘Experimental’.


100EX AND PHANTOM DROPHEAD COUPÉ

Chief designer Ian Cameron’s vision was for a full four-seater convertible with two coach doors, less formal than Phantom and more performance-oriented. His inspiration was Royce’s 1920s experimental motor car 16EX, which Royce himself described as “a motor car with fizz”. Exceptionally lightweight and aerodynamic for its time, Royce built it to demonstrate that greater horsepower and reduced bodyweight could increase performance.

Rolls-Royce unveiled 100EX at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2004. Arriving just 15 months after the start of production of Phantom VII, it was a remarkable technical achievement, and a fitting way to help commemorate the marque’s centenary year.

In true coupé style, 100EX’s spaceframe was 165mm (6.5in) shorter and 71mm (3in) lower than the more formal Phantom’s. Instead of Phantom’s 6.75-litre V12 engine, it was fitted with an indulgent 9-litre V16, 64-valve naturally aspirated unit. Most obviously, it was an open-top, four-seater, two-door drophead.

The exterior design, intended to evoke a classic motor yacht at speed, featured a dynamic rise in the waistline over the rear wheels, and graceful lines sweeping up towards the front. Completing the nautical theme, the tonneau cover, boot lining and rear passenger cabin were finished in teak decking.

The rear tapered into a boat-tail style that would inspire a suite of Coachbuild masterpieces almost two decades later. The split ‘Countryman’ boot featured a separate lower tailgate which, when opened, provided a completely flat surface with inlaid fibre matting, ideal for picnics or as an elevated viewing platform.

The tailored roof was made from an innovative fabric incorporating fine metallic threads, and lined with a cashmere and wool blend. The folding mechanism was carefully designed so the roof could be concealed in an extremely small storage area, minimising intrusion into the luggage and passenger spaces.

Everything the designers and engineers learned with 100EX found its final, stunning expression in the Phantom Drophead Coupé. Launched in 2007, this is now one of the rarest and most desirable models of the Goodwood era. In production, it adopted Rolls-Royce’s hallmark 6.75-litre V12 engine.


101EX AND PHANTOM COUPÉ

Two years later, a new experimental car, 101EX, made its debut, also at the Geneva Motor Show. This was a full four-seater coupé with twin coach doors, a lower roofline and shallower glass area than Phantom VII. The Pantheon grille was discreetly reclined and extended back across a brushed aluminium bonnet and windscreen surround.

Built on the same aluminium spaceframe, 101EX was 240mm shorter than Phantom VII: this, combined with bodywork constructed from carbon fibre composite and the proven 6.75-litre V12 engine, gave it a more performance- and driver-focused character.

The interior featured the first example of what would become a permanent feature of the Rolls-Royce design canon: the Starlight Headliner. Comprising hundreds of fibre-optic ‘stars’, it proved an instant sensation and is now a fixture in virtually every Rolls-Royce motor car, with its own almost unlimited potential for Bespoke individualisation.

Like its predecessor, 101EX would find lasting fame as a series production car – the legendary Phantom Coupé, launched in 2008, and rarer even than its Drophead sibling.

Both Phantom Coupé and Phantom Drophead Coupé were foundational to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ development as a true luxury brand. They introduced the world to the full possibilities of Bespoke, informed by the marque’s growing understanding of the wider luxury market and consumers, and the idea of a Rolls-Royce as canvas for deep, Bespoke individualisation.


WRAITH

In 2013, Rolls-Royce introduced Wraith – an imposing fastback coupé in the Gran Turismo mould. More performance-focused than its predecessors, Phantom and Ghost, Wraith fundamentally altered perceptions of Rolls-Royce and brought new, younger clients to the brand for the first time.

Wraith’s dramatic silhouette signalled its dynamic capabilities, which were further amplified in 2016 with the introduction of its Black Badge alter ego, offering some of the highest levels of performance ever achieved by a Rolls-Royce motor car. In 2023, Rolls-Royce marked the end of production with Wraith Black Badge Black Arrow, a Bespoke Collection comprising just 12 examples.


DAWN

In September 2015, Rolls-Royce unveiled Dawn online, introducing an entirely new kind of super-luxury convertible. More than simply a beautiful motor car, it was designed to evoke the romance and glamour of the great dropheads of the past, while offering a social, approachable and contemporary expression of open-top touring to a new generation of clients.

Convertibles are typically designed in a 2+2 configuration with full-size seating for the driver and front passenger, and two smaller rear seats for occasional passengers. The lack of rear-seat space, and particularly legroom, reduces the car’s comfort and practicality, so Dawn was presented as a full four-seater with comfortable, individual seating for all occupants, in line with the SAE’s Coupelet typology.

The roof, made from fabric, cashmere and high-performance acoustic composites, was operated by an intricate mechanism dubbed the ‘Silent Ballet’ for its precision, elegance and noiseless operation. With the roof closed, Dawn equalled Wraith for noise-isolating performance.

As with Wraith, Dawn was given a Black Badge expression in 2017, with the 6.6-litre, 563bhp twin-turbo V12 engine tuned to deliver an extra 30bhp and boost torque to 840Nm. Like Wraith, Dawn finally ceased production in 2023.


SWEPTAIL

In 2013, Rolls-Royce was commissioned by a client to create a fully coachbuilt two-seater coupé with a panoramic glass roof, drawing inspiration from the great bespoke motor cars of the 1920s and 1930s. Conceived as a modern interpretation of the classic Rolls-Royce coupé, Sweptail was designed around purity of line, proportion and audacious presence.

The first Coachbuild Rolls-Royce of the Goodwood era, Sweptail is defined by its raked rear profile, with the roofline tapering in a single, continuous gesture to a distinctive ‘bullet-tip’ housing the centre brake light. The coachbuilt coupé bodywork wraps under the motor car with no visible boundary to the surfaces, like the hull of a racing yacht. The underside reveals a progressive upward arc at the rear departure angle, producing the swept tail that gives the motor car its name.

Revealed in 2017 after four years of development, Sweptail was immediately recognised as a landmark in contemporary coachbuilding. With its two-seat configuration, fastback silhouette and restrained, handcrafted interior, it is now regarded as a true modern masterpiece and the world’s greatest intercontinental touring coupé.


SPECTRE

In 2023, Rolls-Royce introduced Spectre, bringing the marque’s defining qualities of effortlessness, presence and refinement into an electric future. With Spectre, an entirely new class of motor car was created: the ultra-luxury electric super coupé. A generously proportioned, visually striking two-door fastback, Spectre is the spiritual successor to the Phantom Coupé. Its interior provides a perfect canvas for Bespoke personalisation, complemented by a unique illuminated fascia and the first Starlight Doors ever specified in a production Rolls-Royce. Spectre’s Black Badge alter ego was introduced in 2025 and inherited Wraith’s crown as the most powerful Rolls-Royce in history.

Crucially, Spectre is a Rolls-Royce first and an electric car second: no concessions or compromises in terms of interior space, comfort, performance or ride quality have been made. Indeed, all have been refined and augmented by the car’s underpinning architecture and engineering.

• Rolls-Royce reflects on a year of global celebrations marking Phantom's centenary
• Debut of Phantom Centenary Private Collection: the most complex and technologically ambitious Collection yet
• Phantom client commissions for 2025 delivery reflect anniversary’s significance
• Famous historical Phantom owners from the worlds of art and music honoured
• Site extension at Goodwood creates new Bespoke possibilities for future Phantoms
  
  

“For Rolls-Royce, 2025 has revolved around the centenary of our pinnacle product, Phantom. This was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to honour the stories that built this nameplate’s legend — from the incredible motor cars themselves, the zenith of effortless motoring in their respective eras, to the towering figures in music, art, business and statecraft who have chosen a Phantom of their own. We marked this extraordinary occasion with landmark commissions and exceptional global celebrations that reflect the spirit and stature of our marque today, perfectly setting the tone for Phantom’s next 100 years.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


Throughout 2025, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has celebrated the centenary of its pinnacle product and the most famous nameplate in luxury history: Phantom. These celebrations focused on the people, places and events that shaped Phantom’s incredible story, and how this extraordinary motor car has both reflected and influenced the world around it.

Designed by Sir Henry Royce, the original ‘New Phantom’ made its debut in 1925. Over the next 100 years and throughout eight generations, Phantom has always been the grandest, most impressive and effortlessly refined motor car built by the marque: a century of unassailable luxury and engineering excellence.

The centenary year has featured appearances by all eight generations of Phantom at celebratory events across the globe, culminating in the unveiling of the Phantom Centenary Private Collection, Rolls-Royce’s own Bespoke tribute to its most storied model.

Clients around the world also chose to take delivery of their Bespoke Phantoms in 2025 – in many cases beginning the journey years in advance, in anticipation of the anniversary – ensuring their motor cars would not only become part of their personal legacy, but also take a once-in-a-lifetime place in the ongoing story of this remarkable nameplate. To mark this milestone, every Rolls-Royce Phantom hand-crafted at the Home of Rolls-Royce this year was completed with a special centenary chassis plaque.

Rolls-Royce takes this opportunity to reflect on Phantom’s legacy, revisiting the stories and moments shared among clients, the media, and the wider world throughout this centenary year.


PHANTOM CENTENARY PRIVATE COLLECTION: A BESPOKE TRIBUTE 

Rolls-Royce honoured 100 years of the Phantom nameplate with the Phantom Centenary Private Collection. Limited to just 25 examples, this Private Collection combines traditional and highly innovative craft techniques to explore a century of stories: pivotal figures, notable clients, significant models, journeys, places and moments that defined Phantom’s first 100 years.

Its iridescent two-tone exterior, finished in Super Champagne Crystal over Arctic White and Black – crowned with a solid gold Spirit of Ecstasy – recalls the elegance of Phantom’s early Hollywood era. Inside, exquisitely crafted Bespoke features tell the story of Phantom’s legend. The Anthology Gallery is composed of sculpted words selected from 100 years of media acclaim. The rear seats are finished in high-resolution printed and embroidered fabric, meticulously developed with a couture atelier over a year.

The Starlight Headliner captures historic moments and references in 440,000 stitches. The sculptural doors feature the marque’s most intricate woodwork to date, combining 3D marquetry, 3D ink layering and 24-carat gold leafing. The result is the most complex and technologically ambitious Private Collection to date – a defining statement, 100 years in the making.


CELEBRATING PHANTOM’S PLACE IN MUSIC BY BRINGING A LEGEND TO LIFE

In 2025, Rolls-Royce celebrated the legendary figures in music who chose Phantom, both as a symbol of success and a source of creative inspiration. From Marlene Dietrich and Liberace to Elvis Presley, Sir Elton John, Pharrell Williams and Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, these artists helped shape, and were drawn to, Phantom’s magnetic presence.

Perhaps the most memorable tale from Phantom’s musical mythology is Keith Moon’s infamous 21st birthday party, when The Who’s drummer reportedly drove his Rolls-Royce into a swimming pool. Though witnesses have only a hazy recollection of what really happened, a Rolls-Royce submerged in a pool became the ultimate symbol of rock ‘n’ roll indulgence.

To mark Phantom’s centenary, Rolls-Royce brought the myth to life by submerging a Phantom Extended body shell –  a retired prototype destined for recycling — in the Art Deco Tinside Lido in Plymouth, England.

The location also has Beatles heritage: on 12 September 1967, The Beatles visited while filming The Magical Mystery Tour. That same year, John Lennon debuted his yellow, hand-painted Phantom V, forever linking the nameplate with music history.


REFLECTING ON PHANTOM’S CONNECTION TO A CENTURY OF ART

As part of the centenary celebrations, Rolls-Royce reflected on Phantom’s long-standing connection to the art world. In one of the most surreal arrivals in history, Salvador Dalí once filled a friend’s Phantom with 500kg of cauliflowers, then flung open the door upon arrival at the Sorbonne in Paris, sending the brassicas cascading to the ground. This moment – which itself will celebrate its 70th anniversary on 26 December, 2025 – was commemorated by the marque, along with reflections of other Phantom owners who led the creative conversation, including Andy Warhol, who was so compelled by Phantom that he acquired a 1937 model on the spot after seeing it parked outside a Zurich antiques shop in 1972.


COMMISSIONS INSPIRED BY AN UNFORGETTABLE LEGACY

Aware of the historical significance of 2025, clients around the world placed Bespoke commissions for delivery in Phantom’s centenary year — in many cases beginning that journey years in advance. These Phantoms stand among the most ambitious ever created by the marque’s Bespoke Collective and resident designers in the Private Offices of Shanghai, Dubai, Seoul and New York, and the original at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, West Sussex.


PHANTOM YEAR OF THE DRAGON

Commissioned by a Chinese client to mark the Year of the Dragon, this one-of-one Phantom Extended is a contemporary tribute to one of China’s foundational legends. At its centre is a spectacular marquetry Gallery depicting two dragons swirling through clouds, guarding a central pearl represented by a Bespoke clock.

The dragons also appear on the Bespoke Starlight Headliner as 768 red and 576 white fibre-optic ‘stars’, each individually hand-placed.


PHANTOM CHERRY BLOSSOM

Inspired by the Japanese tradition of Hanami, Phantom Cherry Blossom is a tribute to the fleeting beauty of springtime Sakura blooms. Commissioned by a Japanese client, the rear cabin of this Phantom Extended includes the marque’s first use of sculptural 3D embroidery, with cherry petals formed from layered, self-supporting thread structures. The Starlight Headliner is also exquisitely embroidered with cascading cherry branches, completing an interior comprising over 250,000 stitches.


PHANTOM DENTELLE  

Phantom Dentelle is a one‑of‑one tribute to couture lace, using embroidery to translate the material’s delicate, three-dimensional textures into the Gallery and rear Waterfall section. The interior features more than 230,000 stitches across eight embroidery techniques, combining Rose Gold, Oatmeal and Sunrise threads to evoke pearls and floral filigree.


PHANTOM CHINESE MURAL ART

One of a trio of Bespoke motor cars commissioned through Private Office Shanghai, in tribute to the ancient mural paintings of Dunhuang, China. The Phantom Extended, features a Gallery with a landscape painting on black leather, rendered in an adapted Chinese technique of reduction block printing.

The Silken Spirit motif, inspired by imperial silk and the Spirit of Ecstasy, appears in the hand-painted Coachline, interior embroidery, wood inlays and on illuminated treadplates.


A WORLD STAGE FOR PHANTOM

Throughout its centenary year, Phantom was celebrated on a truly global stage, with commemorative events held across five continents. From prestigious concours to exclusive gatherings, these moments reflected the power of Phantom’s legacy in every sense.

The centenary journey began at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy, followed by the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival in the UK, where five historic Phantoms – including the celebrated Phantom I ‘Brougham De Ville’, or ‘Phantom of Love’ – graced the Aerodrome Lawn. In Spain, all eight generations of Phantom were showcased at the beautiful Torre Loizaga in Bilbao.

A celebratory drive across Scandinavia and the Baltics saw members of the 20-Ghost Club journey more than 2,000 kilometres from Helsinki – where the cavalcade was waved off by a Phantom VIII – through Nordic landscapes in 26 pre-War Rolls-Royces, including three examples of Phantom I. The oldest participating motor car dated from 1927.

Celebrations continued in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, where Phantom’s cultural role was marked at the city’s renowned film festival. In Warsaw, Poland, Rolls-Royce hosted a jazz evening featuring renowned vocalist Stacey Kent, while in Baku, Azerbaijan, an exclusive cultural club paid tribute to Phantom’s deep-rooted musical connections and its appearance in song lyrics across musical styles and generations.

In North America, Phantom’s centenary was honoured with a dedicated class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where eight generations of Phantom were united for this occasion. This milestone was celebrated at gatherings in Colorado Springs for the Rolls-Royce Owners' Club Annual Meet, the Las Vegas Concours d’Elegance, and the grand opening of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Oakville in Canada.

In Asia, Rolls-Royce hosted a standout event at Azabudai Hills, Tokyo, showcasing a selection of rare Phantoms – from Phantom II Continental to Phantom Oribe, designed in collaboration with Hermès for a Japanese collector. 100 Years of Phantom was celebrated in Singapore with a contemporary culinary journey, and in Shanghai, five generations of Phantom were honoured at a showcase for Chinese clients and friends of the marque.

Across the Middle East, the Phantom Centenary made landmark appearances at the National Museum of Qatar and at private events in Dubai, Riyadh, Manama, and Abu Dhabi. These showcases included historic and modern Bespoke Phantoms such as the Phantom Drophead Coupé Zenith, Phantom Scintilla Private Collection, replete with an 869,500-stitch interior, and Phantom Centenary Private Collection.


PHANTOM’S BESPOKE FUTURE 

In a year defined by Phantom’s legacy, Rolls-Royce also looked to its future. At the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, construction progressed on a landmark £300 million extension to house advanced equipment and capabilities dedicated to Bespoke. This expansion enhances every element of the marque’s creative and technical process, creating space for bold new ideas, materials and artisanal techniques. Phantom, as the marque’s pinnacle product and most expansive canvas, will continue to be where these innovations are brought to life on the grandest scale, today and into its next century.

CHARLES ROBINSON SYKES: 18 DECEMBER 1875 - 6 JUNE 1950

• Rolls-Royce remembers Charles Sykes, born 150 years ago on 18 December 1875
• A gifted artist and sculptor, best known for creating the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot
• The marque’s original creative soul, who introduced artistry as a defining element of Rolls-Royce
• Many works held in the collection of the world-renowned V&A Museum, London

“Charles Rolls, with his competitive spirit and daredevil attitude to life, was the heart of Rolls-Royce. Henry Royce, the meticulous and driven engineer, was its mind. But the figure with the strongest claim to be its first soul is Charles Robinson Sykes. Best known as the sculptor who created the Spirit of Ecstasy, Sykes was a multifaceted and prolific artist whose work is still held in high regard 150 years after his birth. He was the first of the marque’s foundational figures to bring artistry and creativity to Rolls-Royce, a legacy that endures today in our ever more ambitious and elaborate Bespoke and Coachbuild work. That his most famous piece represents only a fraction of a rich, varied body of work speaks to the breadth of his talent.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars celebrates the 150^th anniversary of the birth of one of the most important individuals in the marque’s foundation story: Charles Robinson Sykes. A gifted artist, illustrator and sculptor, Sykes was best known for creating the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot, which has gracefully guided Rolls-Royce motor cars since 1911. Today, his work is recognised as the moment artistry and emotional expression first became part of the marque’s identity – a contribution that shaped the creative spirit still evident in every Rolls-Royce motor car.

To commemorate this anniversary, Rolls-Royce explores his life and lasting influence on the marque.

Charles Robinson Sykes was born on 18 December 1875 in Brotton, a mining village near Saltburn, in what is now North Yorkshire, England. Encouraged by his father and uncle, both talented amateur artists, he decided to pursue a professional career, and began his artistic training at Rutherford Art College in Newcastle. In 1898, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, where he studied drawing, painting and sculpture. After graduating, he remained in the capital, where he quickly established himself as a multitalented artist.

His skill as a draughtsman is evident in the large collection of his drawings, paintings and cartoons held in the collection of the world-renowned V&A Museum, London. These include beautifully detailed designs for horse-racing trophies, vases and bowls, and atmospheric illustrations for magazine covers and advertisements, produced under the pseudonym ‘Rilette’. His talent for sculpture was formally recognised when his bronze, A Bacchante, was exhibited to considerable acclaim at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in London and the Paris Salon.

In 1902, Sykes was commissioned by a magazine publisher to produce some sketches. Unable to pay in cash, the client introduced him to John Montagu, later 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, who at that time was attempting to launch his own glossy weekly magazine, The Car Illustrated.

With Sykes providing ‘Illustrated’ elements from cover artwork to fashion drawings, the magazine flourished. It was one of the first to print images in full colour, and Sykes took full advantage of the new creative opportunities this offered him. He had a particular interest in Greek mythology, and often introduced classical references into his work.

Sykes’s artwork soon caught the attention of Claude Johnson, known simply as ‘CJ’, the first commercial managing director of Rolls-Royce. He commissioned six original Sykes oils for the company’s 1910-11 Catalogue, depicting Rolls-Royce motor cars arriving at venues and occasions befitting the marque’s aristocratic patrons. These images framed Rolls-Royces not simply as engineering achievements, but as a source of elegance and experience – an early expression of what was to follow. The marque also bought the copyright to other works showing Rolls-Royces driving at dusk, arriving at the top of a steep hill and effortlessly overcoming a snowstorm – real concerns for drivers of the day.

Soon afterwards, Sykes took on what would be his most famous and enduring commission: an official Rolls-Royce mascot. The company described the winged figurine as “a graceful little goddess”, in which Sykes perfectly captured, “the spirit of ecstasy, who has selected road travel as her supreme delight and alighted on the prow of a Rolls-Royce car to revel in the freshness of the air, and the musical sound of her fluttering draperies”. Through this work, Sykes introduced a new dimension to the marque – the idea that a motor car could possess not only technical excellence, but also grace, elegance and serenity.

In creating the figurine, Sykes played a crucial role in establishing Rolls-Royce’s defining characteristics. From the daredevil racing driver, pioneering balloonist and record-breaking aviator Charles Rolls, the marque acquired its spirit of endeavour, always seeking to set new standards for performance, comfort and excellence. And if Rolls was the company’s heart, then Henry Royce – analytical, meticulous, restless, innovative – was its mind; the intellectual foundation of everything it produced.

Sykes was the company’s soul; he brought artistry and creativity to the brand, which finds their expression today in ever more elaborate and ambitious Bespoke and Coachbuild commissions. And through his paintings and the Spirit of Ecstasy, he played a defining role in shaping the mystique and mythology that still surrounds Rolls-Royce to this day.

Charles Sykes died in 1950; though best remembered for his contribution to Rolls-Royce, he enjoyed a long, varied and successful artistic career, leaving a substantial, diverse and delightful body of work that is still highly regarded 150 years after his birth.

This Press Kit provides an overview of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ unique, immensely rich heritage, from the first meeting in May 1904 between its founders, Sir Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, to its contemporary activities at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood. Please note, this is not a comprehensive history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars; instead of a strict chronology, it presents the marque’s heritage as a series of discrete eras, each defined by a significant technological shift, or a distinctive focus to the marque’s interests and products at that time.

To ensure brevity and avoid duplication, this document contains links to more detailed information on specific individuals, events, products and other aspects of Rolls-Royce heritage, including the ‘Makers of the Marque’ and ‘Models of the Marque’ series prepared for the marque’s 120th anniversary in 2024.



THE FOUNDERS

The life and career of Sir Henry Royce (27 March 1863 - 22 April 1933) is the classic rags-to-riches tale. From impoverished origins and with minimal formal education, he became a giant of 20th Century mechanical engineering. With his meticulous, enquiring mind and relentless pursuit of perfection in every aspect of his life, he was responsible for designs and technology that helped shape the world we live in now.

A highly-driven – some might say obsessive – man, Sir Henry Royce had a relentless tendency towards overwork, to the extent of seriously affecting his health, resulting in a life-threatening illness in 1902. After a recurrence in 1911, he built a house at Le Canadel in the south of France, where he spent the winters for the rest of his life; for the remainder of the year, he lived in several properties in the South of England. In 1917, he moved to his beloved ‘Elmstead’ in West Wittering, just a few miles from today’s Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood.

From the company’s foundation until his death in 1933, Royce personally created the initial concept for every mechanical item in every Rolls-Royce motor car. An instinctive, intuitive engineer, he had an uncanny ability to assess components purely by eye. He firmly believed that if something looked right, it probably was, and he was almost invariably proved correct.

The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 - 12 July 1910) was Sir Henry Royce’s opposite in almost every respect: aristocratic, well-connected and Cambridge-educated, his family wealth enabled him to indulge his twin passions for motor racing and aviation, becoming a leading pioneer in both fields. A founding member of the Royal Aero Club, he made over 170 flights as a balloonist; in 1910, he became the first pilot in history to fly a powered aircraft across the English Channel and back, non-stop.

In January 1902, he opened one of Britain’s first car dealerships, C. S. Rolls & Co., in Fulham, West London. A skilled engineer and enthusiast who understood motor cars intimately, he was also an astute businessman, with extensive connections in politics, industry, the media and the aristocracy, including royalty. It was his energy, acumen and racing successes that helped establish Rolls-Royce as the world’s pre-eminent luxury motor car maker.

In 1910, less than two months after his triumphant double Channel crossing, Rolls became the first Briton to lose his life in a powered aircraft when his Wright Flyer crashed during a competition at Bournemouth. He was just 32. It’s easy to forget that on his death, he and Henry Royce had worked together for a mere six years; it is tempting to wonder regretfully just how much more he, and they, might have accomplished.



THE ORIGIN ERA

Royce and Rolls were introduced by Henry Edmunds (20 March 1853 - 18 November 1927), who knew the former as a friend and business associate in Manchester, and the latter as a fellow member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club, or RAC).

Edmunds had been enormously impressed by Royce’s 10H.P. car, having driven it in the 1904 ‘Side Slip Trials’. He also knew Rolls was desperately looking for a high-quality, British-made car to sell in his thriving London dealership. He duly arranged a meeting and earned his place in history when, on 4 May 1904 at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, he announced: “Henry, may I introduce The Honourable Charles Rolls.”

On returning to London, Rolls told his business partner, Claude Goodman Johnson (24 October 1864 - 11 April 1926), that he had found ‘the greatest motor engineer in the world’ and would sell all the cars Royce could make. Their new venture was formally incorporated as Rolls-Royce Limited on 15 March 1906.

In his role as the company’s first commercial managing director, Johnson had a profound influence that is still evident today. He had an extraordinary gift for marketing and public relations. As well as devising the names for famous models, including Silver Ghost and Phantom, he commissioned what would become the world’s most recognisable, enduring and desirable mascot – the Spirit of Ecstasy. The famous figurine was created by sculptor and illustrator Charles Robinson Sykes (18 December 1875 - 6 June 1950), and is widely believed to be inspired by Eleanor Thornton (15 April 1880 - 30 December 1915), who was assistant to their mutual employer, the magazine publisher and motoring enthusiast The Hon. John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (10 June 1866 - 30 March 1929).



THE COACHBUILD ERA

Until 1949, Rolls-Royce motor cars were produced only as ‘rolling chassis’, equipped with an engine and drivetrain, on which a specialist coachbuilder then built bodywork to the customer’s specification. The rolling chassis did, however, include the bulkhead (the panel separating the engine compartment from the passenger cabin) and the radiator, which determined, at least in part, the finished motor car’s overall proportions.

Today, Rolls-Royce motor cars are still regarded as ‘the best cars in the world’ – an accolade first granted to the 40/50 H.P., better known by the name Claude Johnson conferred upon an early example, Silver Ghost. First sold in 1907, it was enormously successful, with almost 8,000 examples built in the UK and US over an 18-year period. That so many remain in full working order – and, indeed, regularly perform the same feats they achieved more than a century ago – is a lasting monument to Sir Henry Royce’s engineering genius.

In 1922, Royce produced his new 20 H.P. model. Known simply as ‘The Twenty’, it was the first Rolls-Royce designed expressly to be owner-driven rather than chauffeured. It was a huge technical leap forward: its straight six-cylinder engine would provide the template for Rolls-Royce engines right up to Silver Cloud in the 1950s.

Three years later, Rolls-Royce unveiled its first motor car to bear the fabled Phantom nameplate. Then, as now, it was intended to be the most magnificent, desirable and, above all, effortless motor car in the world – the ultimate expression of automotive excellence. The first ‘New Phantom’ would be followed by six further generations of body-on-chassis models, concluding with Phantom VI.



THE COMPETITIVE ERA

From the outset, Claude Johnson saw the immense promotional opportunities afforded by the gruelling, high-profile reliability trials that were the benchmark for early 20th Century motoring endeavours. In 1907, 40/50 H.P. chassis number 60551 – the original Silver Ghost– took a convincing victory in the Scottish Reliability Trial, covering some 2,000 miles without a single ‘failure to proceed’. To underline the motor car’s reliability, Johnson immediately arranged for it to be driven back and forth between London and Edinburgh continuously (except on Sundays), amassing nearly 15,000 miles – the first 4,000 of which he drove himself – and setting a new world endurance record.

In 1911, Rolls-Royce entered a new version of the Silver Ghost in an RAC-ratified London-Edinburgh reliability trial, a return run of almost 800 miles between the two capitals; to add to the challenge, the motor cars were locked in top gear from start to finish. Chassis number 1701 recorded an average speed of 19.59 mph, returning a then-unheard-of fuel efficiency of over 24 mpg; it achieved 78.26 mph on a half-mile speed test conducted soon afterwards and went on to become the first Rolls-Royce motor car in history to exceed 100 mph.

Perhaps Rolls-Royce’s greatest motorsport successes came in 1913. On 15 June, two Silver Ghosts contested the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix, a three-lap, 192-mile course taking in two formidable passes in the rugged Guadarrama mountains, northwest of Madrid. The race was won by the splendidly named Don Carlos de Salamanca y Hurtado de Zaldivar, later Marqués of Salamanca, who was Rolls-Royce’s agent in Madrid; third place went to Rolls-Royce test-driver Eric Platford (25 February 1883 - 20 November 1938), who had been responsible for many of the marque’s previous trials successes.

A week later, a Rolls-Royce Works Team of three Silver Ghosts, plus one privately-owned car prepared to the same standards, were on the start line for the 1913 Alpine Trial. Held over eight days and covering 2,600km, it started and finished in Vienna and included some of the highest mountain passes in Europe. The Silver Ghosts swept the board, taking the first four places overall in an event that saw only 31 of the 46 starters reach the finish. Although the Alpine Trials continued until 1973, Rolls-Royce never again entered a Works Team; but it did not need to; the title of ‘the best car in the world’ had been won – and would never be relinquished.



THE TRANSITION ERA

Rolls-Royce’s automotive and aerospace activities were formally split into separate divisions in the late 1930s by Ernest Hives (21 April 1886 – 24 April 1965), whose remarkable career would take him from working as The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls’ personal chauffeur to Chairman of the company. From 1939 to 1945, the marque concentrated entirely on aero engine production; when peace returned, it faced an entirely changed commercial landscape.

In 1946, Rolls-Royce launched Silver Wraith, the first of its new ‘Rationalised Range’ that shared common parts, a new engine that could be offered in straight-four, six- or eight-cylinder variants, and a single chassis that could be configured in variable dimensions. Like all its predecessors, Silver Wraith was a rolling chassis, but in 1949, the company produced its first complete Rolls-Royce motor car – Silver Dawn. This marked a profound change for the marque, reflecting the realities of the post-war market but also giving it greater control than ever before over the design of its motor cars.

Over the following decades, Rolls-Royce would continue to offer some models, notably Phantom, as rolling chassis; the last coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the pre-Goodwood era was Phantom VI, built between 1968 and 1993. Its discontinuation effectively ended the tradition of coachbuilding, until it was revived at Goodwood in 2017 with ‘Sweptail’.

Increasingly, the marque favoured monocoque construction, where the body and floorpan are integrated into a single ‘unibody’, with the suspension and other mechanical components carried on front and rear subframes. The first model to be offered as a complete car only was the Silver Shadow, launched in 1965.

In 1971, Rolls-Royce split its motor car and aero engine activities into two separate entities – a distinction that remains to this day. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW Group, and entirely unrelated to the aero engine manufacturer, Rolls-Royce plc.



THE GOODWOOD ERA

In July 1998, BMW Group acquired the Rolls-Royce brand. Starting from a blank sheet of paper, it announced its intention to create a new company, build a new factory in Britain, and launch a new car, all by 1 January 2003. It was an enormously ambitious undertaking, described at the time as ‘the last great adventure in automotive history’.

At 00:01 on New Year’s Day 2003, the first Phantom VII was handed over to its new owner, marking the official start of production at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood; the marque’s new corporate headquarters and Global Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence were officially open for business.

Over its 13-year lifespan, Phantom VII cemented Rolls-Royce as the world’s foremost superluxury motor car manufacturer, and its own place as the marque’s pinnacle product. Over the next two decades, Rolls-Royce launched a series of new models, beginning in 2010 with Ghost. This was followed by the fastback coupé Wraith(2013), the drophead Dawn (2016) and the ‘Rolls-Royce of SUVs’ Cullinan (2018), together with their respective Black Badge variants. Spectre (2022) became the first-ever electric series Rolls-Royce motor car, followed by its Black Badge variant in 2024.

In 2017, Rolls-Royce ushered in a new era of contemporary coachbuilding with ‘Sweptail’. Further Coachbuild commissions came in 2021 with the three Boat Tail masterpieces; in 2024, Rolls-Royce presented Droptail, its first true two-seater in more than 50 years.

As of 2025, the product portfolio comprises Phantom VIII Series II, Ghost Series II, Black Badge Ghost Series II, Cullinan Series II, Black Badge Cullinan Series II, Spectre and Black Badge Spectre.

Every model embodies Rolls-Royce’s design DNA and philosophy, incorporating proportions and dimensions first defined by Sir Henry Royce himself. The marque is keenly aware that the motor cars it builds today can trace their lineage directly back to 1904, and that heritage is an important part of the design process. The launch of Black Badge in 2016 rekindled the spirit of endeavour that began with Charles Rolls’ early exploits in motor racing and aviation, and the numerous speed records set on land, water and in the air with machines powered by Rolls-Royce engines. In 2022, Spectre fulfilled Rolls’ prophecy, made in a magazine article more than a century before, that electricity’s clean, immediate and noiseless power would one day prove the perfect means of propulsion for the motor car. And in 2025, the marque crowned a year of celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of Phantom with the unveiling of the Phantom Centenary Private Collection, commemorating the people, places and events that shaped its pinnacle product in exquisite material and extraordinary works of Bespoke craftsmanship.

More than 2,500 individuals are now employed at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood – including many highly-skilled manufacturing and craft specialists – as well as around 7,500 people in the company’s wider UK supply chain. In 2023, an independent study by the London School of Economics (LSE) demonstrated that Rolls-Royce Motor Cars contributes around half a billion pounds to the UK economy every year, as a leading representative of ‘UK PLC’.



THE NEXT ERA

In 2024, Rolls-Royce announced a landmark investment exceeding £300 million to extend the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood. Representing the single largest investment since the plant opened in 2003 (when 300 people produced one motor car each day), this transformation creates the space for ever more ambitious Bespoke and Coachbuild projects, ensuring that Goodwood remains the only place in the world where Rolls-Royce motor cars are designed and hand-built.

It is both an act of growth and a declaration of intent; to carry forward the spirit first set in motion by Charles Rolls, who urged the world to dream and to dare, and Henry Royce, who insisted that greatness must always be refined, never assumed. More than a century on, their vision is not a memory but a mandate — a living philosophy that continues to shape objects and experiences which inspire, astonish and endure, reminding the world that the pursuit of perfection is infinite, and that the truest measure of heritage is how powerfully it shapes the future.

• Rolls-Royce reflects on 100 years of Bespoke Phantom motor cars
• Examines Phantom as both a reflection of, and an influence on, contemporary culture
• Traces evolution of commissions in response to social, technological, and cultural change
• Underlines Phantom’s enduring ability to enhance and enable its owner’s lifestyle
• The ultimate blank canvas for individualisation over eight generations

“The story of Phantom’s first 100 years is uniquely human, told through the Bespoke details commissioned by generations of clients. The evolution of their requests, richly detailed here, reflects profound shifts in society, culture and technology. It also highlights Phantom’s unique capacity to capture its owner’s personal tastes and desires – a quality that continues to draw clients to the marque, and indeed to Phantom itself, today.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

PHANTOM’S CULTURAL LEGACY: A 100-YEAR STORY TOLD THROUGH BESPOKE

Since the launch of the first Phantom in May 1925, motor cars bearing this storied nameplate have enabled their owner to create something entirely unique and personal to them. Through the Bespoke details they commissioned, Rolls-Royce Phantom clients have also expressed the values, priorities and aesthetics of their time. Tracing Phantom’s evolution shows how these have shifted – sometimes subtly, often profoundly – over the past 100 years. Yet Phantom remains a constant: the perfect canvas for individualisation and self-expression.

In its early years, Phantom was supplied as a rolling chassis, on which the owner commissioned bodywork from a specialist coachbuilder. Many of the examples referenced here stand as monuments to the art of these superlative craftspeople – one that was almost lost entirely, until Rolls-Royce initiated a spectacular present-day revival at Goodwood through its Coachbuild department.

POWER AND PRESTIGE: PHANTOM AS A SYMBOL OF INFLUENCE

As the largest, most imposing and unashamedly luxurious Rolls-Royce model, Phantom immediately became the instinctive choice of royalty, heads of state and other dignitaries as a way to project their status and influence.

Among the earliest Phantom I commissions of the 1920s were elaborate conveyances for India’s rulers, the Maharajas. Some examples had bodywork decorated with intricate silverwork, or fabricated entirely in burnished copper, specifically designed to reflect the sunlight and create a dazzling spectacle to impress their audiences.

Almost half a century later, a Phantom VI built for the Lord Mayor of London featured a specially shaped central armrest in the rear cabin to help support the impressive but extremely weighty ceremonial mace – part of the incumbent’s official regalia – during public appearances.

PRIVACY AND EXCLUSIVITY: THE EVOLUTION OF PERSONAL SPACE

In stark contrast to their modern counterparts, these high-ranking early 20th century Phantom owners were generally remote figures, rarely seen and largely unknown to the public. A Bespoke Phantom was the perfect means to preserve their mystique, reinforcing their status while giving them complete control over their exposure to the public eye.

Many Phantoms featured rear cabins fitted with privacy curtains – a feature still available today. They were especially popular in India, where so-called ‘purdah’ motor cars were fitted with thick curtains to screen passengers from outside observation. Other exalted owners took a more direct, mechanical approach to maintaining their distance; a Phantom IV made for the British Royal Family had rear seats that were adjustable back and forth, so occupants could slide themselves in and out of view as the situation demanded.

This royal motor car’s successor, Phantom V, featured a transparent Perspex dome, giving the same visibility as an open car. Once necessary appearances were concluded, a two-piece aluminium cover, stowed in the luggage compartment, could be secured over the top to provide complete privacy.

CONFIDENCE AND CONFIDENTIALITY: PHANTOM AND THE AGE OF FAME

As the 20th century progressed, increasing public interest in prominent people’s lives, fuelled by the growth of mass media, made Phantom’s role as a sanctuary even more important. Celebrity owners frequently specified tinted rear windows: among the first cars in Britain to be equipped with them was the Phantom V commissioned by John Lennon in 1965.

Whether public figures or private clients, many Phantom owners used their motor cars to hold confidential discussions. There are numerous examples of Phantoms fitted with a soundproofed partition incorporating electric communication controls, so the rear-seat passengers could communicate with the chauffeur when necessary, but could not be overheard at other times. This feature is still available today with the marque’s Privacy Suite.

Secrecy and discretion could take other forms. In 1928, Otto Oppenheimer, a British businessman who ran the London operations of the De Beers diamond company, specified his Phantom I, known as ‘The Black Diamond’, with a secret compartment to transport uncut diamonds. Its location was known only to him, coachbuilder Hooper & Co. and Rolls-Royce. Almost a century later, this motor car’s beauty and mystique were reaffirmed when it was named overall winner of the prestigious Cartier Style et Luxe Concours at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

EXTRAVAGANCE TO UNDERSTATEMENT: THE CHANGING FACE OF LUXURY

While Phantom has long been the preferred motor car of the world’s wealthiest people, how they choose to express their success continually evolves. When Phantom debuted in 1925, the Art Deco movement was at its peak. The influence of this sleek industrial aesthetic, built on sharp geometric shapes and gleaming metallic surfaces, is clearly visible in Phantom III, launched in 1936. One example even featured polished copper wings, and many more incorporated decorative Art Deco flashes and motifs.

These commissions offer a vivid insight into the period’s perceptions of luxury, which leaned towards the lavish and opulent, with gold-plated brightwork, gold and silver inlays and interior fittings, intricate marquetry, exotic wood veneers, and soft furnishings finished in materials such as astrakhan wool and damask.

One of the most extravagant commissions was ‘The Phantom of Love’, created in 1926 by Clarence Gasque, finance director of Woolworths UK stores, as a gift for his wife, Maude. Inspired by an 18th century sedan chair in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the interior was conceived as a tribute to her passion for French design and history. With an unlimited budget, Wolverhampton coachbuilders Charles Clark & Sons created an interior worthy of Versailles, complete with Aubusson tapestry upholstery, a hand-painted ceiling with gilded cornices, and a Louis XIV-style drinks cabinet topped with an ormolu clock and porcelain vases of gilded metal and enamel flowers.

This was a time when some of the most spectacularly eccentric commissions in Rolls-Royce history were brought to life. Gerald Tyrwhitt, 14th Baron Berners — famous for dyeing pigeons in a variety of pastel hues at his Oxfordshire estate — specified a clavichord keyboard beneath the front seat. Mrs E. Churchill-Wylie went further still, commissioning a Phantom equipped with a bar, gramophone, picnic set, writing desk, cigar cabinet and boot-mounted wash basin.

The following decades saw a shift toward more understated commissions, where material provenance and quality spoke louder than decoration. William Playne Twill – an English take on Scottish tweed – was popular for its handsome, pinstriped finish. Though no longer in production, it remains highly prized by collectors. Equally favoured was ‘West of England’ cloth, sourced from traditional woollen mills in the South West of England and offered in a wide variety of colours. Her Majesty the Queen favoured Light Grey and Baroda Blue in her Phantoms of the 1950s and 60s.

LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT: THE MOTOR CAR AS A SOCIAL SPACE

Favoured by crowned heads and the international elite, Phantom quickly became a fixture of high society. Its first decade was defined by Art Deco elegance — what followed introduced a more discreet kind of indulgence.

For clients in the United States, this was the era of Prohibition. For those with sufficient thirst and imagination, Phantom could offer some relief. Several socialites – including one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era – specified a secret compartment to transport liquor in defiance of the law; one Phantom II Continental had what the order coyly described as a ‘cocktail set’ concealed in the C-pillar.

With the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in December 1933, drinks cabinets were more openly commissioned, displayed and enjoyed. That spirit of celebration continues today, with Rolls-Royce offering a wide array of Bespoke accessories for those with a taste for the exceptional, including the Champagne Chest and Cocktail Hamper. This ethos is woven into the very fabric of the contemporary Phantom: its Champagne Cooler features two distinct settings, precisely calibrated for vintage and non-vintage cuvées.

Of course, entertainment was not limited to the liquid kind. Bespoke features commissioned beyond Prohibition reflected developments in technology as well as society. Phantom II 18GX is known to have been equipped with a wind-up gramophone; from the 1930s, radios were widely specified in Phantom III and its successors. In the 1960s, Phantom V 5LVA33 was among the first Rolls-Royce motor cars to be fitted with a television, at a time when just one in four British homes owned one.

Through the 1960s and 70s, television would also transform the careers and profiles of a new generation of rock and pop superstars, for whom Phantom was the only choice. These motor cars included some of the era’s most sophisticated and potent in-car audio systems, providing a template for today’s meticulously engineered Bespoke Audio system. However, one feature – a microphone fitted for Elvis Presley – has the unique distinction of only ever being requested once.

A CONTEMPORARY CANVAS: THE GOODWOOD ERA

Phantom commissions in Rolls-Royce’s early Goodwood era drew inspiration from an increasingly wide range of themes, reflecting the global nature of the reenergised brand and the diverse lives and passions of clients around the world.

One Phantom VII commission in particular marked a watershed moment, challenging Rolls-Royce to push its Bespoke capabilities beyond craftsmanship and into the realm of art. Phantom Serenity combines imperial silk, fine embroidery and hand-painting — the latter requiring artisans to undergo specialist training — to reimagine the rear suite as a garden sanctuary beneath flowering trees. The response was instant and global: Serenity had expanded the definition of luxury.

A similarly defining moment was the unveiling of Phantom Drophead Coupé Waterspeed. Celebrated today as an expression of the marque’s own history and values, this motor car pays tribute to Sir Malcolm Campbell’s record-breaking feats in the Rolls-Royce-powered Bluebird K3 boat. Its striking Maggiore Blue paint finish, brushed steel deck and open-pore Abachi wood interior signalled a new era of creative and technical confidence within the Bespoke Collective.

These motor cars inspired more clients than ever to bring increasingly ambitious ideas to the marque. Among the many Bespoke Phantoms that Rolls-Royce has been graciously permitted to share with the world is Phantom Syntopia, a collaboration with Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen. Inspired by the intricate layering techniques of haute couture, this one-of-one commission included a silk headliner that took almost 700 collective hours to complete — as well as its own unique fragrance.

Phantom Scintilla, meanwhile, draws its creative energy from the marque’s own mythology. Designed to capture the fleeting wonder of the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine’s presence, it incorporates Bespoke features inspired by the apparent movement of ‘Eleanor’s’ robes. These include expansive interior embroideries comprising 869,500 stitches, and an animated Starlight Headliner completed with 4,450 perforations that reveal subtle flashes of a metallic silver fabric beneath.

These motor cars represent just a glimpse of the remarkable diversity of Bespoke Phantom commissions created at Goodwood. Each is a singular response to a client’s vision, and with new inspirations drawn from ever more unexpected worlds, the next chapter promises to be even more extraordinary.

A CENTURY OF CULTURAL EXPRESSION

The first century of Bespoke Phantom motor cars underlines a simple truth; as the ultimate canvas for self-expression, Phantom – more than any other motor car in history – reflects its owners, and the world and eras in which they live. Every individual example expresses and preserves the tastes, attitudes, cultural conventions and aesthetic influences of its own era – a unique work of history and art that tells a deeply personal story. Over a century of evolution, one thing has remained constant. Through Bespoke, Phantom is not only the best car in the world: it is the best car for its owner and their world. 

• Rolls-Royce celebrates locations and moments that influenced Phantom’s evolution
• A 100-year odyssey, taking in Côte d’Azur, London, Sussex and the Australian Outback
• Highlights key individuals and landmarks in Phantom’s technical development

 
“Phantom has always been defined by the people who commission it, and the places in which they use it. As an exemplar of excellence, Phantom has inhabited and been influenced by locations worldwide, from the glamorous Côte d’Azur to the peaceful Sussex countryside, and from the bustling heart of London to the vast wilderness of the Australian Outback. Each stage in this 100-year odyssey has shaped Phantom’s character and helped secure its place in cultural history. As we mark Phantom’s centenary, we reflect on some of the most important places, events and people that have made our pinnacle motor car everything it is today, and informed a new and extraordinary Bespoke creation soon to be revealed.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


The story of Phantom spans 100 years, and the entire world. Today, Phantom owners can be found in over 100 countries on six continents, with each individual motor car commissioned to satisfy both its owner’s personal tastes and codes of luxury, and the specific conditions and surroundings in which it operates.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars reflects on some of the key locations, moments and people that have shaped Phantom’s development and philosophy from its launch in 1925 to the present day.


LE RAYOL-CANADEL-SUR-MER: ENGINEERING AN ICON

From 1911 until his death in 1933, Sir Henry Royce spent the winter months in the South of France, at a secluded retreat on the Côte d’Azur. He initially stayed at Claude Johnson’s villa, until Villa Mimosa was completed in 1917; Royce used this location to test and refine many Rolls-Royces, including the first motor car to bear the Phantom nameplate.

The combination of high-speed cruising from England to France and the Riviera’s sweeping, cinematic corniches provided the ultimate environment for assessment and improvement. From Villa Mimosa, Royce obsessively refined Phantom to deliver an experience as singular then as it is today: the effortless command of immense power.

The influence of Sir Henry’s winter residence is enshrined in modern materials used by the marque, including Canadel interior wood panelling, and Duality Twill bamboo fabric inspired by the extensive groves in Le Jardin des Méditerranées, which adjoins Villa Mimosa.


WEST WITTERING: THE QUIET PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

In the warmer months, Sir Henry returned from France to Elmstead, his beloved home in the village of West Wittering on the Sussex coast. Just eight miles from the present-day Home of Rolls-Royce, Elmstead remains a place of pilgrimage for enthusiasts, providing a personal and emotional connection to one of the founders that resonates throughout the company today.

As he had done at Villa Mimosa, Royce set up a separate studio nearby for his team of designers and engineers. Although the Rolls-Royce factory was halfway across the country in Derby, Royce still insisted on signing off every new component personally, so motor cars arrived almost daily to be inspected, adjusted and approved before returning. Each journey was a round trip of over 400 miles, and some of these same roads are still used by the marque’s test and development specialists to this day.

Alongside Elmstead, Royce acquired 60 acres of land, where he devoted himself to agriculture and horticulture with characteristic zeal and almost obsessive attention to detail; qualities that extended even to his leisure pursuits. A skilled engineering draughtsman, Royce also became a highly accomplished watercolourist. His exquisite studies of scenes in West Wittering and Le Canadel still provide inspiration for Rolls-Royce designers seeking to immerse themselves in his world.


LONDON: A CENTURY OF INFLUENCE

For all its global reach, London remains Phantom’s spiritual home. For much of the twentieth century, Rolls-Royce was based at 14-15 Conduit Street, near Savile Row in London’s fashionable Mayfair, where Charles Rolls had established one of Britain’s first car showrooms in 1905. Here, Rolls conducted demonstration drives of early motor cars and met clients from London’s social elite. The building’s role in automotive history was commemorated by English Heritage in 2010 with a Blue Plaque, unveiled by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.

London also played a pivotal role in Phantom’s renaissance. In the late 1990s, the marque’s designers established a secret studio in a former bank building on the north side of Hyde Park. In what was known simply as ‘The Bank’, a handpicked team, led by Chief Designer Ian Cameron, worked on a secret project codenamed RR01.

Cameron and his team’s brief was simple, but enormously ambitious: to create a new Rolls-Royce from a blank sheet of paper. They were given only three stipulations: the car should have very large wheels, the famous Pantheon Grille and, of course, the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot.

Chief Exterior Designer Marek Djordjevic turned to designs from the past for inspiration. A coachbuilt Phantom II from the early 1930s would prove the most influential, providing the design elements that still inform every Goodwood-era Rolls-Royce – most notably the famous ‘waft line’, rising from rear to front along the lower edge of the body, reminiscent of a motor yacht at speed.


AUSTRALIA: A NEW ERA BEGINS

The first Goodwood Phantom made its global debut on 1 January 2003, where it was handed over to its new owner at exactly 00:01. The delighted client wished to immerse themselves in this grand and contemporary expression of the marque, and so began a 4,500-mile journey from Perth across the Australian continent. It was an audacious statement – and a bold demonstration that Phantom had not only returned, but was ready to define a new era of global luxury travel. In a fitting full-circle moment, that very same Phantom returned to the Home of Rolls-Royce in August 2025 – Phantom’s centenary year – to undergo a detailed inspection by the marque’s engineers.


102EX: AN ELECTRIC VISION

Following Phantom’s highly successful market introduction, engineers within Rolls-Royce began thinking about the marque’s longer-term future. Reflecting the Rolls-Royce’s visionary spirit, a small team considered a wide range of powertrains that would be suitable for the brand’s electric future and amplify the qualities clients celebrated about their Rolls-Royce.

In 2011, Rolls-Royce revealed 102EX, also known as the Phantom Experimental Electric (EE): a fully electric Phantom. Though never intended for production, this experimental motor car offered the first glimpse of how the brand might harness battery-electric technology to elevate the wider Rolls-Royce experience. It marked the beginning of a bold electric journey – one that would carry the marque into the present day, and beyond.


THE FUTURE OF PHANTOM, TOLD THROUGH ITS LEGACY

Phantom’s remarkable history remains a constant source of inspiration within Rolls-Royce. The centenary year of this nameplate, celebrated in 2025, offers a fitting moment to honour the individuals and ideas that have shaped Phantom’s first 100 years. From world-renowned artists to musical pioneers, Phantom has been chosen by those who truly shape our world. It has served monarchs, statesmen and captains of industry – and, above all, remains a tribute to the vision of the marque’s founders, Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce.

Across generations, Phantom has revealed its unique breadth and brilliance – as a studio, stage, state room and gallery. These stories will soon be brought together in a landmark Bespoke motor car that captures Phantom’s singular legacy, honours an extraordinary milestone, and represents the continuation of one of the most illustrious journeys in automotive history.

Click here to view Rolls-Royce I Phantom Returns Home.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks 100 years of Phantom at Goodwood Revival 2025
• Five magnificent examples of historic Phantoms displayed on the Aerodrome Lawn
• On-track appearances by four Phantom course cars throughout the event
• Continues a year-long centenary celebration of the marque’s pinnacle product

“No motor car has played such a pivotal role in shaping automotive and cultural history as the Rolls-Royce Phantom. Over eight generations spanning 100 years – a remarkable anniversary we’re honouring throughout 2025 – it has represented the very best in engineering, comfort and personal expression for its owners, and won admirers around the world. Goodwood Revival – on the doorstep of the Home of Rolls-Royce – is the perfect setting in which to celebrate this extraordinary motor car and its continuing legacy, with five of the most distinctive and historically important Phantoms ever created on public display. They vividly illustrate the aesthetic, technical and emotional through-lines that connect the original ‘New Phantom’ created by Henry Royce in 1925 to the highly Bespoke Phantom commissions we bring to life for our clients a century later.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars continues its year-long programme marking the centenary of its pinnacle product, Phantom, at this weekend’s Goodwood Revival.

The centrepiece of the marque’s annual presence at the event will be a display on the Aerodrome Lawn, consisting of five magnificent Phantoms representing key moments and developments in the model’s 100-year history.

The selected motor cars are:


PHANTOM I BROUGHAM DE VILLE – ‘THE PHANTOM OF LOVE’

Dating from 1926 – the year after the original New Phantom was launched – this celebrated motor car is one of the finest examples of automotive art and craftsmanship ever created. It was commissioned by Clarence Warren Gasque as a gift for his wife, Maude, an heiress to the Woolworth family fortune, and was both a magnificent monument to his devotion, and an immoderate homage to her passion for 18th Century French history and design. Interior details include bespoke Aubusson tapestries, a hand-painted ceiling with gilded cornices, and a drinks cabinet topped with a French Ormolu clock and a pair of French porcelain vases filled with gilded metal and enamel flowers.


PHANTOM II CONTINENTAL TOURING PARK WARD

The now rare and highly prized Phantom II Continental was the production version of an experimental compact, sporting Phantom II variant produced for Henry Royce’s personal use. It was designed for high-speed touring over long distances on the smooth, straight roads of Europe and one of the few Phantoms of its era in which weight, wind resistance and other performance-related factors were as important as passenger comfort. This example, chassis 92PY, was commissioned by Mr A Y Gowen, an American industrialist who owned 16 Rolls-Royce motor cars during his lifetime. Intended for his travels around Europe, it’s fitted with a sunroof as well as the unique yellow tinted sun visor.


PHANTOM III

This beautiful motor car was originally ordered and delivered to Major Frederick Warren Pearl of Eaton Square, London SW1, in 1937. It passed through a number of hands before being exported to the United States. In 1989 it was repatriated to the UK and acquired by its current owner in 1995, following a comprehensive restoration.


PHANTOM IV LANDAULETTE

Phantom IV is the most exclusive model to bear the Phantom name: just 18 examples were produced between 1950 and 1956 and were offered only to royal families and heads of state. The chassis was 23.5 inches longer than that of the similar Silver Wraith; it was also the only Rolls-Royce to be fitted with a straight 8-cylinder engine. Phantom IV is still used by the British royal family for state occasions.


PHANTOM V

A magnificent and rare Rolls-Royce Phantom V with coachwork by James Young, this elegant PV22 model is finished in its original Midnight Blue. It was ordered by Marks & Spencer in January 1963 for the use of its chairman, Lord Marks, and delivered to him in March 1964. In perfect mechanical order, it has covered just 92,000 documented miles from new.

During the Revival, Phantom will also make regular appearances on the legendary Goodwood Motor Circuit. Four Phantom course cars will run from the assembly area between each race, demonstrating the power, precision and dynamic ability that continue to define Phantom as ‘the best car in the world’ after 100 years.

• Rolls-Royce celebrates the enduring links between Phantom and the world of music
• Spanning every era of modern music, from jazz and rock to rap and R&B
• Embraced by artists from Marlene Dietrich to Sir Elton John, John Lennon and 50 Cent
• Explores Phantom as a canvas for personal expression and an icon of icons
• Click here to view Rolls-Royce I Behind The Scenes: Diving into Rock ‘n’ Roll Legend

“From the Golden Age of Hollywood to the rise of hip-hop, over the last 100 years, music artists have used Phantom to project their identity and challenge convention. Their motor cars often became icons in their own right, with a lasting place in the history of modern music. This enduring connection reminds us that Rolls-Royce and the extraordinary people who are part of the marque’s story are united by one ambition: to make their presence felt.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

The connection between Rolls-Royce and the world of popular music is almost as old as the recording industry itself. Long before icons like John Lennon, Elvis Presley and Pharrell Williams wrote themselves into Phantom’s story, artists including Duke Ellington, Fred Astaire, Count Basie, Ravi Shankar, Edith Piaf and Sam Cooke all travelled by Rolls-Royce, recognising the brand as the definitive symbol of success and artistry. Personalities for whom the term ‘music mogul’ was created, including Brian Epstein, Berry Gordy and Ahmet Ertegun, were also among the marque’s most notable owners. Across genres, geographies and generations, Rolls-Royce remains the ultimate reward for creative brilliance and a canvas for personal expression.

Of all models, Phantom – the pinnacle of the marque – is the Rolls-Royce most closely associated with the world of music. Over eight generations and 100 years – a centenary the nameplate celebrates in 2025 – this extraordinary motor car has been consistently chosen by some of the most creative and influential figures in musical history. Phantom’s appeal to these individuals endures; it retains its status as the world’s pre-eminent luxury product, comprised of the very best in engineering excellence, fine materials and exquisite, highly skilled craftsmanship. It also offers its owner the freedom to define their identity – a quality that has helped many Phantoms owned by musical luminaries achieve legendary status in their own right.


MARLENE DIETRICH: FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

Most actors travel to Hollywood in search of stardom. Marlene Dietrich arrived already part of the constellation. Fresh from her breakout role in The Blue Angel, and having introduced the world to what would become her signature song, Falling in Love Again, she travelled to California in 1930 to begin filming Morocco. Her welcome was as dramatic as her screen presence: at Paramount Studios, she was greeted not only with flowers, but with the gift of a green Rolls-Royce Phantom I. Morocco earned Dietrich an Academy Award nomination – and her Phantom also took its share of the spotlight, appearing in the film’s closing scenes and publicity images.


ELVIS PRESLEY: ALL SHOOK UP

In 1956, a self-titled album by a promising young singer named Elvis Presley became the first rock ‘n’ roll album to top the Billboard chart, where it remained for 10 weeks. In 1963, at the height of his fame, ‘The King’ bought a Midnight Blue Phantom V with a host of Bespoke features. In what may have been an early version of in-car karaoke, the features included a microphone, a writing pad in the rear armrest – ready for flashes of inspiration – along with a mirror and clothes brush to ensure Elvis was always ready to make an entrance. In a charming domestic detail, the original mirror-polished paint famously attracted the attention of Elvis’s mother’s chickens, which would peck at their reflection in the coachwork. The motor car was refinished in a lighter Silver Blue that did not show the chips.


JOHN LENNON: LOVE ME DO

In December 1964, John Lennon rewarded himself for The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night by commissioning a Phantom V. The motor car was entirely black, including the windows, bumpers and hub caps; it also boasted a cocktail cabinet and a television, as well as a refrigerator in the boot. However, like Elvis’s Phantom V, Lennon’s would also undergo a complete transformation. In May 1967, just before Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, the motor car was resprayed yellow, then hand-painted with swirls of red, orange, green and blue, with floral side panels and Lennon’s star sign, Libra, completing the motor car’s new persona.

For the younger generation, Lennon’s Phantom perfectly captured the mood of the carefree ‘Summer of Love’ that year. To their elders, it was an outrage, memorably summed up by a woman who, on seeing the Phantom driving down London’s Piccadilly, shouted, “How dare you do that to a Rolls-Royce!” before swatting at the paintwork with her umbrella. When the motor car was sold in 1985, it reached $2,299,000, almost 10 times the reserve price. It was both the most expensive piece of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia at the time, and the highest price ever achieved for a motor car sold by auction.

This Phantom is arguably the most famous Rolls-Royce connected with Lennon, but he owned another. Lennon purchased a white Rolls-Royce Phantom V in 1968 to coincide with the launch of the White Album and to mark a new phase of his life with Yoko Ono. This was characterised by his wearing white clothes, decorating the interior and exterior of his Berkshire home in bright white, and pursuing a distinctly minimalist aesthetic.

Originally commissioned in a two-tone black-over-green by Wing Commander Paddy Barthropp, a wartime Spitfire pilot turned chauffeur, Lennon individualised this motor car in line with his personal style at the time. He paid £12,000 – equivalent to the price of a sizeable house at the time – to have the motor car transformed to white inside and out, and had it fitted with a sunroof, Philips turntable, 8-track player, telephone and television. It would later appear in the Beatles film Let It Be, as well as Performance, which starred Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. In September 1969, Lennon sold the car to Allen Klein, founder of ABKCO Records and The Beatles’ manager at the time, for a reported $50,000.


LIBERACE: I’LL BE SEEING YOU

Another musical iconoclast was Władziu Valentino Liberace. Flamboyant and multi-talented, Liberace was the world’s highest-paid entertainer in the 1950s and ‘60s thanks to his TV shows and long residencies in Las Vegas. Among the extravagances that earned him the soubriquet ‘Mr Showmanship’ was a 1961 Phantom V covered in tiny mirror pieces that he would use to drive on stage during his long-running residency at the Las Vegas Hilton. The motor car appeared in the award-winning Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra, in which Michael Douglas recreated its short but famous journey.


SIR ELTON JOHN: A RIDE FOR THE ROCKETMAN

Liberace’s playing style influenced a generation of performers, including a budding pianist named Reginald Dwight, today known as Sir Elton John, who would later take inspiration from his hero by owning several Phantoms. In 1973, en route to a concert in Manchester in his white Phantom VI, Sir Elton saw a newer example in a showroom window. He instructed his chauffeur to stop, bought the car, and used it to complete his journey to the venue.

Later, he would update the Phantom with black paintwork, a black leather interior, tinted windows, a television, a video player, and even a fax machine. The most significant addition, however, was a bespoke audio system that was so powerful that the back windscreen had to be strengthened to prevent it from shattering when the volume was turned up.

Sir Elton also owned a Phantom V, for which he commissioned a striking pink-and-white exterior paint finish and matching interior. Following a tour of the USSR, where he was paid in coal, rather than cash, Sir Elton was unable to pay his musicians. Instead, he gave the Phantom to his percussionist, Ray Cooper, in lieu of a cash fee. Cooper later used the motor car to pick up a young Damon Albarn from school, who went on to find stardom of his own with Blur. History came full circle in 2020, when Albarn and his virtual band, Gorillaz, recorded The Pink Phantom, with Sir Elton appearing as a guest vocalist.


KEITH MOON: WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN?

Legend has it that, while celebrating his 21st birthday, the gifted but fatefully self-destructive drummer of The Who, Keith Moon, plunged his Rolls-Royce into the swimming pool at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, creating one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most enduring legends.

Accounts of what really happened that night differ wildly. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1972, Moon stated the motor car was a Lincoln Continental belonging to another hotel guest; he said he let off the handbrake and rolled the car into the pool. Other party guests maintain that no motor car ended up in the pool at all. Whether a car ended up in the pool or not, the myth is so potent that it has become the definitive image of rock ‘n’ roll indulgence – and as such, the car in the pool could only be a Rolls-Royce.

To mark Phantom’s centenary and the motor car’s place in rock ‘n’ roll mythology, Rolls-Royce brought legend to life by submerging an Extended body shell – a retired prototype destined for recycling – in a swimming pool. The chosen location was Tinside Lido in Plymouth, England, a celebrated Art Deco landmark next to the English Channel. Linked to John Lennon, one of Phantom’s most famous clients, the Lido served as a backdrop to a photograph of The Beatles taken on 12 September 1967 during their visit whilst filming for The Magical Mystery Tour. That same year, Lennon unveiled his yellow, hand-painted Phantom V, further cementing the nameplate’s place in music legend.


HIP-HOP STAR

Since moving to Goodwood, where production began in 2003, Rolls-Royce has only strengthened its ties with contemporary music. By 2016, it had become the most name-checked brand in song lyrics, driven in part by the meteoric rise of hip-hop. The genre was a cultural powerhouse by the 1990s, and a household staple at the turn of the century, coinciding with Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood renaissance and the launch of Phantom VII in 2003.

A year later, Pharrell Williams and Calvin ‘Snoop Dogg’ Broadus Jr, would famously feature a Phantom VII in the 2004 music video for Drop It Like It’s Hot, which would top the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and commence Phantom’s lasting connection with the genre’s most influential artists. Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson appeared in the TV series Entourage in a Phantom VII Drophead Coupé – a scene that would go on to become a widely shared meme; Tha Carter II by Dwayne ‘Lil Wayne’ Carter is one of many albums to feature Phantom on its cover. The genre has also played a key role in popularising one of the marque’s most distinctive features: Starlight Headliner. The phrase ‘stars in the roof’ – and its variations – recurs in rap lyrics and has become a suitably poetic shorthand for Rolls-Royce ownership.


ENCORE: PHANTOM’S LASTING LEGACY

Phantom has maintained a constant, evolving presence in the story of modern music. In each era, it has offered artists and innovators a means of self-expression, aspiration and identity. As Phantom enters its second century, it continues to symbolise success, individuality, and the power of human imagination.

Click here to view Rolls-Royce I Behind The Scenes: Diving into Rock ‘n’ Roll Legend.

• Rolls-Royce celebrates Phantom’s century-long presence in the art world
• How Phantom was connected to leading artists, and how it became art itself
• Art for every Phantom: Charles Sykes and the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot

“For 100 years, the Rolls-Royce Phantom has moved in the same circles as the world’s leading artists. As a symbol of self-expression, Phantom has often featured in incidents of creative significance – many of them defining moments of the last decade. As we mark Phantom’s centenary, it is the perfect time to reflect on this motor car’s endlessly intriguing legacy and the artistic personalities who played a role in shaping its story.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce has been associated with the greatest names in contemporary art since its foundation. Masters including Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Christian ‘Bébé’ Bérard and Cecil Beaton all travelled by Rolls-Royce. Dame Laura Knight, the first woman elected to full membership of the Royal Academy of Arts, even used a Rolls-Royce as a mobile studio, painting from its interior at racecourses such as Epsom and Ascot. The world’s most notable collectors, too, were drawn to the brand, among them Jacquelyn de Rothschild, Peggy Guggenheim and Nelson Rockefeller.

However, it is Phantom, the marque’s pinnacle product which celebrates its centenary in 2025, that is most closely linked to the art world. Over eight generations and 100 years, this motor car has been owned by some of the most famous creatives in modern history. Phantom itself has been exhibited in galleries around the world as an artwork in its own right – from institutional collections, such as London’s Saatchi Gallery and the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, to countless independent galleries and exhibition spaces.

This enduring connection between Phantom and the art world reflects a long tradition of creative exchange. Over the years, Phantom has attracted the most vivid artistic imaginations, giving rise to encounters that are as unexpected as they are unforgettable.


SALVADOR DALÍ, THE CAULIFLOWER, AND THE FROZEN PHANTOM

Anyone rejoicing in the title Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol, is always likely to attract attention. But the Spanish artist better known by his abbreviated name, Salvador Dalí, nevertheless went out of his way to occupy the limelight. Having shocked the art world with his surrealist images of nightmarish landscapes, chimeric animals, suggestive food and melting clocks, he was eager to bring his unique brand of excess and eccentricity to a wider audience.

In the winter of 1955, he was asked to give a lecture at Paris-Sorbonne University. Seeing a golden opportunity to create a moment in modern art, Dalí borrowed a friend’s black and yellow Phantom and filled it with 500kg (1,100lb) of cauliflowers.

After a wild ride through the streets of Paris in his brassica-laden motor car, Dalí pulled up outside the university and flung open the Phantom’s doors, sending the cauliflowers cascading to the cold December ground. How many of the 2,000-strong audience now remember his exposition on ‘Phenomenological Aspects of the Paranoiac Critical Method’ is debatable, but his arrival before the lecture became legendary.

To honour this defiantly surreal performance, Rolls-Royce has commissioned a contemporary artist to create an original artwork inspired by this gloriously eccentric, cauliflower-filled Phantom moment.

This memorable moment was not the only time Dalí immortalised Phantom. An artwork he produced for a 1934 illustrated book titled Les Chants de Maldoror (The Songs of Maldoror) incorporated a surreal interpretation of Phantom. In this piece, Dalí depicts the motor car stranded in a bleak, icy landscape, seemingly frozen in desolation. The image is both elegant and eerie, epitomising Dalí’s knack for juxtaposing opulence with the absurd.


ANDY WARHOL AND MORE THAN 15 MINUTES OF FAME

Dalí spent every autumn and winter in New York City, where he based himself in a suite at the St Regis Hotel in Manhattan. It was here, in 1965, that he first met a young visual artist named Andy Warhol. This seminal moment in art was captured by British photographer David McCabe, who later recalled: “Dalí turned the whole event into theatre. Andy was petrified".

Seen by many as Dalí’s natural successor, Warhol became one of the most influential artists of the 20^th century. Unlike his mentor, however, he actually owned a Phantom; a 1937 model that had been converted into a shooting brake in around 1947. In 1972, Warhol and his Swiss agent, Bruno Bischofberger, happened to pass an antique shop in Zurich where it was on sale. Warhol bought it on the spot and shipped it to New York. He owned the car until 1978, when he sold it to his friend and manager, Fred Hughes.

In tribute to Pop Art’s lasting impact, Rolls-Royce has commissioned a contemporary artist to reimagine Phantom in the style that propelled this bold style from Studio 54 into the cultural mainstream.


AN ARTWORK FOR EVERY PHANTOM: CHARLES SYKES AND THE SPIRIT OF ECSTASY

This tradition of artistic collaboration and connection with the world’s most famous and provocative creatives dates back to Rolls-Royce’s earliest days, when a fine artist would sculpt the brand’s most enduring symbol.

Since 1911, Rolls-Royce motor cars have been graced with the most famous and evocative mascot in the world: the Spirit of Ecstasy. This defining feature of the brand’s iconography was originally created by talented and prolific artist Charles Robinson Sykes.

Following a scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London, in 1902 he was hired by The Hon. John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, to provide the illustrated elements of his magazine, The Car Illustrated. Later, Montagu asked Sykes to create a series of paintings depicting his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts. These images caught the attention of Claude ‘CJ’ Johnson, the marque’s first commercial managing director, who commissioned six Sykes oils showing Rolls-Royces arriving at locations including the opera, the golf links, and the salmon stream, for the company’s 1910-11 catalogue.

Soon afterwards – and despite Sir Henry Royce’s antipathy to the concept – CJ had decided Rolls-Royce needed an official mascot. He commissioned Sykes to create a sculpture inspired by the imposing Greek statue The Winged Victory of Samothrace, which he had admired at the Louvre in Paris. Sykes captured its impact, but created a more ethereal figure that better expressed his experience of travelling in a Rolls-Royce. Indeed, his daughter Jo recalled that he was "very impressed with the smoothness and speed of the car and imagined that even so delicate a thing as a fairy could ride on the bonnet without losing her balance".

Whatever Sykes’ primary inspiration had been, CJ was delighted with the new mascot and appointed Sykes as sole supplier in 1911. From then on, Sykes personally supervised his production team, with his daughter Jo succeeding him in 1928. Until Rolls-Royce took production in-house in 1948, every Phantom owner may therefore have unknowingly owned a Sykes original.

Though now best remembered for his work with Rolls-Royce, Sykes enjoyed a successful career as an artist. His work remains highly regarded and is held in several institutional collections, including the British Museum and the V&A in London.


PHANTOM: A CANVAS AND A CATALYST

As Phantom enters its second century, its artistic legacy feels more relevant than ever. For creatives and collectors, it remains both a canvas and a catalyst that offers visionary thinkers something rare: a form of expression that is personal, timeless, and charged with purpose.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London kicks off the Summer Season, serving a gentle presence at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic at The Hurlingham Club, West London
• Historic location in the annals of Rolls-Royce with enduring links to The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls
• Part of a series of carefully selected occasions for clients and guests throughout the summer

“At Rolls-Royce, we strive to offer our clients unique experiences and encounters, in pinnacle enclaves and settings that reflect their tastes, lifestyles and interests. As one of Britain’s most prestigious private members’ clubs, The Hurlingham Club is a perfect fit; its unrivalled facilities, magnificent sporting occasions and London location, which is home to many of our clients, only add to its appeal. It’s also a place with real meaning for Rolls-Royce, indelibly associated with the marque’s co-founder, The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls and his own remarkable sporting exploits at the dawn of the 20^th Century. It is the perfect beginning to what promises to be another glorious Summer Season for Rolls-Royce and our clients.”
Boris Weletzky, Regional Director, United Kingdom, Europe and Central Asia, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Our return to The Hurlingham Club marks not only the opening of the Season, but a continuation of our long-standing commitment to creating occasions of quiet distinction for our clients. This setting, only a few miles from our London showroom, in Mayfair, is steeped in elegance and historical significance. It mirrors the qualities we value most: discretion, excellence and heritage. Hosting guests here, amidst world-class tennis and timeless surroundings, is an opportunity to deepen relationships through moments that are both rare and personal. In every detail, this is Rolls-Royce – refined, relevant and enduringly British.”
Claus Andersen, Brand Director, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London marks the opening of the Summer Season with its return to the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic at The Hurlingham Club in West London this week. It is the first in a series of high society occasions in which Rolls-Royce will serve a gentle presence across London and further afield in Britain during the summer months.

First held in 1994, the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic is one of the world’s most prestigious exhibition tournaments. Played on The Hurlingham Club’s sublime grass courts, it has long been used by many ATP players to polish their skills ahead of the start of the Wimbledon Championships the following week.

For the duration of the tournament, Rolls-Royce clients will delight in a carefully curated experience, set in the stunning 42-acre location on the River Thames in Fulham.

Since its foundation in 1869, the Hurlingham Club has represented the apex of sporting and social life, and is indelibly linked with exclusive and glamorous summer pursuits. In 1873, it published the official rules of polo, and was the venue for ‘the game of kings’ at the 1908 Summer Olympics. While polo is no longer played there, Hurlingham remains its spiritual home and gives its name to the British sport’s governing body. The Club is still, however, the world centre for another classic summer game, croquet, regularly hosting top-ranking international tournaments on its immaculate lawns.


THE ROLLS-ROYCE CONNECTION

The Club offers precisely the kind of environment and ambiance in which the marque’s co-founder, The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, would have felt entirely at home. Aristocratic, well-connected and wealthy, he was also daring and insatiably competitive. He raced bicycles as a student at Cambridge, then motor cars; and by the time he turned 30, he had enthusiastically embraced the latest craze sweeping his social stratum, ballooning, for which Hurlingham had quickly become the central hub in Britain.

The attractions for an audacious, pioneering spirit like Rolls, who had successfully raced every available innovation since his youth, were obvious. Ballooning was new, adventurous, ripe for record-setting and, of course, potentially extremely dangerous. The most obvious hazards were in flight, when a shift in the wind could set the balloon on a collision course, with the hapless pilot essentially powerless to take evasive action. Rolls himself had close calls with a factory chimney near his family home in Monmouth, and a gasholder at Battersea, in 1906; and when flying from Hurlingham, there was the ever-present possibility of becoming entangled with a tree on take-off.

Other perils awaited the pilot on landing. One summer day, Rolls disrupted a cricket match by coming to earth on the pitch, and even though the outraged players were eventually pacified, the fragile balloon suffered grave damage from their spiked cricket boots.

To add further spice to the proceedings, these early balloons were filled not with inert hot air, but with coal gas – a roughly equal mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide that was both extremely flammable and highly toxic. As the sport’s focal point, Hurlingham had its own dedicated supply via a pipeline installed by the Gas Light & Coke Company in 1908.

On 24 June 1908, the Aero Club of the United Kingdom organised a pursuit race, known as a ‘hare and hounds’ and still popular with balloonists today, from The Hurlingham Club grounds. As the ‘hare’, Rolls set off first in his single-occupant balloon ‘The Imp’ and flew to a predetermined spot where he landed and laid out a target on the ground. The pack of 11 ‘hounds’ then followed, in balloons with evocative names including ‘Pegasus’, ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Enchantress’ (whoever named balloon number 10 ‘Icarus’ clearly had either a poor grasp of mythology or a particularly mordant sense of humour). Their task was to locate the target and attempt to drop a weighted bag onto it from the air: whoever struck closest to the mark received a special cup presented by Rolls himself. The pilots and their passengers – almost all titled and/or military officers and professional people, including a Doctor, a General and a Viscountess – perfectly encapsulate Rolls’ elevated social milieu, and the personal connections on which he built Rolls-Royce’s early success.

Balloon racing continued from the Club in 1909; but by 1910, Rolls had moved on to aeroplanes, becoming only the second person in Britain to obtain a pilot’s licence. On 2 June, his first-ever double crossing of the English Channel, flying non-stop from Dover to Calais and back again, made him a national hero. His Wright Flyer, designed by the legendary Wilbur and Orville, was built under license in Britain by Short Brothers, who also produced ‘The Imp’.

After the record-breaking 90-minute flight, the aircraft required a major overhaul, so Rolls and his team took it to a hangar at Hounslow Heath airfield, conveniently close to Hurlingham where it was to be put on public display. Sensibly, the team made the trip from Kent at night, having decided that towing an aeroplane behind a motor car on the public highway was ‘probably illegal’. Flying an aeroplane in metropolitan London, on the other hand, was definitely against the law. Typically, this did not stop Rolls attempting a test-flight from Hurlingham: after narrowly avoiding a tree, he was persuaded not to try a second time.

The extraordinary pace of development would continue in aviation. Just 61 years after The Hurlingham balloon races, Concorde crossed the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound – powered by engines bearing Rolls’ name.


FROM THE LAWNS OF HURLINGHAM TO THE STREETS OF MAYFAIR

As summer begins, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London reaffirms its place at the heart of the Summer Season – both through its presence at carefully chosen occasions such as The Hurlingham Club, and at its showroom on Berkeley Street in Mayfair.

This part of London also holds particular significance for the marque: just a few streets away, on Hill Street, Charles Stewart Rolls was born in 1877. It was also in Mayfair that he established offices for his fledgling motor car business, C. S. Rolls & Co. – an enterprise that embodied the ideals and ambitions that would later give rise to Rolls-Royce, now regarded as the most revered name in the world of luxury.

Throughout 2025 Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is celebrating 100 years of its most famous nameplate – Phantom. To mark this auspicious milestone, every Rolls-Royce Phantom hand-crafted at the Home of Rolls-Royce this year will be completed with a special centenary chassis plaque. Rolls-Royce will also be honouring the occasion with a number of exciting activations throughout the year, including the announcement of special Bespoke commissions, attendance at key calendar events and exploring some of the fascinating stories that have built the Phantom legend in the worlds of music, film and art.

Please see below for the key dates in the calendar for Phantom’s centenary year:


JANUARY

OCTOBER

• 8 October: Shaping the World Through Bespoke – Phantom is the ultimate canvas for expression, as it has been for the last 100 years – this story explores some of the most extraordinary Phantom commissions in history.
• 22 October: A Defining Statement, 100 Years in the Making – as the Phantom nameplate celebrates its 100th anniversary, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars pays tribute with the Phantom Centenary Private Collection, limited to just 25 examples.

DECEMBER

• 18 December: Celebrating the Centenary of an Icon: A Year of Phantom Stories  – Rolls-Royce reflects on a year of global celebrations marking Phantom's centenary.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce ‘EX’ experimental cars, built from 2004 onwards
• The Goodwood-era continuation of a long line of EX models
• Each edition has left its own legacy, with some becoming series motor cars
• Final chapter in a series celebrating landmark models from the marque’s history
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

“Experimental models have always played a significant role in the history of Rolls-Royce. Immediately identifiable by the ‘EX’ designation, the line began with 1EX in 1919, and continued for almost 40 years, ending with 45EX in 1958. In the Goodwood era, we’ve maintained the tradition with our own EX motor cars, the first of which, 100EX, was unveiled in 2004, barely a year after production began at the Home of Rolls-Royce. Experimental models are not and never have been concept cars at Rolls-Royce; they have always been fully functioning vehicles, offering our designers and engineers the opportunity for real-world innovation. They have been used to demonstrate new components and engineering techniques, including entirely new drivetrain technologies, as well as pushing the boundaries of exterior and interior design. Though every EX model is unique, they all uphold the Rolls-Royce philosophy of respecting the past while constantly focusing on the future. Thus, they are the perfect subjects on which to conclude this landmark heritage series.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Unlike the rest of the ‘Models of the Marque’ series, this final instalment considers a highly significant group of Rolls-Royce motor cars, rather than a single model that represents the decade in which it was first launched.

Rolls-Royce engineers designed and built numerous experimental cars up to the late 1950s. In 1927, for example, they created 15EX, 16EX, and 17EX in a bid to develop a lightweight sports variant of Phantom. All of the EX models featured below were conceived and crafted in the post-2003 Goodwood era, during the marque’s modern renaissance at the Home of Rolls-Royce. Some progressed to full production, while others were created as bold statements of intent, embodying the marque’s vision for the future of luxury mobility. The drivetrains, batteries and other systems prototyped in the all-electric models were ground-breaking in their own right, and laid the foundations for the subsequent development of Spectre.

Like their predecessors, all Goodwood-era experimental cars are designated ‘EX’ and bear the red ‘Double-R’ badge reserved exclusively for these pioneering models.


100EX, 2004

In March 2004, Rolls-Royce unveiled 100EX at the Geneva Motor Show. Coming just 15 months after the start of production of the new Phantom VII at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, it was a remarkable technical achievement and a fitting way to commemorate the marque’s centenary year.

Like Phantom VII, 100EX was built on a lightweight aluminium spaceframe and featured some of the same meticulously engineered components to deliver the marque’s signature Magic Carpet Ride. The chassis was shorter by 165mm (6.5in) and 71mm (3in) lower, and Phantom’s 6.75-litre V12 engine was replaced with a significantly larger 9-litre V16, 64-valve naturally aspirated unit. Most obviously, 100EX was not a closed, formal saloon, but an open-top, four-seat, two-door drophead.

The exterior design, intended to evoke a classic motor yacht at speed, featured a dynamic rise in the waistline over the rear wheels, and graceful lines sweeping up towards the front. In true nautical fashion, the tonneau cover, luggage compartment lining and rear passenger cabin were all finished in bleached teak decking.

The rear tapered into a boat-tail style that would inspire a suite of Coachbuild masterpieces almost two decades later. The split ‘Countryman’ luggage compartment featured a separate lower tailgate which, when opened, provided a completely flat surface with inlaid fibre matting, ideal for picnics or as an elevated viewing platform.

The tailored roof was made from an innovative fabric incorporating fine metallic threads, and lined with a cashmere/wool blend. The folding mechanism was carefully designed so the roof could be concealed in an extremely small storage area, minimising intrusion into the luggage and passenger spaces.

100EX would later evolve into the fabled Phantom Drophead Coupé, launched in 2007 and now one of the rarest and most desirable models of the Goodwood era.


101EX, 2006

Two years later, the successor to 100EX made its debut, also at the Geneva Salon. With 101EX, Rolls-Royce designers set out to explore a potential design direction for a future coupé model. The result was a full four-seat coupé with twin coach doors, a lower roofline and shallower glass area than Phantom VII. The Pantheon grille was discreetly reclined and extended back across a brushed aluminium bonnet and windscreen surround. Though adopting the same aluminium spaceframe, 101EX was 240mm (9.45in) shorter than Phantom VII; this, combined with bodywork constructed from carbon fibre composite and the proven 6.75-litre V12 engine, gave it more of a performance and driver-focused character.

The interior featured the first example of what would become 101EX’s most enduring contribution to the Rolls-Royce design canon: the Starlight Headliner. Comprising hundreds of fibre-optic ‘stars’, it proved an instant sensation and is now among the most frequently commissioned Bespoke features within a Rolls-Royce motor car, with its own almost unlimited potential for Bespoke individualisation.

101EX would also find lasting fame as a series production motor car, providing the basis for the legendary Phantom (Fixed-Head) Coupé launched in 2008. Rarer even than its Drophead sibling, it was later succeeded by the Wraith grand tourer; in 2017, a one-off Phantom Coupé commission, ‘Sweptail’, ushered in a new era of contemporary coachbuilding at Goodwood.


200EX, 2009

Continuing what was now becoming an established tradition, Rolls-Royce once again chose the Geneva Motor Show to present 200EX in March 2009. Unlike 100EX and 101EX, it was explicitly intended to enter production, and served as a design study for a contemporary four-door saloon due for launch the following year.

The designers’ brief for 200EX was to create ‘a modern, lithe and dynamic Rolls-Royce bearing all the hallmarks of the great cars that had gone before it: effortless performance, unparalleled refinement, exquisite quality and confident design’.

Accordingly, 200EX was more dynamic and noticeably less formal than Phantom, with dimensions and styling clearly designed to broaden the brand’s appeal to an emerging, younger audience. The exterior was dominated by large, uninterrupted surfaces, with finely sculptured horizontal lines adding definition and geometric precision; the powerful shoulders and flanks narrowed sharply as they flowed from the rear wings to the taillights. The edges of the Pantheon grille curved inwards, with the vanes set back within the opening to give it a more dynamic form. Inside, the fascia was deliberately clear, spacious and intuitive, with important functions emphasised by chrome accents.

200EX was, of course, the basis for the first-generation Ghost, formally launched in 2010. Having shaped a new chapter in the marque’s story, it concluded its first-generation journey in 2019, becoming the most commercially successful model in Rolls-Royce’s history.


102EX, 2011

In 2011, Rolls-Royce produced a motor car that perfectly embodied the pioneering ‘EX’ spirit. Yet another Geneva Motor Show debutant, 102EX was a one-off Phantom with a full electric drivetrain, designed to gather customer insights to inform alternative propulsion systems for future Rolls-Royce motor cars.

Also known as the Phantom Experimental Electric (EE), 102EX broke new ground as the world’s first super-luxury battery electric vehicle (BEV). As well as providing a testbed for the new technology, a crucial part of its mission was to garner opinions and reactions from owners, enthusiasts, members of the public and the media regarding electric power. From Geneva, 102EX embarked on a global tour, taking in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America, giving people the opportunity to experience an alternative drivetrain technology and provide feedback directly to Rolls-Royce engineers.

Before setting off, 102EX underwent exhaustive laboratory testing at the world-renowned Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) facility in Warwickshire to assess battery performance in extremes of humidity and temperature. These showed that the motor car could be driven normally in relative humidity as low as 30% – the average reading in Las Vegas, for example – and, in theory at least, temperatures of up to 500°C.

The real-world technical and user data gathered by 102EX on its epic journey would be instrumental in the development of Spectre, and the fulfilment of Charles Rolls’ prophecy, made in 1900, that electricity would, one day, provide the ideal means of propulsion for luxury motor cars.


103EX, 2016

Before the advent of Spectre in 2021, however, Rolls-Royce had already taken another significant step towards making Rolls’ far-sighted prediction a reality. The marque’s parent company, BMW Group, celebrated its own centenary in 2016 by commissioning a special ‘Vision Vehicle’ from each of its brands. For Rolls-Royce, the year also marked the end of production of Phantom VII, pending its replacement in 2017.

The marque’s Vision Vehicle, debuting at a special event at London’s Roundhouse, was 103EX, designed to ‘define the future of luxury mobility’. Hand-built using the most advanced materials, and powered by a zero-emissions powertrain, it offered a glimpse of a future in which Rolls-Royce offered clients a completely personal, effortless and autonomous experience, built around three innovative elements.

The passenger cabin, dubbed ‘The Grand Sanctuary’, surrounded occupants with precious and contemporary materials carefully chosen to create a feeling of lightness, simplicity and effortless elegance. The seats were replaced with an opulent sofa, which, thanks to artful lighting, appeared to ‘float’ within the cocoon of the cabin.

At 5.9m (19.36ft) long and 1.6m (5.25ft) high – the same dimensions as Phantom Extended Wheelbase – 103EX guaranteed a grand arrival for its owner. For the first time, the Spirit of Ecstasy was made in glass and illuminated from below; the Pantheon grille was also reimagined, and graced with the red ‘Double-R’ badge traditionally reserved for EX cars.

As well as an all-electric powertrain, 103EX included other experimental technology providing a compelling glimpse into the marque’s vision for the future. A digital assistant called ‘Eleanor’ – named after Eleanor Thornton, believed to have been Charles Sykes’ muse for the original Spirit of Ecstasy figurine – provided not only fully autonomous driving, but also a digital connection between car and owner, foreshadowing today’s Whispers app.

Innovation and development are continuous processes at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood. In the future, it is possible that the emergence of new technologies, materials and manufacturing methods may require exploration through the creation of dedicated experimental cars. If and when that happens, the next Rolls-Royce EX model will surely take its place in a unique, fascinating and ultimately transformative automotive dynasty.


CELEBRATING THE PAST, SHAPING THE FUTURE

Given their historical importance, and the length of time that has elapsed since they were made, the EX motor cars represent the first true ‘heritage’ models of the Goodwood era. They thus provide the perfect conclusion for this year-long retrospective of great motor cars from Rolls-Royce’s first 12 decades.

These experimental cars were far more than just technical essays and historical curiosities. Like their 20th Century forebears, they were all fully functioning vehicles and, as test beds for new components, engineering approaches and Bespoke features, they laid the foundations for Rolls-Royce’s renaissance and subsequent success. All the current Rolls-Royce product portfolio, as well as models no longer in production such as the first-generation Ghost, Dawn drophead, Wraith fastback and the Phantom Coupés, can trace their origins to one or more of these pioneering projects.

The EX programmes also gave designers and engineers the skills, experience and confidence to put Bespoke at the heart of Rolls-Royce’s offering, and paved the way for the revival of coachbuilding as a discrete, permanent service. It is in these capabilities, and their unmatched potential to create value both for clients and the business, that Rolls-Royce is now investing with its landmark extension at Goodwood.

The new facility is also designed to support production of the new generation of battery-electric motor cars. These will be crucial to boosting Rolls-Royce’s already significant contribution to the UK economy, which currently stands at over £500 million annually. Yet they will still owe much to lessons learned from 102EX and 103EX, thereby embodying Rolls-Royce’s proven approach of drawing on its rich heritage, without being bound by it, to inform and shape the future.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII, built between 2002 and 2017
• The first motor car to be crafted at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood
• Penultimate chapter in a series celebrating a landmark model from each decade of the marque’s history
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

 
“For those of us working at the Home of Rolls-Royce today, Phantom VII is where it all began. The first motor car ever to be built at our Global Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence, it ushered in our modern era in 2003 and, in terms of design, engineering, craft and manufacturing, set the template for everything we’ve done since. Though it marked a decisive new beginning for the brand, echoes of earlier Rolls-Royce models are everywhere: from one angle you see Silver Shadow, from another Silver Cloud; and elsewhere an undeniable link to the coachbuilt limousines of earlier decades. Through these inherited traits, Phantom VII represented an up-to-the-minute interpretation of the traditional, formal British saloon. At the same time, it started completely new conversations in modern luxury, and the unlimited possibilities of Bespoke.”

Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


At one minute past midnight on 1 January 2003, the Chairman & Chief Executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars handed the keys of the first Phantom VII to its new owner. The moment marked the beginning of a new era for the brand and was the culmination of a process dubbed ‘the last great adventure in automotive history’.

In 1998, BMW Group acquired the rights to manufacture Rolls-Royce motor cars. In less than five years, it had designed and constructed a new head office and manufacturing plant, and designed, tested and built an entirely new motor car worthy of the Rolls-Royce name – a timescale almost unprecedented in the industry.


THE REBIRTH OF A LEGEND

The design for Phantom VII was initially developed in a secret studio, discreetly located in a former bank building on the north side of London’s Hyde Park. For Chief Exterior Designer, Marek Djordjevic, the project was a dream come true. He was instructed to begin with a clean sheet of paper, and was given only three stipulations: the car, codenamed RR01, should have very large wheels; the famous radiator grille; and, of course, the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot.

To understand the essence of what a Rolls-Royce should be, and the characteristics that made it so special and identifiable, Djordjevic turned to designs from the past for inspiration. Three in particular caught his eye: the classically elegant Silver Cloud; the contemporary, understated Silver Shadow; and above all, a coachbuilt Phantom II of the early 1930s.

The heritage Phantom provided him with classic Rolls-Royce signature elements that would profoundly inform the new model’s design: a roofline just over twice the height of the wheels; a long wheelbase, with the front wheels well to the fore and a minimal front overhang; a long bonnet, visually linked to the passenger cabin by an accent line of brightwork; and an imaginary line drawn rising from rear to front along the lower edge of the body, reminiscent of a motor yacht at speed – the famous ‘waft line’ still exhibited by every Rolls-Royce model today.


THE EPITOME OF COMFORT

Phantom VII was designed first and foremost around the comfort of its occupants – an overarching design approach known as the Authority Concept. The driving position provided a commanding view of the road ahead, with the primary controls intuitively positioned, in groups and shapes to make them operable by touch alone so the driver could keep their eyes on the road. Secondary controls were either concealed in compartments, such as the centre armrests, or operated by the Controller. A solid metal cylindrical dial, exposed by opening part of the front-seat armrest, the Controller took care of functions including communication, navigation, entertainment and the motor car’s setting configuration, all displayed on a rotating central fascia screen.

For rear-seat passengers, the Authority Concept manifested itself in wide, rear-hinged coach doors allowing them to enter and exit the cabin easily and decorously. Once inside, the doors closed with the touch of a button. The seats themselves were offered in a choice of configurations: ‘Individual’ with a fixed centre armrest and console; or ‘Theatre’ with a raisable armrest and angled side-bolsters permitting occupants to sit at a slight angle towards one another to aid conversation. The seats were also slightly higher than the front seats, so the passengers could see through the windscreen more easily – and admire the Spirit of Ecstasy proudly crowning the long sweep of the bonnet ahead.


WHERE PAST AND PRESENT MEET

While Phantom VII’s overall silhouette reflected traditional Rolls-Royce proportions, and its interior upheld the marque’s reputation for peerless comfort, its engineering and construction were at the leading edge of 21st Century technology.

Of all the engineering innovations introduced by Phantom VII, the most enduringly important was its construction method. Instead of the usual monocoque structure, in which the bodywork and frame are integrated into a single shell, Phantom VII was built on an aluminium spaceframe – a skeletal framework of some 200 extruded sections to which the suspension, engine and body panels are attached. This method is often used in racing and high-performance vehicles, owing to its superior strength-to-weight ratio. The Rolls-Royce version was also designed around the marque’s requirement for hand-built perfection; when measured from bumper to bumper, the length of every motor car built on it would be accurate to within 0.5mm. Achieving this precision required skilled craftspeople to hand-weld 150 metres of seams in 2,000 separate locations. The Phantom VII spaceframe provided the foundations for the contemporary Architecture of Luxury, which underpins every model built at the Home of Rolls-Royce today.


EXTENDING ITS INFLUENCE

The Architecture of Luxury harnesses another key benefit of the spaceframe. Infinitely scalable and modifiable, it gives Rolls-Royce engineers and designers the freedom to create motor cars of different shapes and dimensions on the same underpinnings. Today, that remarkable flexibility is demonstrated in models as diverse as Spectre and Cullinan; but the original Phantom VII spaceframe provided the first example of this adaptability.

At the 2004 Geneva Motor Show, Rolls-Royce unveiled an experimental car, 100EX. Four inches shorter than Phantom VII, it was a two-door drophead coupe, with a V16 cylinder engine and a fabric hood concealed by marine-style bleached teak decking, inspired by the classic J-Class racing yacht of the 1930s. It was so well received that a production version, with a V12 engine, was approved; Phantom Drophead Coupé, as it was known, is now one of the rarest and most desirable motor cars of the entire Goodwood era.

The following year, Rolls-Royce launched Phantom VII Extended Wheelbase (EWB), in which the chassis was lengthened by 250mm (9.8in) to create additional space in the rear cabin. 

In 2006, another experimental Phantom, 101EX, appeared at Geneva. This was a fixed-head coupé based on the Drophead, and was the first to feature the Starlight Headliner now seen on almost every Rolls-Royce motor car. The Phantom Coupé also became a series production car, again in extremely limited numbers.


A NEW POWER RISING

Another link to the past was provided by the engine. Rolls-Royce had used a V12 engine with Phantom III in 1936, and again in Silver Seraph in the late 1990s. That Phantom VII should be similarly equipped was obvious and indisputable.

Rolls-Royce’s engineers were aware that the Phantom VII engine required a significant amount of power to deliver the effortless ‘waftability’ they wanted from their new model. Phantom VII was therefore fitted with a brand-new, specially designed engine with a capacity of 6.75 litres – the traditional displacement for a Rolls-Royce motor car engine. A derivative of this engine is still used in Rolls-Royce motor cars today – with the obvious exception of the all-electric Spectre and Black Badge Spectre.


THE ULTIMATE CANVAS FOR BESPOKE

Phantom has long been revered as the ultimate canvas for Bespoke, enabling clients to create truly singular expressions of their vision. Among the most notable Private Commissions and Collections were Phantom Aviator, which paid homage to the golden age of flight with aviation-inspired details and a cockpit-like interior; Phantom Serenity, a masterpiece of handwoven silk and delicate embroidery that redefined luxury craftsmanship; and the Art Deco Collection, which celebrated the bold geometric forms and opulent materials of the Roaring Twenties, translating the era’s glamour into a contemporary Rolls-Royce aesthetic. Each of these creations exemplified the boundless possibilities of Bespoke, reinforcing Phantom’s status as the pinnacle of individualisation.


A CRUCIAL LEGACY

Phantom VII remained in production until 2017, when it was replaced by the current eighth generation. For 14 years, it was the marque’s pinnacle product and re-established, then reinforced Rolls-Royce’s long-cherished reputation as ‘the best car in the world’. As the first – and until the launch of Ghost in 2009, the only – motor car to be handmade at Goodwood, it was the foundation on which all Rolls-Royce’s subsequent growth and success was built.

• Rolls-Royce creates a unique time capsule to mark its Goodwood extension project
• Ceremony involving members of Rolls-Royce’s Future Talent programme to officially seal the capsule
• To be opened on the marque’s 150th anniversary in 2054
• Contains artefacts chosen by each department and function across the company
• Objects include those likely to be obsolete, and others potentially still in use, 30 years hence

 “With this time capsule, we’re creating our own piece of history to hand on to our successors here at Goodwood. It serves as a snapshot of who we are and what we do today, by preserving some of the tools of our trade from every part of the modern Rolls-Royce business. Some we’ve picked precisely because we know future generations will regard them as long-superseded relics of a departed age. Others we’ve included because we’re confident they’ll still be in use in 2054, so those working here when we celebrate our 150th anniversary will see themselves as part of an unbroken line of craftsmanship and excellence spanning the decades. Indeed, I very much hope these members of our Future Talent programme, who worked together to make this project happen, are still here to unveil the capsule’s contents in 2054.”
Mark Adams, Director of Human Resources, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce is upholding a longstanding tradition of creating a time capsule as part of a major construction project – in the marque’s case, the landmark extension now under construction at the Home of Rolls-Royce, which represents the largest single investment in its Goodwood-based facilities in more than 20 years.

The capsule’s contents were collated by representatives from each of Rolls-Royce’s Future Talent programmes, including Interns, Graduates and Apprentices. On the evidence of its Service Recognition Awards programme, an annual ceremony which recognises Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ longest-serving colleagues, there is every likelihood that some will still be working at the Home of Rolls-Royce when the capsule is opened three decades from now.

Unlike most time capsules, the Rolls-Royce example will not be buried on-site to be disinterred later; it will instead act as a point of interest for staff and visitors alike in the reception area at the Home of Rolls-Royce. Once the extension is completed, it will move to a permanent residence in the new facility.

Contained within the capsule are artefacts selected by every department and function across the company; its contents will remain a secret until it is opened. Some of these items have been chosen to create a historical record, on the basis that they will be obsolete by the time the capsule is opened in 2054, the year in which the marque will celebrate its 150th anniversary. Others, however, have been included precisely because they will almost certainly remain in daily use 30 years hence, underlining the continuity and heritage that make Rolls-Royce, its craftsmanship and its products unique.

It is hoped that the capsule will spark questions and conversations, in the same way as the ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’, installed in each Rolls-Royce Private Office around the world, provides inspiration for Bespoke commissions. The fact that the capsule’s contents will be concealed – and a closely guarded secret – only adds to the sense of intrigue and possibility.

ERIC PLATFORD: 25 FEBRUARY 1883 - 20 NOVEMBER 1938 

• A brief overview of the life and career of Eric Platford, born 25 February 1883
• Played a fundamental role in testing and developing early Rolls-Royce models
• Racing success strengthened Rolls-Royce’s status as ‘the best car in the world’
• Aero-engine expertise made him a key figure in the first successful transatlantic flight
• Greatly respected by Royce, and the first holder of the official title of Chief Tester

 
“Having played a role which was central and fundamental to the marque’s early successes, Eric Platford earned the right to be recognised amongst his better known contemporaries, including Claude Johnson and Ernest Hives. Indeed, through his painstaking testing work and landmark successes in long-distance trials and Grand Prix motor-racing, no one outside the company’s senior ranks did more to secure its reputation as ‘the best car in the world’. Eric Platford was also instrumental in achieving the first transatlantic flight, powered by Rolls-Royce engines. These achievements, along with countless others, cemented his position as a crucial figure in the Rolls-Royce foundation story.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Eric Platford was born in Manchester on 25 February 1883, one of four brothers. Although his father died just over a year later, Eric enjoyed a full education, leaving school at 17 to take up an apprenticeship with the General Electric Company. This proved to be short-lived, and in 1900 he moved to a similar electrical products firm nearby – Royce Limited. He would spend the rest of his working life with his new employer.

In 1903, Henry Royce started building his first cars and entrusted Platford with testing the engines. He also taught his protégé to drive so he could road-test the chassis; a role he would make his own, and in which he contributed enormously to the development of many early Rolls-Royce models.

The skills that made him such an effective test driver also made Platford a natural choice for the company’s racing exploits. His competitive involvement began as a riding mechanic for Charles Rolls in the 1905 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race, which they would go on to win in 1906.

In June that year, Platford prepared the 6-cylinder 30 H.P. car that carried the company’s effervescent commercial managing director, Claude Johnson, to victory in the Scottish Motor Trials. The following May, Platford readied the ‘Silver Ghost’ for its dominant performances in the 2,000 Mile Trial, and the Scottish Reliability Trial a month later.

Immediately after these triumphs, Claude Johnson – known to all simply as ‘CJ’ – organised a publicity stunt of his own, in which he and Platford drove the Silver Ghost on a record-breaking run of 15,000 miles non-stop. Platford’s status as Rolls-Royce’s preeminent car preparer, tester and driver was now unassailable, and he was rewarded in 1908 with an official promotion to the newly created role of Chief Tester. For the next four years, he would also oversee the company’s experimental department. In 1912, another of the company’s rising stars, Ernest Hives, took over that role, so Platford could devote himself fully to his true vocations, test-driving and racing.

It was a timely appointment. The 1912 Alpine Trial had seen a rare – and to CJ’s mind, unconscionable – defeat for Rolls-Royce. Platford was duly dispatched to Austria to assess the conditions and recommend improvements to the motor car, to ensure there would be no repeat of this humiliation. On his recommendation, the 1913 team, consisting of four Silver Ghosts, was equipped with a new four-speed gearbox and modified fuel and cooling systems. As well as driving one of them, Platford oversaw the cars’ preparations throughout the event. They went on to claim the top four places in Europe’s most gruelling motoring challenge.

This success came just a week after Platford himself had driven one of Rolls-Royce’s two entrants in the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix. Entering the closing stages, Platford had built a commanding lead and looked certain to win. However, in an early example of the ‘team orders’ still seen in motor-racing, he was instructed to allow his team-mate – and newly appointed Rolls-Royce agent for Spain – Don Carlos de Salamanca, to pass him. Platford obeyed and Don Carlos took the chequered flag in his home race; but another car slipped between them as Platford slowed, dropping him to third place.

These exploits, together with his unstinting loyalty and selflessness, earned Platford the respect of the entire company – and a gold pocket watch from his grateful employers.

During the First World War, Platford took charge of testing Rolls-Royce’s V12 Eagle aero engines. This experience would lead him to perhaps his most enduring personal triumph. In 1919, four teams were preparing to make the first flights across the Atlantic, all of them using Royce’s engines. It would be the ultimate test of his design, so Royce personally sent Platford to the starting point in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, to supervise the fitting of two Eagle engines to the Vickers Vimy piloted by Captain John Alcock DSO accompanied by navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown.

At around 1:45pm on 14 June, Alcock and Brown took off and headed east. After a journey fraught with difficulties, including atrocious weather and the loss of their radio, intercom and heating, they made landfall in County Galway, Ireland, at 8:40am the following day. They were hailed as heroes, and Rolls-Royce engines were thereafter also known as ‘the best in the world’.

On board the aircraft was a letter to Claude Johnson from Platford about his work with the engines. It would be the first transatlantic airmail letter ever delivered by the US Postal Service; it is still kept, together with its franked envelope, in the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation archive. Platford would cross the Atlantic himself numerous times in the years that followed, to oversee testing procedures at the company’s manufacturing plant in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, Platford was in charge of testing and quality control for both car and aero-engine production at the main Rolls-Royce factory in Derby. As one of the company’s most esteemed and trusted members, he often conducted visiting dignitaries, including royalty from many nations, on tours of the premises.

The relationship between Royce and Platford extended beyond trust into genuine friendship. Although strictly adhering to the prevailing employer-employee protocols, Royce and Platford were nonetheless close friends; indeed, one can see Royce, senior by 20 years, fulfilling the role of the father Platford never knew, and Platford being the son Royce never had. Such was the bond that when Platford married Minnie Hawkins in 1908, Royce gave them the use of his own car for their honeymoon. In 1925, Royce presented Platford with a signed photograph taken at Elmstead, Royce’s home in Sussex; an extremely rare personal gesture of appreciation from an employer at that time.

Eric Platford died suddenly on 20 November 1938, shortly after concluding a meeting at the Air Ministry. He was just 55. His obituary in the Rolls-Royce company magazine The Spanner paid tribute to his innate good nature and fine technical skills, and the loyalty and respect he earned from all who worked with him.

Through his driving skills, testing and development expertise and era-defining racing accomplishments, Eric Platford contributed more than anyone outside the ranks of senior management to Rolls-Royce’s early success.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, built between 1998 and 2002
• A technological bridge and tangible connection between Rolls-Royce Heritage and the modern Goodwood era
• Tenth chapter in a series celebrating a landmark model from each decade of the marque’s history
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

“A magnificent motor car in its own right, Silver Seraph is uniquely important as the tangible, technological link between the pre-Goodwood and contemporary Rolls-Royce eras. It was the first Rolls-Royce in history to be designed using computer-aided design (CAD) and, more importantly, the first to be powered by a V12 engine from BMW Group, which would acquire the Rolls-Royce brand while Silver Seraph was in production. Its development was extraordinarily protracted, with many twists and turns, at a time of great economic challenges and widely differing client requirements in Rolls-Royce’s major markets. That it answered its complex brief so successfully and beautifully is a tribute to the design and engineering teams, who combined innovation and imagination with their fidelity to the marque's fundamental principles.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

In 1989, Rolls-Royce sold a record 3,333 examples of its Silver Spirit – a model that by this point was a decade into a production run that would eventually extend to 18 years. Silver Spirit was the descendant of a long-lived ancestor, the Silver Shadow, which itself enjoyed a career lasting some 15 years.

Such prolonged lifecycles were highly unusual in the automotive industry. The longevity and commercial success of these models seemed to prove that conventional wisdom did not necessarily apply to large, luxury cars. Nevertheless, the replacement for Silver Spirit was already in development; work on the project, codenamed SXB, had begun five years previously in 1984.

SXB was to be an entirely new model. The challenge facing the design team was to create a motor car that could simultaneously satisfy the contrasting market requirements in the United States and Britain. Clients in the former still wanted a car that unashamedly celebrated wealth and success; while those in the latter were uneasy about displays of conspicuous consumption at a time of economic recession.

Silver Spirit was itself based on the long-established SZ range; the designers were initially briefed that SXB should be smaller than the SZ cars but have at least the same interior dimensions. They were also instructed to include as large a boot space as possible without compromising the design’s aesthetics. Finally, the new model should seat the driver and occupants in the imperious yet cossetting ‘Command Position’ that had long been a signature Rolls-Royce feature, and is retained to this day in Phantom VIII.

It was a complex assignment; but happily, the designers could turn to a wondrous new technology to help them. SXB was the first Rolls-Royce to be created using computer-aided design (CAD), which became available to the team in 1989, to supplement the traditional clay, wood and fibreglass styling bucks still used at Goodwood in contemporary Rolls-Royce projects.

At that time, car designers everywhere were obsessed with the wedge shape: low at the front, high at the rear. Everywhere, that is, except in the Rolls-Royce styling department. Not only did Rolls-Royce – then as now – never merely follow fashion; its own fundamental design tenets were precisely the reverse, with a high front tapering to a lower rear.

Another important factor their heirs and successors at Goodwood would recognise was feedback from clients. When asked, American owners conceded that the SZ range were good cars, but remarked they lacked the charisma of the earlier Silver Cloud and Corniche models. Launched in 1955, Silver Cloud took its styling cues from motor yachts, with a tall radiator forming a prow, front wings flowing like a bow wave, curvaceous rear wings representing a wake wave, and a low-set, sloped tail. To add to the design team’s burdens, they were told to include similar aesthetic touches in SXB.

Initially, the plan was to build the Rolls-Royce and Bentley variants of SXB on the same underpinnings, but with different bodies. As the design developed, it became obvious that a single-body design could accommodate the biggest aesthetic difference – the two brands’ distinctive radiator grilles – with other details providing sufficient visual separation between them. The decision to drop the two-body approach was also driven by an urgent need to cut costs. Even with this major saving, however, the project was halted in 1992 for financial reasons.

When SXB was finally revived in January 1994, the designers continued with their homage to Silver Cloud, producing designs featuring its distinctive stepped rear wing. SXB was given a more contemporary falling waistline, while retaining some elements of Silver Cloud’s iconic yacht influence. The designers paid particular attention to the rear three-quarter and full rear views, reasoning that owing to its performance, these were the angles from which it would be most commonly seen by other motorists.

In October 1994, SXB (by now known as project P600) was given the formal go-ahead for a launch in 1998. In a first for the marque, and a foreshadowing of events to come, the new models would be fitted with BMW engines: a 5.4-litre V12 for the Rolls-Royce, and 4.4-litre V8 for the Bentley variant.

Six months later, in May 1995, P600 was redesignated as P3000 (P2000 for the Bentley variant), and the design details were finalised. After much alteration, the radiator shell was less angular and more rounded than the original design; the Spirit of Ecstasy was also made slightly smaller than on the Silver Spirit. Viewed from the side, subtle but clear styling cues from Silver Shadow remained in place, with flat panels reduced to an absolute minimum to restore that all-important ‘charisma’.

The new Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph was unveiled to the world’s press in January 1998 at Ackergill Tower Castle in Scotland. The assembled journalists were informed that the car had, “Solidness without heaviness. Authority without arrogance. Elegance without effort. Presence without pomp.” To help them understand what the designers termed the car’s ‘aesthetic premise’, they received a limited-edition print of chief designer Graham Hull’s ‘Yacht Aesthetics’ rendering.

The Silver Seraph remained in production until 2002, together with a long-wheelbase version introduced in 2000, known as the Park Ward Rolls-Royce Touring, some four years after the Rolls-Royce brand had been acquired by BMW Group. Indeed, its use of BMW powertrain, expertise and engineering are thought to have been instrumental in making Rolls-Royce attractive to its new owners.

Having taken an astonishing 14 years to get from the drawing board to the open road – almost certainly the longest gestation period of any Rolls-Royce in history – Silver Seraph then had one of the shortest lifespans. Its overall concept – to be smaller and less imposing than its predecessors – also upended previous Rolls-Royce thinking (and in fact has been comprehensively disproved by the consistent success of Goodwood-era models).

Yet Silver Seraph remains a highly significant model. It was the correct design for its time; and like all great designs, it has aged well and remains a good-looking motor car even today, albeit very much of its period. Perhaps most enduringly, with its BMW V12 engine and production extending until 2002, it also acts as a technological bridge and tangible connection between Rolls-Royce's heritage and the modern Goodwood era.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Phantom VI, produced from 1968 to 1993
• Last fully coachbuilt Rolls-Royce before the practice was revived in the Goodwood era
• Eighth chapter in a series celebrating landmark models from each decade of the marque’s history
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120^th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

“The launch of Phantom VI marked a significant chapter in the Rolls-Royce story; it would go on to become the marque’s final model offered as a rolling chassis, ending a line unbroken since 1904. However, the coachbuilding era ended in suitably magnificent style with Phantom VI. Launched in 1968, just 374 were built in a production cycle that extended over two decades; however, the 1980s can be regarded as its true heyday – only six examples were completed after 1990. The last fully coachbuilt Rolls-Royce, Phantom VI had coachwork by H. J. Mulliner Park Ward, then a wholly in-house operation; the best-known commissions were likely those built for the Royal fleet, which remain in service today. It would be more than 20 years before coachbuilt motor cars of comparable quality and detail would become available, when Rolls-Royce began its modern-day coachbuilding operation at Goodwood with ‘Sweptail’ in 2017. This was followed by the announcement of a dedicated department within Rolls-Royce named Coachbuild, and the unveiling of Boat Tail in 2021, then Droptail in 2023. Phantom VI is thus an important marker in the Rolls-Royce story, as both the swansong of traditional coachbuilding, and a model for the new generation that would follow.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

From its foundation in 1904, Rolls-Royce built rolling chassis, upon which clients commissioned coachwork from an independent coachbuilder. The marque produced its first complete monocoque cars in the 1960s, but continued to offer rolling chassis until the 1980s.

Phantom VI was the last Rolls-Royce to be made available in this form. In line with standard Rolls-Royce practice, established by Sir Henry Royce himself, Phantom VI was born out of the upgrades and enhancements to its predecessor, Phantom V. The accumulated improvements reached the point where Rolls-Royce engineers judged it sufficiently evolved to be worthy of a new designation.

Even so, Phantom VI already felt like something of an anachronism. Phantom V clients had been able to choose coachwork from four great names: H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward, Hoopers and James Young. By 1961, the latter two had closed their doors, while Rolls-Royce had acquired and amalgamated the other two to create its own in-house coachbuilder, known as H. J. Mulliner Park Ward, which would provide the bodies for virtually all Phantom VI motor cars.

Like all Rolls-Royce models, Phantom VI underwent various changes during its lifecycle, including a more powerful 6.75-litre V8 engine and a modern three-speed automatic gearbox to replace the original four-speed version inherited from the Silver Cloud era. It also had specially engineered brakes, which used the Silver Shadow-style high-pressure hydraulics to operate rams connected to twin master cylinders; the brake drums were designed for improved heat dissipation and more efficient linings.

Changes in safety legislation required front-hinged doors with burst-proof locks, flush interior door handles and a steering column that would collapse upon impact. New crash-testing protocols also meant the prototype Phantom VI chassis, PRH1500, suffered the indignity of being driven into a 100-tonne concrete block at 30mph (48km/h) – a test it passed so effortlessly it was subsequently rebuilt and is still in service as a courtesy car at a Swiss hotel to this day.

Although coachbuilding was by now a niche offer even for Rolls-Royce, Phantom VI provided a fitting ‘last hurrah’ for this longstanding traditional craft. The seven ‘Special Limousines’, codenamed ‘Alpha’, for example, were superficially similar to other Phantom VIs; but close examination revealed wider, chrome-plated window trims and 16” wheels with tyres inflated to 90psi. These modifications were required to accommodate the 5mm thick glass and 7mm of armour plating that rendered the rear passenger compartment both bullet and bomb-proof. No such provision was made for the luckless chauffeur, however.

Phantom VI was also the last truly coachbuilt Rolls-Royce to offer both Sedanca de Ville and landaulette coachwork. The landaulette was available opening either to the B-pillar or over the rear seat, the latter variant being the choice of HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Her daughter, HM Queen Elizabeth II, owned two Phantom VIs. The first, codenamed ‘Oil Barrel’, had its roof height raised by 13cm (5") and a Perspex rear cupola that could be quickly covered by a two-piece, black-painted aluminium dome when the occupants require privacy. The second, delivered for the Royal fleet in July 1987, was codenamed ‘Lady Norfolk’ and had a standard roof height. Both remain in service at the Royal Mews today.

Increasing difficulty in obtaining minor chassis and coachwork components manufactured in the Silver Cloud era finally put paid to Phantom VI production. The last iteration commissioned by a client was delivered in May 1991; its 117 bespoke features included a solid silver fruit bowl to sit atop the cabinet behind the division, kept in place by concealed magnets.

In its 23-year lifecycle, just 374 Phantom VIs were built. The very last example to be completed was a landaulette finished in black over red, with red leather in the front and red velvet in the rear compartment. Rolls-Royce had originally intended to retain the car itself, but recessionary pressures finally persuaded the company to part with it in 1993.

Phantom VI was the last Rolls-Royce model with traditional coachbuilt bodywork. It represented both the pinnacle and the swansong of the traditional coachbuilder’s art, with a purity of line and finesse of detail unequalled until Rolls-Royce embarked on its contemporary coachbuilding renaissance at Goodwood, with ‘Sweptail’, more than two decades later.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars celebrates the 100th anniversary of Phantom in 2025
• The marque’s pinnacle product and its most famous nameplate, now in its eighth generation
• An unparalleled motoring experience, uncompromised by other considerations
• The ultimate blank canvas for exquisite Bespoke commissions

“One hundred years ago, Rolls-Royce launched the first motor car to bear what would become the most evocative and enduring nameplate in its history: Phantom. Through eight generations, Phantom’s fundamental role as the pinnacle Rolls-Royce motor car has always been the same: to be the most magnificent, desirable and above all, effortless motor car in the world – the very best of the best. In many respects, the history of Phantom is the history of Rolls-Royce: always moving with the times and its clients’ needs and requirements, transcending fleeting trends and providing the setting for the most remarkable executions of craft and artistry, all while resolutely refusing to compromise its core engineering and design principles. We’re proud to continue this tradition of excellence, elegance and serenity into the next 100 years.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

In 2025, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks the centenary of the launch of the first Phantom. Throughout its long history, the Phantom nameplate has been reserved for the pinnacle model in the marque’s portfolio – the very apex of excellence.

Each iteration, up to and including the eighth generation currently being handcrafted at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, has seen advances in design, engineering, materials and technology. Today, Phantom is the ultimate blank canvas for Bespoke commissions, where clients can bring their most elaborate, imaginative and personal visions to life. Inspiration for Bespoke commissions is everywhere, and Phantom’s scale, elegance, presence and adaptability enable it to be whatever its owner wishes it to be. Recent inspirations include haute couture (Phantom Syntopia), Chinese culture (Phantom Extended ‘Year of the Dragon’) and the marque’s own Spirit of Ecstasy Mascot (Phantom Scintilla).

Phantom has always had the same fundamental aim: to provide the most magnificent, desirable and, above all, effortless motor car in the world – the very best of the best. At the start of Phantom’s anniversary year, Rolls-Royce reveals the fascinating story behind its pinnacle product, and how it earned – and maintained – that reputation through a century of constant, often profound change.


A NEW BEGINNING

Rolls-Royce first earned the accolade of ‘the best car in the world’ with the 40/50 H.P., universally known as the Silver Ghost, launched in 1906. The key to its legendary reputation was Henry Royce’s principle of constant improvement to its underlying engineering, which he conducted on an almost chassis-by-chassis basis.

By 1921, Royce realised the Silver Ghost’s design was reaching the point where no further developments would be possible without compromising either smoothness or reliability – both by now essential elements of the Rolls-Royce character and legend. He therefore began work on its replacement.

“Rolls-Royce Ltd beg to announce that, after prolonged tests, they can now demonstrate and accept orders for a new 40/50 H.P. chassis. The 40/50 H.P. chassis hitherto manufactured by them will be sold as before… The original chassis of this type was the famous Silver Ghost, and to prevent confusion such chassis will be known as the Silver Ghost model, whereas the new chassis will be known as the New Phantom.”
Original Advertisement from The Times Newspaper, Saturday 2 May 1925

Despite being couched in terms that today seem rather quaint and stilted, this advertisement made history. It was the first public acceptance by Rolls-Royce that the outgoing model would be called Silver Ghost officially, rather than as a byname. More significantly, it was the first recorded use of the Phantom name.


THE GAME OF THE NAME

Although there is no specific documentary evidence, it seems safe to assume that the Phantom name was coined by Rolls-Royce’s energetic and ever-inventive Commercial Managing Director, Claude Johnson. It was he who recognised that naming the company’s products could act as a sales device, and it was his fertile imagination that produced the inspired sobriquet ‘Silver Ghost’ for the otherwise prosaically titled 40/50 H.P. in 1907. That same year, he christened another 40/50 H.P. ‘Green Phantom’, before bestowing the rather more evocative ‘Silver Phantom’ on two examples in 1909.

Johnson clearly understood the power of names like Phantom, Wraith and Ghost to convey the products’ supernatural quietness and ethereal grace; all have graced Rolls-Royce motor cars in the modern era for precisely the same reason. How different history would have been had one of his more fanciful efforts – The Dreadnought, The Cookie, Yellow Bird, The Elusive Pimpernel – been adopted instead.


THE BASIS FOR GREATNESS

The Times advertisement also assured readers the New Phantom would retain the “sweet running qualities always associated with Rolls-Royce products”. At this time, Rolls-Royce supplied only rolling chassis, with the form, styling and appointment of the motor car itself in the hands of independent coachbuilders, who created bespoke bodywork to the owner’s specification. Rolls-Royce offered the New Phantom in long-wheelbase form, suitable for formal saloon and limousine designs, and with a shorter wheelbase ideal for owner-driver motor cars with closed, open and ‘sportier’ coachwork.

Then as now, Phantom’s generous proportions enabled owners to specify almost any detail or indulgence they wished. Some clients asked for concealable writing desks or swivelling occasional seats in their long-wheelbase limousines, while owner-drivers are known to have requested safes, dedicated spaces to stow golf clubs and even, in one famous instance, a secret compartment in which to carry diamonds.

On 8 May 1925, The Autocar magazine published its review of the new model. “Few are the firms engaged in the manufacture of motor cars who enjoy quite such a reputation as Rolls-Royce Ltd,” it enthused. “Almost the conjoined names have become the household word for luxury, and every novelist worthy of the name imparts a distinguished air to any character by crediting him or her with the possession of one of the firm’s cars.” With Phantom, Rolls-Royce had clearly succeeded in not only maintaining, but furthering the qualities established and made famous by the Silver Ghost.


ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

Though undoubtedly gratifying, such encomiums did not distract Henry Royce. The design of the original New Phantom had closely followed that of its predecessor, Silver Ghost – so closely, in fact, that some modern enthusiasts refer to it as a ‘Super Ghost’. Over the next four years, Royce continued to refine his design until, in 1929, The Times carried a fresh advertisement announcing the arrival of Phantom II. The advertisement listed all the engineering improvements and upgraded components that justified its designation as an entirely new model.


VIVE LA DIFFÉRENCE

Somewhat ironically, the only person who remained unimpressed was Royce himself, who insisted that even the short-wheelbase Phantom II was irritatingly oversized for his personal use. He therefore instructed his design team to develop a more compact, sporting Phantom II variant which he could enjoy driving across France to his winter home at Le Canadel on the Côte d’Azur.

The designers dutifully produced a close-coupled car, 26EX – ‘EX’ standing for ‘Experimental’ – on an adapted short Phantom II chassis. Records show that neither the Rolls-Royce sales department nor the factory were keen on the concept; indeed, had it not been intended as Royce’s personal transport, it might not have been built at all.

As it transpired, a highly successful continental sales tour demonstrated there was, in fact, great demand for a car capable of high-speed touring over long distances on the smooth, straight roads of Europe. Rolls-Royce successfully met this demand with the now highly prized Phantom II Continental – perhaps the only pre-Goodwood Phantom variant in which weight, wind resistance and other performance-related factors were afforded equal consideration with out-and-out passenger comfort.


A NEW POWER RISING

By the time of Royce’s death in 1933, the company was already only too aware that luxury car customers were seeking models that offered more power without sacrificing comfort or excellence. American competitors including Cadillac, Lincoln and Packard were responding with straight-8, V12 and even V16-cylinder engines, which were rapidly eclipsing the large-horsepower, in-line six-cylinder units that had served Rolls-Royce so well for so long.

Given this commercial pressure and the company’s proven experience in designing and building aero-engines, it was inevitable that the next Phantom would have a V12 engine. In accordance with tradition, Phantom III’s arrival in 1936 was announced in The Times, which informed the public that “many outstanding features distinguish this car from its famous predecessor the Phantom II”.

Chief among these was the new engine, with 12 cylinders “giving greater engine smoothness, flexibility, silence and acceleration” – all key requirements for Rolls-Royce’s fabled effortless progress. The new V12 engine was also more compact than the old straight-6, allowing a shorter bonnet and larger passenger compartment. Most importantly, however, it delivered the increased power customers demanded – 165 H.P. against the 120 H.P. of Phantom II, rising to 180 H.P. in later cars.

Comfort was further improved with independent front wheel suspension. “This is particularly noticeable in the back seats under all road conditions and is further enhanced by remarkable road holding qualities and stability on corners even at high speeds”, the advertisement noted, while Phantom III’s new chassis frame allowed for wider, more comfortable back seats.

And it wasn’t just passengers who benefited. As the advertisement pointed out, Phantom III made life more relaxing for owner-drivers and chauffeurs, too, explaining: “A modification in the position of the change-speed [gear lever] and brake levers gives easy entrance to the driver’s seat from the offside… the steering is lighter in operation, has a larger steering lock and the car is more easily manoeuvred by reason of the shorter wheelbase.”

Phantom III was suited to all manner of coachwork styles, and both owner-driver and chauffeured use. And while it was never able to beat its American rivals on price, such was Rolls-Royce’s reputation that it remained the only choice for those who wanted to experience the greatest possible comfort and be seen to be driving the very best.


A CHANGING WORLD

The Phantom name had graced the very best of the best cars in the world for some 14 years when war broke out in 1939. Rolls-Royce ceased all motor car production, and when peace returned in 1945, the company found itself in an entirely different world – but one it had anticipated and prepared for.

Rolls-Royce had correctly foreseen that under post-war austerity, it would need to make its motor cars less complex, easier to service, much less expensive to produce and able to use common parts. At the same time, it was adamant that there would be no reduction in quality.

Its solution was the Rationalised Range, which debuted in 1946 with Silver Wraith. Its new straight-6-cylinder engine was a backward step from the V12 engine of Phantom III, but relevant in straitened times. There seemed to be no place in the modern world for Phantom.


A ROYAL INTERVENTION

The Phantom story might well have ended there, but for two serendipitous events.

As part of the ongoing development process for the Rationalised Range, engineers produced four experimental EX cars on a 229.5-inch chassis with a straight-8 engine. One of these, fitted with a Park Ward & Co. limousine body, was officially named Silver Phantom (and unofficially known as Big Bertha). A smaller, lighter saloon version, known as the Scalded Cat, followed.

At the same time, the Royal Household was seeking to replace its ageing fleet of Daimlers – the marque it had favoured since the motor car was invented – but was unhappy with the range then on offer.

In 1950, Rolls-Royce was asked to supply a formal limousine for Royal duties. The company had long been keen to usurp Daimler in the Royal Mews, and gladly produced a ‘one-off’ straight-8 long-chassis limousine with coachwork by H. J. Mulliner. During manufacture, the car was given the codename Maharajah, and remains in active service at the Royal Mews under that name to this day.

When requests for similar motor cars followed from other Royalty and Heads of State, Rolls-Royce was happy to oblige. The company decided it would be fitting that for such prestigious cars to resurrect the Phantom name. Over the next seven years, the marque produced just 18 examples of Phantom IV, including a second motor car for the Royal Mews, a landaulette named Jubilee, delivered in 1954.


THE LAST HURRAH

The pinnacle Rolls-Royce experience became somewhat more widely available once again in 1959 with the launch of Phantom V – a splendid limousine fitted with coachwork by both the marque’s in-house coachbuilder, Park Ward & Co., and other independent companies, including James Young Ltd and H. J. Mulliner & Co. (Rolls-Royce would go on to acquire the latter, merging it with their own coachbuilder to form Mulliner Park Ward). Two motor cars, known as Canberra I and Canberra II, were built for Royal service, featuring transparent Perspex cupolas over the rear compartments and concealed lighting to better view the occupants on formal occasions.

After 13 years and 832 examples, Phantom V had received enough technical upgrades to be designated as Phantom VI. As with all its forebears, this new iteration prioritised comfort, with separate air conditioning systems for the front and rear compartments. Most of the 374 examples were limousines with coachwork by in-house Mulliner Park Ward Ltd., or James Young Ltd.: the last Phantom VI, a landaulette, was delivered to the Sultan of Brunei in 1993.

Phantom VI was the final body-on-chassis model Rolls-Royce ever produced, and its discontinuation effectively ended the tradition of coachbuilding until it was revived at Goodwood in 2017 with ‘Sweptail’.


PHANTOM REBORN

When the marque was relaunched at the new Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, a ‘Phantom-type’ model quickly emerged as the natural and obvious choice for its inaugural motor car. The design concept, for which legendary Rolls-Royce designer John Blatchley was consulted and of which he approved, included signature elements inherited from previous generations. These included a long wheelbase with the front wheels well to the fore and a minimal front overhang of the bodywork, a long bonnet comprised of a massive expanse of metal along the side, and a rising sweep of the door edge towards the front windscreen pillars.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ first Design Director of the Goodwood era, Ian Cameron, formed a specific team to create the interior design for the much-anticipated new model. Their remit was to express the ambience of past Phantoms and the traditional high-quality materials of coachbuilding – leather, wood, deep-pile carpeting – in a totally up-to-date way.

At one minute past midnight, on 1 January 2003, the first Phantom VII was handed over to its new owner. Unlike every Phantom that had gone before, it was built entirely in-house by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, with spaceframe bodywork to a single design rather than coachbuilt. In one important sense, however, it retained a link with its heritage, in that every motor car was hand-built by a team of skilled craftspeople. Furthermore, the marque’s Bespoke programme meant Phantom was effectively a blank canvas on which patrons could realise their own visions and desires.


THE EVOLUTION CONTINUES

Over its 13-year lifespan, Phantom VII cemented Rolls-Royce as the world’s pre-eminent super luxury motor manufacturer, and its own place as the marque’s pinnacle product. But just like their predecessors, Rolls-Royce’s designers and engineers understood that perfection is a moving target: that Phantom was never ‘finished’.

In 2017, Rolls-Royce presented Phantom VIII. This was the first Rolls-Royce to be built on the Architecture of Luxury, an advance on the all-aluminium spaceframe used on Phantom VII, and designed to underpin every future motor car produced at Goodwood.

Phantom VIII was specifically designed to be the ultimate canvas for Bespoke commissions. With this in mind, it is the only Rolls-Royce model to feature the Gallery – an uninterrupted swathe of glass that runs the full width of the fascia, behind which the client can display a commissioned work of art or design.

This singular focus has made Phantom the subject of some of the most technically ambitious and challenging Bespoke projects ever undertaken by the marque’s designers, engineers and specialist craftspeople. Commissions such as Phantom Syntopia, Phantom Oribe, Phantom Koa and Phantom ‘Inspired by Cinque Terre’ all incorporate features, materials and engineering innovations never seen before in a Rolls-Royce or any other motor car. Each is a unique, one-of-one creation that will never be repeated, echoing the very first Phantoms that were individually hand-built for their commissioning owners.


THE ESSENCE OF PHANTOM

For 100 years, the Phantom name has occupied a unique position in the Rolls-Royce product family and story. While the standards of quality, engineering and design are consistent across all Rolls-Royce motor cars, Phantom has always been the grandest, most impressive and, above all, most effortless motor car being built in series production by the marque at any given moment.

Through all its eight generations, Phantom has never been compromised by existing engineering orthodoxy, fleeting trends or development costs. From Henry Royce’s original New Phantom to today’s Phantom VIII, the essential purpose behind Phantom has always remained the same: to build the motor car that offers owner-drivers and passengers alike the most comfortable, satisfying experience available in the world at that moment in time – the unassailable pinnacle of luxury and motoring excellence.

CHARLES ROBINSON SYKES: 18 DECEMBER 1875 - 6 JUNE 1950

• A brief overview of the life and career of Charles Robinson Sykes, born 18 December 1875
• A gifted artist, illustrator and sculptor, best known for creating the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot
• Original sculpture is displayed at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu
• Closely connected with many of the leading actors in the Rolls-Royce foundation story
• Other notable works include motor-racing trophies and commercial art
  
  

“Best known to posterity as the creator of the Spirit of Ecstasy, Charles Sykes was a multitalented artist with deep connections to the principal players in the Rolls-Royce story. His professional and artistic relationship with Eleanor Thornton was pivotal in his work, for which she was perhaps his greatest muse; he also benefitted from two powerful patrons in Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and Claude Johnson, on whose behalf he produced some of the finest and most enduring works of art. His paintings of Rolls-Royce motor cars uniquely capture their grace and beauty, and in his depictions of their almost exclusively aristocratic owners, he provides a fascinating window into a world that has now vanished.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Charles Robinson Sykes was born on 18 December 1875 in Brotton, a mining village near Cleveland in the north-east of England. His father and uncle were talented amateur artists and encouraged him to pursue a professional career.

Sykes began his artistic training at Rutherford Art College in Newcastle. In 1898, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, where he studied drawing, painting and sculpture, under eminent tutors including the anatomist Arthur Thomson, illustrator Walter Crane and, most significantly, the renowned sculptor Edouard Lanterie. Sykes remained in the capital after graduating and quickly established himself as a multitalented artist.

In 1902, Sykes was commissioned by a magazine publisher to produce some sketches. However, the client was unable to pay in cash. Instead, he introduced Sykes to John Montagu, who would later become 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu but was, for the time being, trying to get his own magazine project, a glossy weekly called The Car Illustrated, off the ground.

With Sykes providing the ‘Illustrated’ elements, including everything from the cover artwork to fashion drawings, the magazine flourished. It was one of the first to print images in full colour, and Sykes took full advantage of the new creative opportunities this offered him. He had a particular interest in Greek mythology, and often introduced classical references into his work. One example, his Christmas 1907 front cover was entitled Towards the Dawn and featured what would become a recurring theme and, in time, a global icon: a lissom winged goddess.

It is very likely that the inspiration for this figure was a young woman named Eleanor Thornton, who was assistant to John Montagu; she was also Sykes’s long-time favourite muse, posing for him on many occasions. Since they now worked together on Montagu’s magazine, their stories inevitably became even more closely intertwined.

In 1903, the prestigious Gordon Bennett Motor Race came to Ireland. Montagu and his friend Charles Rolls had previously distinguished themselves in the long-distance road event. On those occasions, there had been a single trophy, awarded to the winning driver’s sponsoring club. Montagu wanted to donate a new trophy, to be presented to the club achieving the best aggregate performance. Sykes duly produced a silver sculpture of a female figure, very probably modelled on Eleanor, holding aloft a motor car with silver wings. Montagu was delighted, declaring, ‘Mr. Sykes has combined originality of design with beauty of conception.’

Alongside his commercial work, Sykes continued to develop his fine-art practice. Montagu commissioned a triptych for Beaulieu parish church, and a bronze Madonna and Child still displayed in the Montagu family home. Sykes’s talent for sculpture was formally recognised when his bronze ‘A Bacchante’ – again almost certainly based on Eleanor Thornton – was exhibited to considerable acclaim at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in London and the Paris Salon.

Sykes and his wife Jessica, his childhood sweetheart whom he’d married in 1903, became close friends of the Montagu family and often stayed as guests at Beaulieu. These visits gave Sykes numerous opportunities to view and travel in the latest Rolls-Royce motor cars, especially the Silver Ghost, which his host owned from 1908 onwards. These encounters inspired paintings depicting Silver Ghosts in scenes from the motoring life of the period. One example shows Montagu and his friends arriving for a day’s shooting in Montagu’s first Silver Ghost, chassis number 60751, named Dragon Fly. A Nocturne in Blue has a Silver Ghost arriving at a country house by night; in A Ghost Overtaken by the Dawn the car and its drowsy occupants are heading home as the sun rises over the countryside. 

Sykes’s artwork naturally caught the attention of Claude Johnson, known to himself as the ‘hyphen in Rolls-Royce’ and everyone else simply as ‘CJ’, who was Rolls-Royce’s first Commercial Managing Director. In his previous role as Secretary of the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club, or RAC), he too had employed Eleanor Thornton as his assistant, before she went to work for Montagu.

Characteristically, CJ saw a golden promotional opportunity in Sykes’s paintings. The company’s 80-page Catalogue for 1910-11 included six original Sykes oils showing Rolls-Royce motor cars arriving variously at the Opera, a Country House, the Golf Links, the Meet, the Covert-side and the Salmon Stream, accurately reflecting the aristocratic tastes and lifestyles of its patrons. The company also bought the copyright to other works depicting other Rolls-Royce motor cars at dusk, arriving at the top of a steep hill and effortlessly overcoming a snowstorm.

Soon afterwards, Sykes took on what would be his most famous and enduring commission. CJ wanted an official Rolls-Royce mascot – and he told Sykes he wanted it to look like the imposing Greek statue Nike of Samothrace in The Louvre in Paris. Dating from 190BCE and standing nine feet (2.75 m) tall, she appears as a winged deity descending from the heavens. Draped in a flowing tunic and mantle, her classical perfection is marred only by the absence of her head and both arms – perhaps excusable in one more than 2,000 years old.

Sykes, however, felt the Goddess of Victory was altogether too martial and domineering to be a suitable subject. Having often travelled in Montagu’s Silver Ghosts, he believed a more delicate, ethereal figure would better express his own experience of being. His daughter, Josephine Sykes (‘Jo’), later recalled he was ‘very impressed with the smoothness and speed of the car and imagined that even so delicate a thing as a fairy could ride on the bonnet without losing her balance’.

It is now generally accepted – though not undisputed – that, once again, Eleanor was his model for what Rolls-Royce described in a letter to John Montagu as ‘the spirit of the Rolls-Royce – namely, speed with silence, absence of vibration, the mysterious harnessing of great energy, a beautiful living organism of superb grace like a sailing yacht. Such is the spirit of the Rolls-Royce, and such is the combination of virtues which Mr Charles Sykes has expressed so admirably in the graceful little lady who is designed as a figurehead of the Rolls-Royce.’ The company was delighted with its ‘graceful little goddess’, in which Sykes had, in its view, perfectly captured, ‘the spirit of ecstasy, who has selected road travel as her supreme delight and alighted on the prow of a Rolls-Royce car to revel in the freshness of the air, and the musical sound of her fluttering draperies’.

Sykes was appointed sole supplier of the new mascot, which he produced in his studio over Herbert Barder’s furriers’ shop at 193 Brompton Road in West London. From 1911 to 1928, he personally supervised his own production team, comprising a foundry man and a wax modeller; thereafter until 1948, his daughter Jo took charge. Rolls-Royce then undertook the work in-house, using new casting techniques with stainless steel.

Charles Sykes died in 1950. Though best remembered for his work with Rolls-Royce, and particularly the Spirit of Ecstasy, he enjoyed a long, varied and successful career as a commercial artist. He designed magazine covers, and advertisements for clients including De Reszke cigarettes, Ensign Cameras, Erasmic shaving soap and Ucal hair tonic; he also produced travel posters for the London & North Eastern (LNER) railway, as well as drawings, paintings and cartoons. His work is still highly regarded, and held in a number of important collections, including those of the British Museum and the V&A in London. In August 2024, Rolls-Royce released the Phantom Scintilla Bespoke Collection, inspired by the grace, dynamism and ethereal beauty of the Spirit of Ecstasy; a fitting tribute to Charles Sykes’s masterpiece and his enduring legacy.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Camargue, launched in 1975
• Designed in collaboration with the legendary Italian styling house Pininfarina
• One of the most recognisable models in Rolls-Royce history
• Camargue introduced significant enhancements to performance, safety and comfort
• The next chapter in a series celebrating a landmark model from each decade of the marque’s history, from its foundational years in the 1900s to the contemporary Goodwood era
• A year-long retrospective marking the 120^th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

“Of all the Rolls-Royce models in this series, perhaps none is as distinctive as Camargue, whose design still provokes vigorous debate among car enthusiasts half a century after its launch. While its aesthetics remain a matter of personal taste, Camargue’s importance and place in the Rolls-Royce story are indisputable. Designed in collaboration with the legendary Italian house Pininfarina, it upheld the marque’s long tradition of continuous improvement over its predecessors in engineering, technology, performance and levels of comfort. It was also the first Rolls-Royce to be designed with safety in mind from the ground up. Though never built in large numbers, it was a great export success; today, its rarity and design, which for many perfectly capture the essence of the 1970s, make it a true modern classic and increasingly desirable with collectors.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

In 1966, Rolls-Royce launched a two-door saloon version of Silver Shadow, built by its in-house coachbuilders, Mulliner Park Ward. By 1969, the company was starting to think about its potential replacement and senior management felt the new design needed to be ‘dramatically different’ from the existing product line-up.

In October of that year, a Mulliner Park Ward saloon was sent to the Turin headquarters of legendary coachbuilder Pininfarina. Collaborating outside the Rolls-Royce design team was a radical departure from the usual process, but the two companies had collaborated before; Managing Director Sir David Plastow later recalled that Rolls-Royce had found Pininfarina easy to work with because “they understood the Rolls-Royce culture”.

Pininfarina duly dismantled the car, using its floorpan as the basis for the new model. (In the event, it would be produced alongside the Mulliner Park Ward car, rather than replacing it.) Though no driver, occupant or observer would have been aware of it, the new design marked an interesting historical inflection point as the first Rolls-Royce ever to be built entirely using metric, rather than imperial measurements.

Sergio Pininfarina assigned the project to his Chief of Styling, Paolo Martin, whose portfolio included the Ferrari Dino Berlinetta Competizione concept car for the 1967 Frankfurt Motor Show. In a precise and detailed brief that, happily, has been preserved for posterity, Martin and his team were tasked with creating “a modern and stylish motor car for the owner driver which maintains the traditional Rolls-Royce features of elegance and refinement. The principal styling features are a long-line shape with sharp edge surfaces well-matched to the classic shape of the Rolls-Royce radiator. A reduction in height compared to the Silver Shadow and an increase in width, a very inclined windscreen, a large area of glass, and the use of curved side windows for the first time on a Rolls-Royce.”

Pininfarina did not present Rolls-Royce with a fait accompli, but worked closely with the marque’s own designers. Together, they produced a final design in which, as they explained, “the impression of lightness and slenderness has been achieved by the careful shaping of panels rather than using chromium-plated decoration. The external trimmings and light units are simple in design and modest in dimensions. The interior concept is very modern, functional like an aircraft cockpit and equipped with several high-precision instruments. The location of switches and controls has been designed to be easily found, distinctive and precise in use.

“The two objectives of modern design and functionality have been achieved without giving up the most traditional and distinctive Rolls-Royce items.” These items included the Pantheon Grille, which was retained in its conventional form but with the top edge daringly tilted forward by four degrees. This immediately became one of the motor car’s most recognisable – and controversial – visual signifiers; it would be the only factory-built Rolls-Royce ever to display this subtle but arresting deviation from the vertical.

For Mulliner Park Ward, the new model was a crucial test. This would be the first entirely new production model since Rolls-Royce had been split into separate automotive and aerospace businesses in 1971, and it was understandably keen to prove its capabilities. The first prototype, codenamed ‘Delta’, was on the road by July 1972; after almost three years in development, the new motor car was presented to the world in March 1975.

From a shortlist of two possible names, Corinthian and Camargue, the company had wisely chosen the latter. Like its companion model Corniche, Camargue’s name was inspired by the marque’s longstanding connections to the south of France, where Sir Henry Royce had overwintered every year from 1917 until his death in 1933. The Camargue itself is an extensive coastal plain between the Mediterranean and the two arms of the Rhône river delta, south of the city of Arles where Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin set up their studio in the ‘Yellow House’ in 1888. Made up of large saltwater lagoons, or étangs, surrounded by reedbeds and marshes, the region is internationally renowned for its birdlife, and the white (properly called grey) Camarguais horses and their colourful riders, the gardians.

For the Camargue press launch, held in Catania, Sicily, Rolls-Royce produced a set of nine motor cars, including chassis JRH16648 finished in Mistletoe Green. This example was used by the Rolls-Royce marketing department until September that year, when it was sold to a private client via London dealer Jack Barclay; it was later modified to left-hand drive.

Camargue’s dramatic yet elegant design included wide doors that, according to the sales brochure, “make possible an ease of entry not usually available on two-door motor cars” with “the backrest to the front seat unlocked electrically at the touch of a button, to give an access to the rear compartment which has a seat of exceptional comfort and width, allowing excellent visibility”.

The interior was particularly striking, featuring the first use of a brand-new, ultra-soft leather called ‘Nuella’. In accordance with Pininfarina’s ‘aircraft cockpit’ concept, the fascia featured switchgear and round instrument dials housed in matt-black rectangular surrounds, giving a sleek, aeronautical look. A pleated roof lining and seats set lower in the body than those on the Silver Shadow gave excellent headroom, while the rear-seat legroom was vast for a two-door coupé. All occupants benefitted from the first comprehensive dual-level air conditioning system ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce motor car.

Like every new Rolls-Royce model, Camargue represented the most advanced automotive engineering of its time and was the product of the marque’s policy of constant refinement, established by Henry Royce himself. Power came from an aluminium, 6.75-litre V8 engine with a three-speed automatic transmission; a chassis equipped with fully independent suspension and automatic height control ensured the marque’s fabled Magic Carpet Ride. It therefore offered significantly enhanced performance, safety and comfort, reflected in the fact that it was nearly twice the price of the Silver Shadow.

While Pininfarina had given Camargue an ‘exceptional grace and beauty’, there was great substance beneath the style. This was the first Rolls-Royce to be designed from the outset to meet the increasingly stringent safety standards being introduced worldwide at this time, with enhanced crash-deformity resilience, energy-absorbing interior materials and seatbelts for all four seats. The bodyshell itself was so strong that the American safety tests for side impact, rear impact, roof impact and a frontal 30mph collision were all conducted on – and passed by – the same car.

For the first three years, Camargue was built in north London at the Mulliner Park Ward works on Hythe Road in Willesden; in 1978, production moved to the Rolls-Royce factory in Crewe, and continued until 1987. With only 529 examples sold over 12 years, Camargue stands as a testament to exclusivity – its rarity makes it a sought-after treasure among collectors today. Sales proved most notable in the USA which accounted for almost 75% of its lifetime sales.

Managing Director David Plastow, whose background was in marketing, saw a motor car as “an exciting, dramatic purchase which said something about the character of the person who bought it”. With its distinctive styling, Camargue certainly allowed its owner to make a bold statement. Though its aesthetics are still keenly debated even today, it remains one of the most instantly recognisable Rolls-Royce models, beloved by the generation that first knew it, and an increasingly desirable modern classic among collectors and enthusiasts.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, launched in 1965
• At launch, the most technically advanced motor car in the world
• First Rolls-Royce to be offered only as a complete motor car, representing a decisive shift to monocoque construction
• Today, Silver Shadows can still be seen wafting along Rodeo Drive, Champs-Élysées, Sheikh Zayed Road, New Bond Street and other prestigious haunts in the world’s great cities
• Seventh in a series celebrating landmark models from the marque’s history
• Part of a year-long retrospective in honour of the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

“Silver Shadow is a pivotal model in the Rolls-Royce story. It marked a decisive shift away from traditional rolling chassis and coachbuilding to monocoque construction, and was the first Rolls-Royce to be offered only as a complete motor car. At the time of its launch in 1965, Silver Shadow was the most technically advanced motor car in the world, and its underlying design was enormously influential on Rolls-Royce models that followed it. Created by the legendary John Blatchley, it was originally intended to have a 10-year lifespan: in the end, it underpinned models including Silver Spirit and Corniche right up until the late 1990s. Sixty years on, it has become a true modern classic, fondly remembered by those who knew it at the time, and increasingly popular with a new generation of Rolls-Royce enthusiasts, owners and collectors.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations & Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

In February 1954, senior engineers at Rolls-Royce were already thinking about the replacement for Silver Cloud – even though Silver Cloud itself was still being finalised and would not actually be launched until the following year.

The reason was simple; times were changing, and the company could foresee that, in the future, owners would want motor cars that were more compact overall, but not to the point of sacrificing interior space. This was extremely difficult to achieve using the traditional technique of mounting coachbuilt bodywork on a rolling chassis; the construction method used for every Rolls-Royce motor car since 1906. The engineers knew that the answer lay in monocoque construction, where the body and floorpan are integrated into a single ‘unibody’, with the suspension and other mechanical components carried on the front and rear subframes.

Work on the new design began in earnest in 1958, with two experimental models: one with a 126-inch (317.5cm) wheelbase, of which only three were built, and another 6.5 inches (16.51cm) shorter. They soon realised that the smaller version was the way forward and it entered full development under the codename ‘SY’. It was this shorter-wheelbase version that would become the new model, named Silver Shadow, which made its debut in 1965.

Silver Shadow’s broad concept and detailed design were the work of chief styling engineer John Blatchley, who had joined Rolls-Royce in 1940 from coachbuilder Gurney Nutting. His unenviable brief was to produce an up-to-the-minute design that could also remain in production for up to 10 years, to recoup the high tooling costs associated with monocoque construction.

His task was complicated further by the fact that Silver Shadow was, by some distance, the most technically advanced car in the world at that time. Indeed, it ranked alongside the Silver Ghost and Phantom III – and Ghost in the modern era – as the most radical advance in design in any single Rolls-Royce model.

Although the engine and its Hydramatic four-speed automatic gearbox were carried over from the preceding Silver Cloud III, practically everything else about Silver Shadow was new. The most obvious innovation was the three-box bodyshell which, despite being much smaller, offered increased interior passenger space, a larger fuel tank and greater luggage capacity than Silver Cloud.

Comfort, handling and quietness were also substantially enhanced. This was due to the monocoque body’s higher torsional rigidity, and the Vibrashock mountings that isolated the subframes from the bodyshell, reducing noise, vibration and harshness transmitted from the road surface. Other ‘firsts’ included four-wheel disc brakes, hydraulically operated, self-levelling independent rear suspension, and electrically operated gear-change selector and front-seat adjustment.

The designers understood that there would still be a market for a ‘sportier’ version of Silver Shadow. However, since they were not prepared to deviate from the monocoque form that gave the bodyshell its strength and structural integrity, they could not leave this to the few remaining independent coachbuilders. Their solution was to use their own in-house coachbuilders, Mulliner Park Ward Ltd, to assemble and finish bodyshells specially prepared by the suppliers, Pressed Steel Company Ltd. The resulting fixed-head two-door saloon and drophead coupé models were introduced to the public in 1966.

Further technical changes followed in 1968, when the four-speed Hydramatic gearbox was superseded by the three-speed GM400 with a torque convertor. At the same time, the suspension, which had proved admirably suited to American roads, was stiffened slightly to better reflect European conditions, in what owners everywhere judged a pleasingly excellent solution.

The Belgian author and motoring journalist Paul Frère (1917–2008), who also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, described one memorable drive in a Silver Shadow. “I did the trip from Brussels to Monaco in one day. It felt strange speeding down the Autoroute at 110 mph with no noise coming from the engine or road, and the air conditioning keeping the temperature inside the car perfect. On reaching Monte Carlo, one impression of the Silver Shadow was dominant. I was fresh, relaxed and not in the least bit tired – a remarkable tribute to a car after having driven 700 miles.”

In 1969, Rolls-Royce began offering Silver Shadow in long-wheelbase form, with and without divisions, and mostly with a smaller rear window. These were created by Mulliner Park Ward, who simply cut the standard bodyshells in half and lengthened them by 4.5 inches (11.43cm) to increase rear passenger legroom.

1971 marked a key juncture for Rolls-Royce. Its motor car and aero engine activities were split into two separate entities, a distinction that remains to this day, with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars a wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW Group, and entirely unrelated to Rolls-Royce plc. In what were economically uncertain times, the automotive division made a bold move by announcing improved Mulliner Park Ward motor cars, still based on the original SY design, under the name Corniche. Their final iteration, Corniche Series IV, ceased production in 1995.

By 1977, Silver Shadow had evolved sufficiently to warrant its formal redesignation as Silver Shadow II. This was more of a ‘driver’s car’, with revised suspension settings, rack-and-pinion steering and a cleaner, more efficient exhaust system. All occupants benefitted from improved ergonomics and an advanced split-level air conditioning system, with controls housed in a completely new fascia. These Series II motor cars were easily identified by their large-section black polycarbonate bumpers required by regulators in the United States; outside the US, Silver Shadow II sported a full-width front spoiler – which Rolls-Royce termed an ‘anti-lift panel’ – for added straight-line stability at speed. As Series II cars, the long-wheelbase Mulliner Park Ward variants were designated Silver Wraith II.

Silver Shadow was finally replaced in 1980 by Silver Spirit – essentially the same SY floorpan and mechanics with restyled bodywork – which remained in production until 1997. The SY design had thus proved so enduringly successful, it served Rolls-Royce for more than three times the 10-year lifespan originally anticipated for it. While precise figures are impossible to come by, it is generally accepted that some 37,000 Silver Shadows and Corniches were built, making it the most successful design in the company’s history prior to the contemporary Goodwood era. Even today, nearly 60 years on, Silver Shadows can still be seen wafting along Rodeo Drive, Champs-Élysées, Sheikh Zayed Road, New Bond Street and other prestigious haunts in the world’s great cities.

CLAUDE GOODMAN JOHNSON: 24 OCTOBER 1864 - 11 APRIL 1926

• A brief overview of the life and career of Claude Goodman Johnson, born 24 October 1864
• The self-styled ‘hyphen in Rolls-Royce’ and the marque’s first Commercial Managing Director
• A larger-than-life character, Henry Royce once said of him, “He was the captain; we were only the crew”
• Indelibly shaped the marque’s development and legacy
• Dedicated to upholding Rolls-Royce’s status as ‘the best car in the world’
• Sixth in a series profiling the principal characters in the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ story
• Published in recognition of the marque’s 120th anniversary in 2024

“Claude Johnson is celebrated by posterity as ‘the hyphen in Rolls-Royce’; it is typical of the man that this is a title he gave himself. But if anything, it understates the importance and influence of ‘CJ’, as he was universally known, in the marque’s first two decades and beyond. A natural showman with a genius for generating publicity – for himself, as well as the company – his ideas, energy and personality matched his imposing physical stature. He brought an extraordinary mix of skills, talents, experience and personal qualities to his role as the company’s first Commercial Managing Director: a truly fascinating, larger-than-life character with a colourful background who achieved remarkable things.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Claude Goodman Johnson – known to all simply as ‘CJ’ – was born in Buckinghamshire on 24 October 1864, one of seven children.

From London’s St Paul’s School, Claude progressed to the Royal College of Art. Here, he met Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen, Deputy General Superintendent of the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum), where Claude’s father worked. Through him, CJ secured his first job, as a clerk at the Imperial Institute (now Imperial College London). There, he was put to work arranging exhibitions. His debut effort, the Fisheries Exhibition, was described in W. J. Oldham’s book The Hyphen in Rolls-Royce as the ‘fashionable haunt of London for the summer of 1883’. He followed this triumph with events dedicated to Health in 1884 and Inventions the following year; by the time his Colonial and Indian Exhibition opened in 1886, CJ was managing a workforce of around 200.

But if his professional life was a model of sober industry, CJ’s personal circumstances were already somewhat more colourful. Soon after starting work at the Institute, he eloped with his girlfriend, Fanny Mary Morrison, much to the distress of both sets of parents. They had eight children, but tragically only the seventh child, Betty, survived. Eventually, the marriage failed, whereupon CJ married his long-time mistress, whom he always called ‘Mrs. Wiggs’; they had a daughter known as Tink.


ON WITH THE SHOW

His private life had no discernible effect on CJ’s career trajectory. In 1895, the leading scientific author and road transport pioneer, Sir David Salomons, organised England’s first ‘Motor Exhibition’ at his home in Tunbridge Wells. The event proved only moderately successful, but caught the eye of the Prince of Wales, an enthusiast for the ‘new’ motor cars. His Royal Highness was keen to try a similar exhibition – and where better than at the Imperial Institute, which he had long championed, and who better to arrange it than the Chief Clerk, Claude Johnson?

That 1896 event, rather quaintly entitled Motors and their Appliances, proved a turning point for CJ. By July 1897, a group of enthusiasts had founded the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club, or RAC), but were still looking for a full-time Secretary. Aware of his success in organising the Imperial Institute exhibition, they offered CJ the job, which he eagerly accepted.

His talents for organisation and promotion made him perfect for the role. Under his auspices, the Club held numerous motoring events for its members, including the 1000 Mile Trial run during April and May 1900, and won by a certain Charles Stewart Rolls in his Parisian-made 12 H.P. Panhard.


IN GOOD COMPANY

By 1903, CJ had almost single-handedly built the Club’s membership to around 2,000. But his restless mind was ready for a change, and when Club member Paris Singer, son of sewing machine magnate Isaac Singer, offered him a job with his City & Suburban Electric Car Company, CJ jumped at it. This, too, was only a stepping stone to what would become his life’s work. After just a few months with Singer, he joined another Club member in his fledgling car-sales business, a certain C.S. Rolls & Co., thus changing the course of history.

As business partners, the two men were ideally matched. The urbane, well-connected, Cambridge-educated engineer Rolls looked after the technical side of things (and dealt with the nobility), while CJ handled publicity and sales to less exalted patrons.

The company flourished, but Rolls was desperate to find a British-made motor car as good as the Continental models they were selling. In 1904 he found it, in a new 10 H.P. car made by Henry Royce. Following their historic first meeting in Manchester on 4 May, Rolls returned to London and informed CJ he had agreed to sell every car Royce could make under a new name, Rolls-Royce. CJ was instantly captivated by the project, and when the Rolls-Royce company was formally established in 1906, he assumed the role of Commercial Managing Director.


SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS

CJ’s talent and enthusiasm for publicity stunts had found its perfect outlet. In 1906, Rolls-Royce won the Scottish Reliability Trials with a 30 H.P. motor car. At CJ’s urging, Royce developed a larger, more powerful model, the 40/50 H.P. capable of carrying larger bodywork. In an inspired move, CJ dubbed the 12th example, with its silver-plated brightwork and silver paint, ‘The Silver Ghost’ and entered it in the 1907 event, which it won convincingly. A lesser person might have been satisfied, but not CJ. To underline the motor car’s reliability, he immediately arranged for it to participate in a ‘non-stop’ run – a drive without an involuntary stop on the road, apart from punctures, during a set period in the day. Travelling back and forth between London and Edinburgh (except on Sundays), they amassed nearly 15,000 miles and set a new world endurance record. Characteristically, CJ drove the first 4,000 miles himself, yet found time every day to send a postcard to his four-year-old daughter.

Less arduous but equally noteworthy PR efforts followed: placing a brimming glass of water on a running engine without spilling a drop and balancing a coin on the edge of the radiator cap without it falling over. CJ also wrote and published a successful series of guidebooks with Lord John Montagu entitled ‘Roads Made Easy’, which included the charming direction ‘FTW’, meaning ‘follow the telegraph wire by the roadside’.

It was through Montagu that CJ met the illustrator and sculptor Charles Sykes. Rightly concerned that the fad among motor car owners for fitting comical mascots to their radiator caps was spoiling the cars’ classical lines, he commissioned Sykes to design an official one. What we know today as the Spirit of Ecstasy was unveiled in 1911, and it remains one of CJ’s most important and enduring legacies. Still adorning the prow of Rolls-Royce motor cars to this day, CJ’s commission has gone on to become the marque’s timeless muse and an inspiration for countless masterpieces, including its recent Phantom Scintilla Private Collection.


A FRIEND INDEED

It would be easy to assume that the ebullient, outgoing CJ would have little in common with the serious, rather austere engineer Royce. In fact, the two were close friends, respectful of each other’s integrity; Royce’s unending desire to design the best motor car possible was perfectly complemented by CJ’s ability to keep the Rolls-Royce name firmly in the public consciousness, and the operation running smoothly.

Indeed, it’s little exaggeration to say that CJ saved Royce’s life. By 1911, years of overwork and poor diet had taken a severe toll on Royce’s health, and he fell seriously ill; after an operation, he was given just three months to live. The Derby factory was too stressful an environment, so CJ found Royce a house, at Crowborough in East Sussex.

On a convalescent trip to the South of France – travelling in CJ’s magnificent green-and-cream Barker-bodied limousine he’d named The Charmer – they stopped at CJ’s holiday home, Villa Jaune, at Le Canadel. Royce liked the place and said he could happily spend the winter months working from there. CJ immediately bought a nearby plot of land and built three houses, designed by Royce. Villa Mimosa was for Henry himself, while Le Bureau served as a design studio, and Le Rossignol – ‘the nightingale’ – was the house in which the designers lived. It was very important to Royce that the designers were close to him, so that they were able to quickly bring their respective visions to reality. Royce divided his time between England and France until his death in 1933.


CHANGING TIMES

CJ’s own capacity for work was undiminished. In 1912, he opened a sales showroom in Paris, decorated in Adam style with Louis XVI-style furniture. That same year, Silver Ghost owner James Radley started the gruelling Austrian Alpine Trial, but failed to finish. Outraged, CJ vowed to avenge this humiliation, and in 1913 entered a ‘works’ team of three cars (plus Radley as a privateer) with redesigned, four-speed gearboxes. The cars swept the board in what would be the last competitive event to be arranged by CJ. During this period, CJ also introduced the first three-year guarantee on Rolls-Royce motor cars and set up a pension scheme for the workforce.

From 1914 to 1918, Rolls-Royce focused exclusively on aero engine production – something CJ had insisted upon for both commercial and patriotic reasons. But even before hostilities ceased, he foresaw that large, complex and expensive motor cars like Silver Ghost would have limited appeal in a straitened, post-war world. He therefore proposed a smaller model that would be suitable for owner-drivers, which Royce duly delivered with the new 20 H.P. Cannily, CJ spotted that under the new Road Tax, charged at £1.00 per RAC-rated unit of horsepower, the Silver Ghost would attract a tax of £47.00 a year, but the new 20 H.P. only £20.00.

CJ made two further lasting major contributions to Rolls-Royce motor cars. First, when Royce proposed to abandon the traditional Pantheon radiator design for something more streamlined, CJ successfully persuaded him otherwise. Second, when Silver Ghost’s replacement model was ready in 1925, CJ named it after a pair of former Trials cars that were both known as Silver Phantom. He called this model New Phantom; eight generations later, what would become the most storied nameplate in the marque’s history celebrates its own centenary in 2025.


“HE WAS THE CAPTAIN; WE WERE ONLY THE CREW.”

On 6 April 1926, CJ went to his Conduit Street office as usual, despite having felt unwell and losing a noticeable amount of weight for some time. The following day he felt worse, but forced himself to attend his niece’s wedding, where he collapsed. He was driven home by his eldest daughter Betty; on the way, he told her that he felt he would not pull through, and that he wanted neither fuss nor flowers at his funeral. His death on Sunday 11 April was reported by national newspapers and the BBC, reflecting his high public profile and immense importance to Rolls-Royce. Royce was deeply distressed at his old friend’s death, saying: “He was the captain; we were only the crew.”

For all his professional elan and showmanship, CJ was personally modest and highly scrupulous. He never held shares in the company, lest he should be accused of feathering his own nest, nor did he own a Rolls-Royce motor car himself, always using a company Trials car instead. When he was offered a knighthood for Rolls-Royce’s contribution to the war effort, he declined it, saying it should be awarded to Royce (who received only an OBE). He was forever reluctant to accept praise, always directing it towards his co-workers.

A true bon viveur, CJ enjoyed the best he could afford for himself, his family and close friends. His daughter Tink described him as: “A big man in every way: 6’2”, equally broad and well-proportioned with large and most beautiful hands. His size epitomised his ideas, ideals and generosity, his outlook and enthusiasm. A wonderful father, always very well dressed.” But perhaps the best summary of this remarkable man came from his close friend, the English portrait artist Ambrose McEvoy: “A wise and kindly giant”.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, launched in 1955
• First Rolls-Royce motor car launched following the appointment of legendary designer John Blatchley to the role of Chief of Styling
• Last Rolls-Royce offered as a separate rolling chassis, as well as a complete motor car
• Sixth in a series celebrating landmark models from the marque’s history
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904
  
  

“The Silver Cloud is, without doubt, one of the most transformative and iconic motor cars in the marque’s illustrious history. Its launch signalled the beginning of a new era of Rolls-Royce motor cars, at a time when the automotive industry was changing rapidly. Recounting the story of this incredible model and its remarkable coterie of owners is somewhat bittersweet; it was the final Rolls-Royce to be offered as a separate rolling chassis as well as a complete motor car, the last to be worked upon by the great coachbuilders of the 20^th century. Two of the most important figures in our history – Ivan Evernden and John Blatchley – were at the forefront of its design, and the enduring legacy of their innovation and ingenuity lives on at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars today.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations & Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

By 1955, the automotive world was changing rapidly. The Silver Dawn, launched in 1949, was a roaring success, but it was built upon design principles conceived in the late 1930s, an issue that Rolls-Royce’s design team were aware of as early as 1947. Cue the introduction of one of the most transformative models in the history of the marque: the Silver Cloud.

The Rolls-Royce Styling Department, headed up by Ivan Evernden, recruited highly experienced designer John Blatchley in 1940. Blatchley originally joined Rolls-Royce from renowned London coachbuilder Gurney Nutting; unable to fight in the Second World War due to a heart murmur, he worked in the Aero Design headquarters at Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, where he was responsible for the cowling for Merlin engines used in Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft.

Although Rolls-Royce suspended motor car production between 1939 and 1945 to focus on building aero engines, design work on a new model continued in the background. The new team launched the highly successful Silver Dawn in 1949, but in the background, work had already begun on a new model, one that would blend the modernised, ‘New Look’ style of the day with the elegance of traditional, British conservative design.

Under Evernden’s watchful eye, Blatchley, appointed to the newly created role of Chief Styling Engineer in 1951, conceived a quarter-scale model that same year, codenamed ‘Siam’. Seven prototypes later, the larger, full-scale Silver Cloud was born. Blatchley’s ingenious full-width body design, coupled with the inspired placement of chassis and mechanical components, allowed for a significant increase in cabin size. This in turn facilitated a grander, more luxurious seating and trim design.

It wasn’t just the cabin that grew in the new model; the wheelbase was lengthened by three inches (7.6 cm) – then by an additional four inches (10.2 cm) for the 1957 extended wheelbase version – while the straight 6-cylinder engine expanded to 4.9 litres of capacity. Even this enlargement didn’t occupy the engine bay entirely, though, which was purposely designed even larger to one day accommodate a V8 engine.

The upgrades didn’t stop there. The Design team’s engineers, overseen by Evernden and Blatchley, also made great strides with the chassis design, its welded box section yielding a torsional rigidity improvement of 46%. An automatic gearbox became a standard offering for the very first time, with power steering following in 1956. The Silver Cloud will forever be remembered as the last Rolls-Royce motor car to be offered both as a complete car and as a rolling chassis, upon which discerning clients could commission fully bespoke bodywork from specialist coachbuilders.

So successful was the Silver Cloud, Rolls-Royce produced two subsequent designs that bore the same name; Silver Cloud II, launched in 1959, would make full use of the enlarged engine bay with a formidable 6.2 litre V8 power unit, eliciting a 20% increase in engine power. While this version was largely unchanged to the previous on the outside, the Silver Cloud III received a considerable aesthetic facelift. Launched in 1962, the redesigned bonnet sloped forward to facilitate a reduced radiator height of around 1.5 inches (3.8 cm). Dual horizontal headlamps replaced the single units, while the sidelights were moved down from the top of the wing to the middle, incorporating one of the period’s great safety innovations – flashing turn indicators.

By 1965, Silver Cloud had run its course, replaced by the Silver Shadow. All three of its iterations were wildly successful in their own right, and the model is fondly remembered to this day; a beautiful example of a coachbuilt Silver Cloud III formed the centrepiece of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ annual presence at the world-famous Goodwood Revival earlier this year.

Such was the esteem with which former Chief Styling Engineer John Blatchley was held, he was consulted for his thoughts on Phantom VII in the early 2000s, when the marque was planning to relaunch at the new Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ first Chief of Design, Ian Cameron, showed him a series of concepts for the new Phantom. Blatchley approved of just one: the same design that would go on to become Phantom VII.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn, launched in 1949
• The first complete motor cars ever produced by Rolls-Royce
• Silver Dawn models’ design, construction and engineering still influences marque today
• Fifth in a series celebrating landmark models from the marque’s history
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

“For the first 40 years of its existence, Rolls-Royce built only rolling chassis, onto which independent coachbuilders installed bodywork specified by the client. It wasn’t until the late 1940s that the marque produced its first complete motor car – the Silver Dawn. Launched in 1949, it marked a profound change for Rolls-Royce, reflecting the realities of the post-war market while giving the marque more control than it had ever enjoyed over the exterior design of its products. It was also the second model to be built on a single, variable underlying structure, foreshadowing the Architecture of Luxury upon which all Rolls-Royce motor cars of the modern era are built.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Although Rolls-Royce suspended motor car production between 1939 and 1945 to focus on building aero engines, design work on a new model continued in the background.

During the 1930s, Rolls-Royce offered three models, each of which included numerous parts that were unique to it and could not be shared between them. This significantly increased the manufacturing costs per car, which quickly became unsustainable during the austerity of the post-war years.

Rolls-Royce therefore faced the problem of reducing production costs without compromising quality or performance. The solution was new models that could share common parts, a new engine that could be offered in straight-four, six or eight-cylinder variants, and a single chassis that could be configured in variable dimensions. The latter can be seen as a precursor of the proprietary aluminium spaceframe, known as the Architecture of Luxury, that underpins every motor car built at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood today.

These ideas came together in a development programme for what would be known as the ‘Rationalised Range’. In 1946, Rolls-Royce launched the first such model: the Silver Wraith. This was a direct replacement for Phantom III, introduced in 1936. Like its predecessor, and indeed all the pre-war models, Silver Wraith was a rolling chassis designed to be fitted with third-party, coach-built bodywork.

Rolls-Royce knew that to be commercially successful in these more challenging times, it needed a model that was less expensive and could be produced in greater numbers than was possible with traditional coachbuilding. So, for the first time in its history, Rolls-Royce decided to produce a complete motor car, with coachwork assembled in-house. In the same way that Silver Wraith replaced Phantom III, this new model would assume the mantle of the small-horsepower cars the marque had built in previous decades.

The second model in the ‘Rationalised Range’, the Silver Dawn, was launched in 1949, initially only as an export car mainly for the North American and Australian markets; it became available to UK clients in 1952. Of the 761 Silver Dawns produced, most were supplied with the ‘Standard Steel’ four-door saloon bodies produced in-house. But in deference to clients’ requirements, Rolls-Royce also offered the Silver Dawn as a rolling chassis, with some 64 coach-built examples completed in a production run that lasted until 1955.

As further proof of the Rationalised Range approach, by 1952, clients could specify both the smaller, complete Silver Dawn and larger Silver Wraith rolling chassis with automatic gear selection. Indeed, Silver Dawn would be among the very last Rolls-Royce models to be offered with a manual transmission. It would be more than half a century before the advent of the satellite-aided, eight-speed ZF automatic transmission fitted to all of today’s V12 Rolls-Royce motor cars – but the die had been cast.

Towards the end of its lifespan, Silver Dawn’s rear section was reworked by the then newly hired John Blatchley, who had learned his craft with renowned London coachbuilder Gurney Nutting before joining Rolls-Royce. His deft eye for detail not only allowed for greater luggage capacity, but also enhanced the motor car’s looks considerably; perhaps not surprisingly, he would go on to become the marque’s Chief Styling Engineer. In 2015, the nameplate was revived with Dawn, which was the best-selling drophead in Rolls-Royce's history by the time production ended in 2023.

The ‘youngest’ Silver Dawn is now almost 70 years old. Yet even now, it offers an exhilarating experience for the driver and a restful ride for passengers over long distances in modern traffic conditions. It was and is, in every sense, entirely a Rolls-Royce.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars presents 1965 Silver Cloud III Mulliner Park Ward at Goodwood Revival
• Rare fixed-head coupé design built on the Silver Cloud III chassis
• Understood to be one of only about 100 created by coachbuilder Mulliner Park Ward
• Finished in Brewster Green with a Claret Red leather-trimmed interior
• Powered by a hand-built 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V8 engine  
• Displayed in the ‘March Motor Works’ at the storied and celebrated event
• Faithfully recreates Berkeley Square and Rolls-Royce showroom on Conduit Street in Mayfair, London
• Goodwood Revival takes place 6-8 September

“Goodwood Revival is a wonderfully eccentric, nostalgic and glamorous celebration of the cars, fashions and culture of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. During this period, Rolls-Royce produced some of the most memorable models in its long history, including the Silver Cloud III we are displaying in the March Motor Works this year. It’s a rare and beautiful example of the coachbuilder’s art from a time when Rolls-Royce offered its clients a Coachbuild option alongside its standard models – a service that’s enjoyed its own revival at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood in the modern era. We’re delighted to be part of this remarkable event once again, particularly in our 120th anniversary year.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations & Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

A rare example of a coachbuilt Silver Cloud will form the centrepiece of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ annual presence at the world-famous Goodwood Revival, which takes place from 6-8 September.

For its 120th anniversary year, the marque has designed the March Motor Works, located at the infield end of the main circuit tunnel, as a faithful replica of Berkeley Square and the Rolls‑Royce showroom on nearby Conduit Street in London’s Mayfair in 1964.

On display will be a magnificently maintained Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III; this sleek, elegant motor car is understood to be one of only around 100 examples of a fixed-head coupé (FHC) design ever built on the Silver Cloud III chassis by the legendary coachbuilder Mulliner Park Ward. It is finished in a handsome Brewster Green, with a Claret Red leather-trimmed interior. Under the bonnet is a hand-built, 6.2-litre, naturally aspirated V8 engine, delivering around 210bhp to the rear wheels via a four-speed automatic transmission.

The Silver Cloud III is historically important as the last predominantly owner-driven Rolls‑Royce to be offered as a rolling chassis, upon which clients could commission fully bespoke bodywork from Mulliner Park Ward or other specialist coachbuilders, as well as a complete motor car.  (To be strictly accurate, Phantom VI remained in production as a separate chassis, albeit in small numbers, until 1993, with coachwork predominantly supplied by Mulliner Park Ward, which was by then a Rolls-Royce subsidiary. However, these were all limousines designed to be driven by a chauffeur.)

Berkeley Square and its environs were home to several luxury car showrooms at that time, including Jack Barclay. Charles Rolls was born a stone’s throw away in Hill Street, Mayfair, and would go on to establish his showroom in nearby Conduit Street, shortly after forming the partnership with Henry Royce in 1904: the March Motor Works showcases the premises as they would have appeared 60 years later.

THE HONOURABLE CHARLES STEWART ROLLS: 27 AUGUST 1877 - 12 JULY 1910

• An overview of the life and career of The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, born 27 August 1877
• A pioneering racing driver, balloonist and aviator, and a serious engineer and innovator in his own right
• His many achievements underline the tragic brevity of his life 
• Sixth in a series profiling the principal characters in the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars story
• Published in recognition of the marque’s 120th anniversary in 2024
• Each account underlines and celebrates the essential human dimension of ‘the best car in the world’
  
  

“The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls lived a short but highly eventful life that epitomised the adventurous spirit of the age. Aristocratic, urbane and seemingly fearless, he was also a highly trained engineer exploring the leading edge of two new technologies – motoring and aviation – that were already changing the world. It is easy to forget that he and Royce worked together for just six years before his death in 1910, aged only 32, which makes his achievements and influence all the more remarkable. Given the extraordinary, enduring magnitude of all they accomplished in that short time, we remain inspired by his legacy, while wondering what might have been.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls was born on 27 August 1877, the third son of Lord and Lady Llangattock. Though his birthplace was registered as 35 Hill Street, off Berkeley Square in London, his heart was always at the family’s ancestral home, The Hendre, in Monmouthshire, on the border of Wales and England.

It was here that his aptitude and enthusiasm for engineering first emerged. Aged nine, he rigged up an electric bell between his bedroom and the stables; a few years later, he planned and supervised the installation of electricity in the main house. In an early demonstration of the persuasive powers that would serve him so well in his subsequent career, he persuaded Lord Llangattock to pay for it.

Rolls went on to study Mechanical and Applied Science at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his constant tinkering with imported European cars earned him the unflattering (but probably accurate) nickname ‘Dirty Rolls’ from his fellow undergraduates. After gaining his degree, he quickly made a name for himself as a racing driver, finishing fourth in his first race, the 1899 Paris to Boulogne. Four years later, he competed in the fateful Paris-Madrid race, in which 34 drivers and spectators perished. That same year, he set an unofficial land speed record of almost 83mph in his 80 H.P. Mors.``

The other great love of Rolls’ life was aviation. He was a founding member of the Royal Aero Club, initially as a balloonist, making more than 170 flights. He described his first trip in a powered airship in 1907 as ‘something worth living for; it was the conquest of the air’. In 1910, he became the first pilot in history to fly across the English Channel and back non-stop, earning a personal message of congratulations from King George V and a tribute from one newspaper as ‘the greatest hero of the day’.`

But it was in motoring that Rolls chose to make his living. In January 1902, he opened one of Britain’s first car dealerships, C. S. Rolls & Co., in Fulham, West London, importing and selling French Panhard and Mors cars, and Minerva vehicles built in Belgium. The cars sold well, but Rolls was troubled that no domestically produced car met either his clients’ needs, or his own standards as a trained engineer and lifelong enthusiast.

Among Rolls’ large social circle was Henry Edmunds, whom he had met through the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club). Edmunds was a shareholder at Royce Limited and had been enormously impressed by the company’s early Royce 10 H.P. car, designed and built by Henry Royce, which he had driven in a 1,000-mile trial.

It was one of those moments of serendipity that, with hindsight, seems inevitable: Edmunds realised the Royce 10 H.P. was precisely the high-quality, British-made car Rolls was looking for. Such was his enthusiasm that Rolls asked for a meeting with Royce, which Edmunds duly arranged on 4 May 1904 at The Midland Hotel in Manchester. On returning to London, Rolls enthused to his business partner – and future Managing Director at Rolls-Royce – Claude Johnson, that he had found ‘the greatest motor engineer in the world’ and that he would sell all the cars Royce could make.

Rolls was the right man, in the right place, at the right time. A skilled engineer and enthusiast who understood motor cars intimately, he was also an astute businessman, with extensive connections in politics, industry, the media and even royalty. His quick mind immediately grasped the importance of marketing and public relations in promoting Rolls-Royce and its motor cars. Famously, he would demonstrate the refinement of the Silver Ghost by balancing a brimming glass of water on the radiator, with the engine running, thoroughly enjoying his audience’s reaction when not a drop was spilt.

By 1910, Rolls-Royce was firmly established as the world’s pre-eminent luxury motor car maker. The company had outgrown its original premises and its factory in Derby had opened in July 1908. Its flagship model, the 40/50 H.P. ‘Silver Ghost’, was in high demand following dominant performances in a series of gruelling long-distance trials. It was a period of extraordinary innovation, expansion and commercial success that would rarely be repeated until the dawn of the Goodwood era in 2003.

Everything changed on 12 July 1910. Less than two months after his triumphant double Channel crossing, Rolls was taking part in a flying competition at Bournemouth when the tailplane broke off his Wright Flyer. The aircraft plunged to the ground, crashing in a tangle of spars and canvas. Rolls was pronounced dead at the scene. He was only the twelfth person in history to be killed in a flying accident, and the first Briton to lose his life in a powered aircraft. He was just 32.

The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls combined a fine technical mind with a bold, adventurous spirit. Small wonder that aviation and motoring held such powerful, almost magical attractions for him, and he was a true pioneer in both fields. That he achieved so much in so short a life is extraordinary and inspiring; indeed, it is tempting to wonder, regretfully, just how much more he might have accomplished.

He had an innate ability to see things that few others could, with his forward-thinking nature perfectly encapsulated in an article he wrote for The Motor-Car Journal in 1900: “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration, and they should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged. But for now, I do not anticipate that they will be very serviceable – at least for many years to come.” Indeed, it would take 120 years, but this statement proved to be prophetic with the launch of Spectre, the first all-electric Rolls-Royce motor car.

His legacy is assured. His daring, imagination and desire to always think bigger, go further and attempt what had never been done before remain powerful, animating forces at the heart of the company that bears his name today. More than a century on, his imagination and courage endure at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce Phantom III launched in 1936
• The first Rolls-Royce motor car powered by a V12 engine
• Sir Henry Royce’s last major design before his passing in 1933
• Naming of the marque’s first all-electric model, Spectre, was inspired by ten experimental Phantom IIIs built from 1934 to 1937
• Fourth in a series celebrating landmark models from the marque’s history
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

 
“Launched in 1936, Phantom III has a special place in the pantheon of great Rolls-Royce motor cars. It was the first to be powered by a V12 engine, setting the template for every Rolls-Royce up to and including the modern era, while also incorporating suspension and chassis technology that secured the marque’s enduring reputation for both peerless comfort and outstanding performance. There is a certain poignancy to this motor car, too. Production ceased in 1939 and, despite its technical advances and immense potential, never resumed, leaving a question of what might have been. It was also Sir Henry Royce’s last major design, which his death in 1933 meant he never saw completed. But, visionary that he was, he had established fundamental technical and design tenets that still hold true today.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations & Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

As early as 1930, Sir Henry Royce realised that his large-horsepower, in-line six-cylinder Rolls-Royce engines were reaching their technical limits. In simple terms, there wasn’t much more power or torque he could feasibly extract from them. He realised that Rolls-Royce risked losing ground to its American rivals, who were already busily producing luxury cars with much more powerful engines in V8, V12, and even V16 configurations.

Royce had a wealth of experience in designing V12 aero engines, and Rolls-Royce was equally adept at making them. It was therefore a logical and natural progression for Royce to create a V12 engine for the successor to Phantom II, which had appeared in 1929.

Royce’s new engine represented significant technical progress. The new V12 was shorter than Phantom II’s in-line six-cylinder unit, with a capacity of 7.3 litres compared to its predecessor’s 7.6 litres. These more compact dimensions allowed a shorter bonnet and larger passenger compartment, giving coachbuilders more scope than earlier Rolls-Royce rolling chassis. Most importantly, however, the new engine delivered the increased power Royce was seeking. In its initial form, it produced 165 H.P., compared to the 120 of Phantom II, rising to 180 in later motor cars.

The chassis, too, was a major leap forward in design. In another first for the marque, Royce equipped Phantom III with independent front suspension, an innovation that considerably increased both ride comfort and steering control. Characteristically, his design team also incorporated a great number of smaller engineering advances that owners and passengers would probably never notice but greatly reduced the transmission of noise, vibration and harshness caused by poor road surfaces. Taken together, these developments made the Phantom III one of the quietest and smoothest-riding cars of the 1930s. When fitted with Royce’s preferred lightweight coachwork, it was capable of reaching 100 miles per hour.

Royce saw experimental versions of the engine completed, but his death in April 1933 came a year before the first test cars were ready. Ten of these experimental Phantom III motor cars were built between 1934 and 1937 under the codename Spectre, a storied name that lives on today in the marque’s first all-electric model.

The first production Phantom III chassis, sporting a saloon-with-division body built by H. J. Mulliner, was delivered in August 1936. In all, 710 examples were produced, before Rolls-Royce ceased its motor car production in 1939; the last Phantom III was purchased in June 1940.

The directors of Rolls-Royce knew that, once peace returned, they would be operating in a very different world – and that there would be no place in it for a motor car like Phantom III. Perhaps even more so than in 1918, the marque would have to focus its energies on models that were more in keeping with the time, while continuing to build upon the standards of quality and refinement expected of a Rolls-Royce. So, despite its technical brilliance, superlative performance and immense potential for further development, its brief but transformative life was over. Yet its influence would be felt in every Rolls-Royce motor car right up to and including the V12-powered models still being built at Goodwood today. An enduring testament to both the excellence of Phantom III’s design and engineering, and the visionary talents of its creator.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce ##20 H.P.## – known as the ‘Twenty’ – launched in 1922
• A transformative motor car for the marque, it was the first Rolls-Royce ever designed expressly to be owner-driven rather than chauffeured
• Third in a series celebrating landmark models from each decade of the marque’s history, from its foundational years in the 1900s to the contemporary Goodwood era
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904

 
“The legendary ##20 H.P.##, known simply as the ‘Twenty’, was launched on 6 October 1922. Designed by Henry Royce, it ranks among the most important and transformational models ever produced by the marque. Its technology was highly advanced for the time and set the mechanical template for generations of Rolls-Royce motor cars that followed it. Smaller, lighter and less complex than its predecessors, it was also the first Rolls-Royce specifically intended for owners to drive themselves, rather than chauffeured use, reflecting the changed world in which Rolls-Royce found itself operating after 1918. More than a century later, its influence can still be seen in contemporary automotive engineering and design, including the models we build at Goodwood today – a remarkable motor car with an extraordinary legacy.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

A CHANGED WORLD
Even before the Armistice was signed in 1918, Henry Royce was preparing for what he knew would be a very different post-war world. He reasoned that, given the likely difficulty of recruiting, retaining or affording a mechanic or chauffeur as they had done previously, some customers would no longer be able or willing to run the marque’s most popular pre-1914 model, the 40/50 H.P. ‘Silver Ghost’. He needed to create a motor car that was simpler to maintain – and, even more importantly, that the owner could more easily drive themselves. At the same time, Royce knew these discerning clients would expect and accept nothing less than the Rolls-Royce standards of excellence they were accustomed to – and neither would he.

THE ‘TWENTY’
On 6 October 1922, Rolls-Royce unveiled its new ‘small horsepower’ motor car, the 20 H.P., the first Rolls-Royce ever designed expressly to be owner-driven rather than chauffeured. It was immediately obvious that the ‘Twenty’, as it quickly became known, represented a huge technical leap forward. Its straight-six cylinder, 3.1-litre engine was less than half the size of the Silver Ghost’s 7.5-litre unit: however, the new model also weighed around 30% less. This meant the performance gap between them was far less than the raw numbers might suggest. Indeed, with its light controls and more advanced steering, braking and suspension systems, the ‘Twenty’ made the Silver Ghost seem rather outdated, although the larger model remained significantly ahead of its direct competitors.

The ‘Twenty’ quickly became a firm favourite both with established Rolls-Royce owners and those new customers for whom, as Royce had predicted, purchase price and ongoing running costs were more important considerations than they had been a few years earlier.

In letters to the motoring press, one happy owner praised it as ‘a charming piece of mechanism’ while another declared, ‘I have never handled anything as sweet-running’. A company advertisement quoted an expert assessment of the car as ‘everything a motorist can want… motoring with a high degree of refinement and its simplicity of construction will delight the driver’. After taking delivery of his car, a contented customer wrote to the company from his home in France declaring: ‘I drove my 20 H.P. here from Liverpool and am very satisfied with the running of the engine, not having to change gear between Liverpool and Versailles’.

WEIGHTY ISSUES
Like all Rolls-Royce models of the era, the ‘Twenty’ was produced as a ‘rolling chassis’, on which owners commissioned bespoke bodywork from an independent coachbuilder. Royce had always intended that it should primarily be an owner-driver car and hoped coachbuilders and customers alike would embrace this by keeping their creations as svelte and lightweight as possible.

However, he was unable to change the habits of a lifetime among some customers. Many owners persisted in specifying their preferred style of solid, formal coachwork that was both heavier and produced greater wind resistance. To Royce’s understandable irritation, these massive, overbuilt bodies inevitably compromised performance.

Ever the pragmatist, Royce knew there was only one way to improve the weight-to-performance ratio. In 1929, the ‘Twenty’ was replaced by the 20/25 H.P., powered by an enlarged capacity engine, followed in 1935 by the 25/30 H.P. with a 4.25-litre powerplant. The ‘small horsepower’ era finally came to an end with the Wraith of 1938. These later iterations, all direct developments of the ‘Twenty’, add further lustre to its record and reputation.

A LASTING INFLUENCE
The ‘Twenty’ had a profound influence on Rolls-Royce long after production ceased in 1929, by which time no fewer than 2,940 examples had been built. In particular, the straight six-cylinder engine – with detachable cylinder head and overhead valves – would provide the template for Rolls-Royce engines for years to come. Open the bonnet of any six-cylinder Rolls-Royce right up to the Silver Cloud model (1955-9) and their shared heritage is clear to see, albeit with many internal improvements. And when the by-then venerable Silver Ghost was replaced with the new Phantom in 1925, its engine also adopted the essential ‘Twenty’ pattern.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars joins the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club (RREC) for its Annual Rally and Concours d’Elegance at Burghley House, Lincolnshire, on 21-23 June 2024
• Examples from the full Goodwood portfolio – Phantom, Ghost, Cullinan and Spectre – will be on display
• Rolls-Royce’s presence at the world’s largest gathering of enthusiasts and historic Rolls-Royce motor cars reaffirms the close and friendly ties between the two organisations as the marque celebrates its 120th anniversary
  
  

“We’re delighted to support the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club's Annual Rally again this year – especially as we celebrate the 120th anniversary of the marque in 2024. We’ve always enjoyed working with the RREC, whose knowledge and love of historic Rolls-Royce motor cars is unparalleled. They are crucial custodians of the marque’s rich heritage, which continues to inform and inspire so much of what we do at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood today. We’ll also be displaying beautiful examples of our contemporary Bespoke craft, underlining the continuity between the motor cars designed and built by Henry Royce himself, and those we’re creating for today’s clients.”

Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

In the year the marque celebrates its 120th Anniversary, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars joins the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club (RREC) for its Annual Rally and Concours d'Elegance at Burghley House, Lincolnshire, on 21-23 June 2024.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a regular guest at the event, which is the largest annual gathering of historic Rolls-Royce motor cars, their owners and admirers anywhere in the world, and is regarded as one of the most glamorous and spectacular in the entire motoring calendar. Hundreds of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars will be on display in front of Burghley House, one of the finest stately homes in Britain, which dates from the 16th Century.

Amid all the historic motor cars spanning more than a century, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars will present Bespoke examples from all the model families being designed and hand-built at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood: Phantom, Spectre, Ghost and Cullinan. Spectre, the first-ever Rolls-Royce with an all-electric drivetrain, is expected to be of particular interest – as it is the motor car which fulfils The Hon. Charles Rolls’ prophecy of an electric future for the motor car, when he said in 1900, “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.”  The full line-up of current Rolls-Royce motor cars on show at the RREC rally includes:

PHANTOM
The marque presents its pinnacle product in Sapphire Gunmetal, complemented with a single Coachline and wheel-centre pinstripes on the 22" Forged Black Painted Disc wheels hand-painted in Peony Pink. The interior is trimmed in Navy Blue primary and Peony Pink secondary leathers, with Piano White veneer and Navy Blue carpets. The Starlight Headliner includes the animated ‘shooting star’ feature, in which lines of fibre optic ‘stars’ light up sequentially to create the effect of a meteor crossing the night sky.

GHOST
For Ghost, the design team has selected a Bespoke Verde Ermes exterior finish with no Coachline: the interior is trimmed in Tan leather with Havana as the secondary colour, complemented with Dark Amber veneer and Dark Spice carpets and foot-mats. Ghost is also equipped with the ‘shooting star’ Starlight Headliner, which is an increasingly popular Bespoke option.

CULLINAN
The ‘Rolls-Royce of SUVs’ is finished in Monteverde and fitted with a panoramic glass sunroof. The interior is composed of Seashell primary and Tan secondary leathers, with contrasting Black carpets and foot-mats. The main veneer is Open Pore Calamander; the door linings and headrests are embossed with the ‘double R’ logo. The Lounge Seat configuration is designed to allow three passengers to travel comfortably in the rear cabin.

SPECTRE
Spectre’s two-tone exterior pairs Morganite for the lower section with the upper contrast section in Gunmetal. The Illuminated Grille and up-lit Spirit of Ecstasy mascot are in keeping with the motor car’s all-electric powertrain. The striking and complex interior palette is composed of Grace White primary leather; the Ardent Red secondary colour also extends to the carpets, while the seat piping is in Peony Pink. The veneer is open-pore Tudor Oak with Canadel door linings.

Founded in 1957, the RREC is the international club for Rolls-Royce enthusiasts, owners and anyone with a genuine interest in the life and works of Sir Henry Royce, The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls and their distinguished colleagues and successors, who created ‘the best car in the world’. It has around 7,500 members in 60 different countries; at its global headquarters, The Hunt House in Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, it maintains a vehicle archive, museum and workshop for technical seminars.

THE HONOURABLE JOHN DOUGLAS-SCOTT-MONTAGU: 10 JUNE 1866 - 30 MARCH 1929

A brief overview of the life and career of The Hon. John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, born 10 June 1866

• Motoring pioneer, magazine proprietor, influential parliamentarian and devoted Rolls‑Royce owner, whose Silver Ghost was the first motor car in history to carry the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot – inspired by his assistant, Eleanor Velasco Thornton
• Fifth in a series profiling the principal characters in the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars foundation story as the marque celebrates its 120th anniversary in 2024
• Insights into the people, personalities and intertwined relationships that indelibly shaped the marque’s creation, development and lasting legacy
• Each account underlines and celebrates the essential human dimension of ‘the best car in the world’

“Almost since its foundation, Rolls-Royce has been known as ‘the best car in the world’. It first received that accolade from John Montagu, part of the small circle of highly influential motoring pioneers who first brought Rolls-Royce into being, and then to international prominence. As proprietor of one of the earliest and most respected motor magazines, he was crucial in promoting the marque; as an MP, he was instrumental in shaping motoring’s place within wider society. And through the complex personal connections that, are so central to the Rolls-Royce foundation story, he has an enduring place at the heart of the brand to this day.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu was born on 10 June 1866, the eldest son of Lord Henry Scott, later 1st Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. Montagu was fascinated by engineering and, after attending Eton and Oxbridge, briefly pursued a practical training on the railways, precisely the path that the similarly aristocratic – and equally Honourable – Charles Stewart Rolls, 11 years his junior, would also follow.

Montagu’s prospects were as splendid as his full name suggests, with a barony and the financial security of his father’s estate in Hampshire awaiting him in due course. In the interim, he needed to make a living and, in 1895, he became a Member of Parliament (MP) for the New Forest constituency. But his life’s true passion was the motor car. A successful competitive driver, he became one of the motor car’s early political champions and greatly influenced the relaxation of the restrictive motoring laws then in force.

In 1898, Montagu bought his first car – a Daimler – and immediately joined the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (ACGB&I), the forerunner of The Royal Automobile Club (RAC). There, he met fellow member Charles Rolls and the Club’s larger-than-life Permanent Secretary, Claude Johnson. The three soon became close friends and enjoyed competing in the era’s major motoring trials, frequently sharing the spoils between them. One such event was the ‘One Thousand Mile Trial’ of April 1900, run by Johnson under the ACGB&I’s auspices and sponsored by Alfred Harmsworth, later Lord Northcliffe, who owned the Daily Mail newspaper. Montagu was among the first entrants and the only MP to take part; he received a bronze medal for completing the 20-day event with his Daimler, while Rolls was awarded the gold medal as the winner.

In the early 20th Century, motoring was still an expensive hobby that Montagu struggled to sustain on his MP’s salary. To supplement his income, he took his friend Alfred Harmsworth’s advice and started one of the country’s earliest dedicated motoring journals. First published on 28 May 1902, it was called The Car Illustrated, although its masthead bore the imperious and all-encompassing banner ‘A Journal of Transport by Land, Sea and Air’.

By 1906 the magazine was well established, with Montagu acting as commissioning editor, editor and contributor. Like every self-respecting journalist, he was always looking for his next scoop, and his close friendship with Rolls and Johnson meant he was kept fully abreast of the latest products, innovations and competitive successes at Rolls-Royce, founded two years earlier. For their part, Rolls and Johnson had the inestimably valuable support of both the country’s most prestigious car magazine and an influential member of the legislature keenly interested in motoring matters.

This relationship was strengthened further in 1906 when Montagu, who had succeeded his father to become 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu the previous year, bought a Rolls-Royce of his own, the ‘Light 20 H.P.’ model. Nevertheless, he was quite clear that journalistic integrity trumped personal affiliations: Rolls-Royce could be assured of positive coverage in his magazine, for as long as it continued to produce the country’s finest motor cars.

Produce them it did, and in ever-increasing numbers, to the extent that by 1907, it was obvious to the Rolls-Royce directors that their existing works in Cooke Street, Manchester were not large enough to satisfy demand. Accordingly, Henry Royce designed and oversaw the construction of a new, purpose-built factory at Nightingale Road in Derby, which was officially opened before an audience of dignitaries on 9 July 1908.

Charles Rolls welcomed the guest of honour, announcing: “I now have the honour and pleasure of introducing Lord Montagu of Beaulieu – an introduction, however, which is merely a formality; for, as you know, his is a name known to all as a pioneer motorist, one who has educated both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to the importance of the motor car as a factor of civilisation; one who may, in fact, be regarded as one of the most important factors in motoring politics. We therefore as a company, and I am sure all the rest of those present, very greatly appreciate the compliment he has paid us in coming here to perform this little ceremony.” 

But Montagu’s greatest and most enduring compliment would come the following year. On 13 November 1908, an advertisement in The Times newspaper stated: “In July, Lord Montagu declared that the six-cylinder Rolls-Royce was the best car in the world”. This is the earliest known use of the soubriquet, still rarely attributed correctly, that remains synonymous with the marque to this day.

However, not everyone showed the same level of respect. In 1910, Johnson became aware of a disturbing new fashion among Rolls-Royce owners of attaching a comical mascot to the front of their motor car. This, he rightly concluded, was detracting from the elegance of the Rolls‑Royce radiator: how the high-minded and fastidious Royce reacted to such frivolousness is easy to imagine.

Montagu’s own Rolls-Royce also sported a mascot, but this was of an altogether different stamp. Named The Whisper, it was sculpted by Charles Sykes, a well-known Royal Academician and commercial artist who worked for Montagu’s magazine as an illustrator. It depicted a young woman in flowing robes with a finger to her lips, modelled on Sykes’s long-time muse, Eleanor Thornton. Impressed, Johnson commissioned Sykes to design the official Rolls-Royce mascot, known worldwide today as The Spirit of Ecstasy: fittingly, Montagu’s second Silver Ghost was the first motor car in history to carry it.

Montagu remained an enthusiastic Rolls-Royce owner until his death in 1929. He was a staunch friend of the marque for a quarter of a century and one of the first in a long line of wealthy, well-connected owners who have added lustre to the Rolls-Royce name through the decades. In 1952, his son Edward, the 3rd Baron, founded the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in tribute to him: a substantial collection of Spirit of Ecstasy figurines, and Sykes’s original The Whisper, are among its most popular and cherished exhibits.

• A brief history of the Rolls-Royce 40/50 H.P. – generally known as the ‘Silver Ghost’ – launched in 1906
• Legendary performances in the great motor trials of the early 20th Century cemented Rolls-Royce’s reputation as creators of ‘the best car in the world’
• Second in a series celebrating a landmark model from each decade of the marque’s history, from its foundational years in the 1900s to the contemporary Goodwood era
• The selected motor cars represent significant developments in design, construction, engineering and technology that continue to influence the marque’s products today
  
  

“Of all the famous nameplates borne by Rolls-Royce motor cars since 1904, few are as celebrated, significant, evocative and enduring as the ‘Silver Ghost’. Formally launched in 1906 as the 40/50 H.P., it was the first model to be awarded the soubriquet of ‘the best car in the world’ that Rolls-Royce retains to this day, setting unmatchable standards for performance and reliability, proven in the era’s toughest road trials. It was also a stupendous commercial success, with almost 8,000 examples built in the UK and US over an 18-year period – an unimaginable product lifespan in the modern age. That so many Silver Ghosts still survive in full working order – and, indeed, regularly perform the same feats they achieved more than a century ago – is a lasting monument to Henry Royce’s engineering genius.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

By 1906, just three years after its foundation, Rolls-Royce was already something of a victim of its own success. Demand for its motor cars was such that its line-up had quickly expanded from the original twin-cylinder 10 H.P. to include three-cylinder 15 H.P., four-cylinder 20 H.P. and six-cylinder 30 H.P. models. Henry Royce had even produced the first ever V8 passenger motor car, known as the 'Legalimit' since the 3.5-litre engine was governed to keep it below the 20mph speed limit then in force in Britain – only three of these were ever made, and it remains the only Rolls-Royce model of which no examples survive. This proliferation of models reflected a trend across the luxury automotive sector, as competing manufacturers chased an ever more finely segmented client base.

However, for Rolls-Royce, it caused major manufacturing headaches, since many parts were not interchangeable between models. The problem was compounded by Henry Royce’s entirely laudable policy of continuous improvement; his constant adjustments and refinements went all the way down to the smallest components. This created variations between – and even within – production series, to the extent that often only a handful of individual motor cars would be entirely identical.

As with almost any manufacturing process, more complexity and variability meant increased costs. This was anathema to the highly astute, commercially driven Managing Director, Claude Johnson. Having decided radical change was needed, he proposed the marque should focus all its energies on producing just one model. Charles Rolls enthusiastically agreed, but insisted it should be positioned at the top end of the market, where Rolls-Royce was already gaining a reputation as the very best motor car available.

Though a ruthless perfectionist and tireless innovator, Royce was also a pragmatist. He saw the logic of his colleagues’ single-model approach and duly produced a completely new motor car, the 40/50 H.P.

As with all Rolls-Royce models of the time – and indeed until the 1950s – the 40/50 H.P. was a rolling chassis, upon which the client commissioned bodywork from an independent coachbuilder. At its heart was a new six-cylinder, 7036cc engine (from 1910, the capacity was increased to 7428cc). Royce’s groundbreaking design effectively divided the engine into two units of three cylinders each; combined with a harmonic vibration damper on the crankshaft – a feature still used by modern manufacturers – he effectively eliminated the vibration problems caused by resonate frequencies that had bedevilled six-cylinder engines up to that point.

This technical achievement alone would have been sufficient to make the 40/50 H.P. a historically significant motor car. But it was the marketing genius of Claude Johnson that assured its immortality.

When the 40/50 H.P. was launched, new motor cars were taxed based on their horsepower. In general, this meant higher-value motor cars attracted heavier duties than lower-priced models. Since many of the more powerful motor cars on the market were imported, the tax also helped protect domestic British producers.

To provide a universal basis for these tax calculations, the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) developed the ‘tax horsepower rating’. This was derived not from actual engine output, but by an esoteric mathematical formula based on three engine measurements, all the more arcane when expressed in the prevailing imperial units: an assumed mechanical efficiency of 75%; a mean cylinder pressure of 90lbs per square inch; and a mean piston speed of 1,000 feet per minute. Since these differed from engine to engine, in reality, the resulting figure was almost entirely arbitrary, but could be applied by manufacturers and bureaucrats alike. Using this formula, the new Rolls-Royce was tax-rated by the RAC at 40 horsepower; in fact, it developed 50. Hence it was given the prosaic ‘40/50 H.P.’ designation on launch, so clients would know both the level of duty they would have to pay and how much power they could expect.

As an engineer, Royce was probably quite comfortable with this functional naming convention, but not so Claude Johnson. To his showman’s mind, it lacked distinction, resonance, romance and glamour; and it certainly failed to properly suggest the desirable, best-in-class motor car envisioned by Charles Rolls.

Accordingly, some 50 of the early motor cars were given suitably imposing names, either by Johnson or by their proud owners. In an inspired moment, Johnson dubbed the twelfth chassis, number 60551, the ‘Silver Ghost’, in homage to its almost supernatural quietness and smooth ride. Painted silver and adorned with silver-plated fittings, it was widely exhibited by Rolls-Royce at motor shows, and Silver Ghost would go on to become the name by which the 40/50 H.P. was generally known, as it is today.

But chassis 60551 was more than just a showpiece. Out on the road, it dominated the gruelling, high-profile reliability trials that represented the pinnacle of motoring endeavour at that time and were thus central to Johnson’s relentless promotional activities. In the process, it perhaps did more than any other early Rolls-Royce model to establish the marque’s international reputation for performance and engineering excellence.

Its extraordinary run of success began with the 1907 Scottish Reliability Trial, in which it covered some 2,000 miles without a single breakdown, the only delay being for a minute to re-open a closed fuel tap. Immediately afterwards, it covered 15,000 miles non-stop, driving day and night except for Sundays, setting a new world record for continuous travel.

In 1911, impelled by his own pursuit of perfection and Johnson’s insatiable appetite for publicity, Royce unveiled a new version of the Silver Ghost. Known as the ‘London to Edinburgh’ type, it was designed for the RAC’s flagship reliability trial, a return run of almost 800 miles between the two capitals. In an age long before motorways, the route consisted almost entirely of poorly surfaced A- and B-roads; to add to the challenge, cars were locked in top gear from start to finish.

Chassis number 1701 won the event at an average speed of 19.59mph, returning a then-unheard-of fuel efficiency of over 24 mpg. To prove it had not been modified in any way, it achieved 78.2mph on a half-mile speed test conducted soon after the Trial; later that year, fitted with a lightweight streamlined body, it attained 101.8mph at the fabled Brooklands circuit in Surrey, becoming the first Rolls-Royce in history to exceed 100mph.

But arguably the 40/50 H.P.’s greatest sporting triumphs came in 1913. A ‘works team’ of three Silver Ghosts, plus one privately entered car, all specially prepared to the same specification for the rigours of high-speed endurance motoring, gained first and third places in that year’s Alpine Trial, which started and finished in Austria. Customers immediately demanded a Silver Ghost offering similar performance, so Rolls-Royce released a production model of the competition cars; formally named the Continental, these were generally known as ‘Alpine Eagles’. The Continental itself then scored a landmark win in the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix, driven by the newly appointed Rolls-Royce agent for Spain, Don Carlos de Salamanca. His victory by three minutes helped Rolls-Royce break into a Spanish market that had long been dominated by French marques.

These faultless performances, together with the quietness and smoothness of operation implicit in its name, secured the Silver Ghost’s reputation as ‘the best car in the world’. It proved an enormous commercial success for Rolls-Royce, with 6,173 examples built in Britain, and a further 1,703 at the marque’s American factory in Springfield, Massachusetts, between 1907 and 1925.

Thanks to these relatively large volumes over a long production run, the Silver Ghost has one of the largest surviving populations of early Rolls-Royce models. This longevity is a testament to Royce’s engineering and the marque’s build quality. Even more impressive, however, is that some are still capable of the performances they achieved when new. In 2013, 47 Silver Ghosts, including one of the original team, retraced the 1,800-mile route of the 1913 Alpenfahrt, while in 2021, chassis 1701 repeated its record-breaking London-Edinburgh run; locked in top gear, just as it had been 110 years earlier.

• Rolls-Royce marks the 120th #anniversary of the first meeting between founders Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, on 4 May 1904
• A brief review of the founders’ lives and careers in the years leading up to their historic encounter in Manchester, and the roles of other less well-known, but nonetheless pivotal, actors in the Rolls-Royce origin story
• An examination of the world and society in which Rolls-Royce was established and the marque’s contribution to the wider technological progress of the age
• Part of a year-long celebration of the extraordinary people, events and motor cars that make up Rolls-Royce’s rich and remarkable heritage

“From a modern perspective, 1904 can feel impossibly distant from our own times. But it was an age of unprecedented invention, innovation and technological progress, in which many of the things we now take for granted first appeared. Rolls-Royce was born into this extraordinarily dynamic, creative world and would go on to shape it profoundly and irrevocably. Looking back, the meeting of Rolls and Royce seems somehow predestined, the arcs of their respective careers up to that point making it appear almost inevitable. In fact, it came about through a web of chance connections and overlapping relationships; without these, given their vastly different backgrounds and social circles, it might never have happened at all. We are proud to continue their remarkable story, to celebrate and build upon their unique legacy 120 years later.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

On 4 May 2024, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls. The founders’ personal stories, the history of the company they founded and its motor cars are well known and available to view elsewhere on the Rolls-Royce PressClub.

To celebrate this auspicious anniversary, Rolls-Royce considers the historical, technological and social context in which the marque came into being and the impact and influence of the Rolls-Royce name over its 120 years. But to fully understand the marque’s origins and legacy, one must first reach a little further back in time and examine the founders’ activities in the years immediately prior to that first, world-changing encounter in 1904.

HENRY ROYCE: THE ENGINEER

For Henry Royce, the story really begins in late 1884, when he founded his first engineering company, F. H. Royce & Co. (he was christened Frederick Henry) in Manchester. Initially producing small items such as battery-powered doorbells, the company progressed to making heavy equipment including overhead cranes and railway shunting capstans.

But after almost two decades of expansion and success, in 1902 the company was heading for financial trouble, owing to competition from an influx of cheaper products from Germany and the USA. Royce’s perfectionism and obsession with improvement meant he was not prepared to enter a race to the bottom, or compromise the quality of his products. Habitual overwork and constant strain seriously affected his already weakened constitution, and finally his health collapsed entirely.

His doctors ordered him to take an extended break, so Royce embarked on a 10-week visit to his wife’s family in South Africa. Yet even on a medically imposed rest cure, his engineer’s mind was as active and inquisitive as ever. His choice of reading material on the long voyage was The Automobile: Its Construction and Management, originally written in French by Gérard Lavergne and translated into English that year. This was literally ‘the book’ on how to build a motor car, and Royce was clearly both enlightened and inspired by it.

On his return to England, Royce – now physically and mentally recovered – immediately acquired his first motor car, a French 10 H.P. Decauville. It’s often been assumed that this car was so poorly made and unreliable that Royce, out of sheer frustration, set about addressing its numerous defects.

In fact, almost the opposite is true. He chose the Decauville precisely because it was an excellent, state-of-the-art machine with the express intention of dismantling it, analysing every component, then producing his own car from scratch. Any reasonably competent engineer could have upgraded a badly built, substandard product: it took a genius of Royce’s stature to, in his own words, “take the best that exists and make it better”.

THE VITAL ROLE OF ‘LITTLE ERNIE’

One of the lesser known – but nonetheless vital – contributors to the first Royce cars’ development was Ernest Wooler. Born in Manchester in 1888, 15-year-old Ernest stood five feet four inches (1.62m) tall and was nicknamed ‘Little Ernie’ when he joined Royce Limited in 1903 as an indentured premium apprentice – a position for which his father paid the very considerable sum of £100 (over £15,000 at today’s values). He worked a 56-hour week for a shilling a day (about £7.60 now) in the drawing office, learning to make blueprints – and, strictly against the rules, producing his own drawings on the draughtsmen’s boards.

One morning, he received an ominous summons: Mr Royce himself wished to see him. After severely reprimanding the unfortunate youngster for his unauthorised handiwork, Royce ordered him to go and fetch a typist’s notepad. Mystified, Ernie did as he was instructed and gave the pad to his employer. Royce waved it away. “You hold onto that and follow me,” he said and led the way to the workshops, where he climbed onto the Decauville, took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Then, assisted by a fitter, he began methodically taking the car apart. Nearby, Ernie sat on a box with his notepad. “Each piece was handed to me, and I made a sketch of it and added the dimensions they quoted,” he later recalled.

As Royce correctly judged, Ernie was the ideal person to capture the basic data that would inform the design of the motor cars that followed. It’s also tempting to wonder if Royce recognised a kindred spirit; a young man starting at the bottom, but eager to better himself. If so, he was right. In 1913, Ernie emigrated to America and enjoyed a successful career as a design engineer, becoming an expert in bearings and filing a number of patents. In 1947, he retired to Hillsboro Beach, Florida, where he was elected as the town’s first mayor.

SMALL THINGS MAKE PERFECTION

Royce had left school aged just 10 and his formal education consisted of evening classes in English and Mathematics that he attended in his late teens; later, as the world-renowned Sir Henry, he still self-deprecatingly described himself as being able to do no more than simple arithmetic. But he had an instinctive, intuitive talent that more than made up for his lack of academic credentials.

As noted, the Decauville was a highly evolved motor car in its own right and Royce sensibly retained some of its key features – a two-cylinder engine, live propshaft and differential rather than chain drive – in his own designs. He also introduced numerous detailed alterations and innovations: mechanically rather than atmospherically operated inlet valves; a more effective radiator; replacement main, big end and gearbox bearings; and a single gear lever replacing the Decauville’s notoriously tricky twin-lever arrangement. From the outset, he was obsessed with reducing the car’s overall weight, beginning with the simple and obvious expedient of discarding the Decauville’s bronze warning bell, which reputedly weighed around 20kg (over 40lb).

It was not only the Decauville that Royce subjected to his intricate and exacting scrutiny. Between 1902 and 1905 he repaired, investigated and test-drove various makes of cars belonging to (presumably willing) friends and acquaintances to gain additional first-hand insights. According to his own records, he covered some 11,000 miles in the course of this research; many of them undoubtedly in the Decauville, which he kept until at least 1906.

Royce the engineer was aiming to build the best car in the world. It was no vanity project or proof-of-concept exercise: he wanted his technical innovation to be commercially viable. Unfortunately, easy charm, a wide social network and a way with words were not among his many gifts. But in London, there was a young man who had these qualities in abundance.

THE HON. CHARLES STEWART ROLLS: THE SALESMAN

In many respects, The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls was Royce’s antithesis: wealthy, aristocratic, urbane, well-connected and highly (and expensively) educated. What they shared was a passion for engineering and machinery – in Rolls’s case, racing cars, hot air balloons and aeroplanes.

After graduating from Cambridge in 1898, Rolls had been briefly employed as Third Engineer on his family’s steam yacht, the Santa Maria, following a spell at the London & North-Western Railway in Crewe. But after just a few years, he realised that his considerable talents required a different outlet.

In January 1902, Rolls opened one of Britain’s first car dealerships, C. S. Rolls & Co., in Fulham, west London, partnering with the formidable Claude Johnson at the end of 1903. The enterprise, initially underwritten by Rolls’s father, Lord Llangattock, imported and sold French Panhard and Mors cars, as well as Minerva vehicles built in Belgium. The business seemingly flourished, but Rolls was frustrated that all his stock was designed and manufactured overseas. He could find no car produced domestically that met his clients’ needs, or his own standards as both a trained engineer and a lifelong enthusiast.

As 1904 dawned, the elements of a potentially transformative partnership were in place: Royce the gifted engineer in search of a market; Rolls the consummate salesman seeking a game-changing product. All that was needed was something – or someone – to bring them together.

HENRY EDMUNDS: THE CRUCIAL CONNECTION

Rolls had befriended Henry Edmunds through the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club). Edmunds was a director of Royce Limited and had driven one of the company’s early 10 H.P. cars. His enthusiasm for the car was such that Rolls requested a meeting with its creator, which Edmunds duly arranged. On returning to London from Manchester, Rolls told Claude Johnson that he had found “the greatest motor engineer in the world”. Rolls agreed to sell all the cars Royce could make and the rest is, literally, history.

THE WORLD IN 1904

So much for the personalities. What of the world and context in which Rolls-Royce was formed?

Much of what is taken for granted today was still decades in the future – indeed, many things now considered essential would not arrive until the following century. From the vantage point at the time of writing in 2024, 1904 feels like ancient history: a grainy, distant, black-and-white world detached from our own times and experiences.

Rolls and Royce met in a world without television, penicillin or FM radio. Construction work had just begun on the Panama Canal; The RMS Titanic wouldn’t set sail on her fateful maiden voyage for another eight years. King Edward VII was two years into his reign, having succeeded his mother, Queen Victoria, in 1902 – the year that also saw the end of the Boer War, one year prior to Wilbur and Orville Wright making the world’s first flight in a powered aircraft. Arthur Balfour was British Prime Minister, Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt was President of the United States and Franz Joseph I was Emperor of Austria-Hungary.

The motor car, too, was still in its infancy; Karl Benz had produced the first ‘true’ petrol-powered automobile – albeit with just three wheels – in 1886, and motoring remained largely a hobby for daring, well-heeled enthusiasts like Charles Rolls. The world would have to wait until 1913, when Henry Ford displayed the world’s first moving assembly line, for cars to become accessible and affordable to the majority of the population.

But the seeds of our modern life were there. This was the belle époque, an unusually protracted period of peace and political stability in Europe that gave rise to economic confidence and prosperity, which in turn encouraged a surge in innovation. The preceding 20 years alone had seen the invention of the vacuum cleaner, electric oven, dry-cell battery, ballpoint pen, cinema, pneumatic tyre, x-rays and radio. The great technical marvel of 1904 was City of Truro, the first steam locomotive in the world to exceed 100mph – a record that stood for 30 years.

There were significant social and cultural advances, too, with the appointments of Britain’s first black mayor, and first female university professor. The London Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert and the Coliseum Theatre opened in the West End. Literary circles were graced by titans including Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy and P. G. Wodehouse; concert halls and opera houses premiered works by Debussy, Sibelius, Ravel, Elgar, Puccini, and Mahler. New types of music also bloomed, as the syncopated rhythms that would inform Jazz proliferated through Ragtime.

It was into this extraordinarily fertile, dynamic and optimistic age that Rolls-Royce was born. A time in which visionaries and pioneers would shape how the world thought, functioned and behaved for years or decades to come; exactly what Rolls and Royce did with their new motor car.

By building a machine whose engineering, performance, reliability and durability surpassed everything that had gone before, Royce and Rolls set the standard not only for all the Rolls‑Royce models that would follow, but for the motor car itself. In so doing, they shaped a technology that would transform work, travel, communications, communities, infrastructure, design, technology, materials society, politics, economics and culture in ways they could never have predicted.

A PERMANENT LEGACY

Rolls and Royce fulfilled their mission to create ‘the best car in the world’. They gave their names to a dynasty of motor cars that defined, and continues to define, superluxury motoring across the world.

But perhaps their crowning achievement is to have made Rolls-Royce the global exemplar of excellence. Practically every product, service, device and technology that has been invented since 1904 has aspired to be ‘the Rolls-Royce of…’ its industry or sector. The standard they set 120 years ago is still driving innovation and improvement everywhere – including within the company they created.

• A brief history of the Royce 10 H.P., the first motor car built by Henry Royce, and the Rolls-Royce 10 H.P., the inaugural model for the newly established marque
• First in a series celebrating a landmark model from each decade of the marque’s history, from its foundational years in the 1900s to the contemporary Goodwood era
• Year-long retrospective marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904
• Each motor car represents significant developments in design, construction, engineering, and technology that continue to influence the marque’s products today

“We begin this retrospective series with not one, but two motor cars built by Henry Royce in the early 20th Century. The Royce 10 H.P., completely reengineered from an existing, well-regarded machine, was the catalyst for the partnership between our founders; the Rolls-Royce 10 H.P. was the first motor car built and sold under the Rolls-Royce name, setting a template for the company and its products that endures to this day. These models are inseparable in their origins and the story of the company’s foundation. Individually and together, they have a unique place in our history and therefore deserve equal recognition in the pantheon of early Rolls‑Royce motor cars.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

In 1903, electrical engineer Henry Royce was running his own manufacturing company in Manchester. Though successful, trouble was brewing for Royce and other British companies, in the form of a growing tide of cheaper, imported electrical goods. Ever the perfectionist, Royce refused to lower his standards to compete, and instead looked to diversify into new areas. It was a decision that would change history.

In September 1902, Royce had bought a small French car, a 10 H.P. Decauville. It was a highly regarded model from a well-respected make, and among the very best available at that time. Characteristically, however, Royce swiftly identified numerous flaws and weaknesses in its design, engineering and construction.

Earlier that year, he had read a newly published book, The Automobile: Its Construction and Management. This convinced him to use the Decauville as the basis for a better motor car of his own. He began by carefully dismantling it, making detailed notes and drawings of every component. His new design sensibly retained some of its key features, but also introduced a plethora of innovative improvements to the bearings, radiator, carburation and transmission.

He was also obsessed with reducing the motor car’s overall weight, which he achieved through meticulous engineering and metallurgy, together with simpler measures like dispensing with the Decauville’s cast bronze warning bell that alone weighed around 20kg (over 40lb). Perhaps most significantly, Royce designed and built his own twin-cylinder engine, the first in the long line of legendary powerplants for both motor cars and aircraft he would create during his distinguished career.

On 1 April 1904, his first complete motor car – the Royce 10 H.P. – took to the road for the first time. For Royce, and the world, nothing would ever be the same again.

Meanwhile, in London, an aristocratic motoring and aviation pioneer had opened one of Britain’s first car dealerships in 1902. He was The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls and business was booming, but Rolls was frustrated that all his stock was designed and manufactured overseas; no car produced domestically met his clients’ needs, or his own standards as a Cambridge-educated engineer and successful competitive driver.

A friend, Henry Edmunds, had been loaned one of the first production examples of Royce’s new 10 H.P. motor car. It was, he enthused, exactly what Rolls was looking for. On 4 May 1904, at the behest of his friend Edmunds, Rolls travelled to Manchester to meet Royce and try out the motor car. Though entirely different in background and temperament, the two men bonded immediately, and Rolls was smitten with the motor car. There and then, he declared he would sell every motor car Royce could make, through a new company and under a new name: Rolls-Royce.

Launched the same year, their first motor car, the Rolls-Royce 10 H.P., was a similar twin-cylinder model derived from the earlier Royce cars, but with many further design and mechanical improvements. Through this diminutive but epochal motor car, the fledgling brand rapidly gained the reputation for engineering excellence, comfort, performance and reliability it retains 120 years later.

By 1905, Rolls-Royce had added three, four and six-cylinder models, whose successes in both trials and sales were built on the twin-cylinder 10 H.P. model's foundations. All perfectly embodied Royce’s most famous principles, which still inspire the marque today: “Take the best that exists and make it better,” and “If it doesn’t exist, design it.”

ERNEST HIVES: 21 APRIL 1886 - 24 APRIL 1965

• A brief overview of the life and career of Ernest Hives, born 21 April 1886
• Pivotal figure in the early days of the marque, driving Rolls-Royce’s success in the great motor trials of the early 20th Century, before becoming Chairman of the Board in 1950
• Fourth in a series profiling the principal characters in the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars foundation story as the marque celebrates its 120th anniversary in 2024
• Insights into the people, personalities and intertwined relationships that indelibly shaped the marque’s creation, development and lasting legacy
• Each account underlines and celebrates the essential human dimension of ‘the best car in the world’
   

“Even for so gifted an engineer as Henry Royce, there’s a limit to how far theory can take you: there comes a point where someone has to determine whether your design actually works in practice. In the early days of Rolls-Royce, that was Ernest Hives. From humble origins, Hives turned his fascination for motor cars and outstanding self-taught driving skills into a glittering career with Rolls-Royce, first as an experimental test driver, then as one of the ‘works’ team contesting the great motor trials of the day. His observations and hands-on experiences from the road would have been crucial to Royce’s continuous improvement process, making him a key figure in the technical development of the ‘best car in the world’. 
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Ernest Walter Hives was born on 21 April 1886 in Reading, Berkshire. In 1898, aged just 12, he began a three-year apprenticeship with a local engineering company that had a sideline dealing in motor cars.

From the outset, the young Hives was captivated by these fascinating new machines. He saw his future in them and, like Henry Royce a generation earlier, he did not allow his humble background and limited formal education to impede his ambitions. He shared Royce’s unending capacity for hard work, putting in long hours and applying what was evidently a similarly lively and enquiring mind. In particular, he would watch and listen to those on the night shift, steadily building his knowledge of the motor cars’ inner workings and operation.

But his was not merely a theoretical interest, and he soon taught himself to drive by moving cars around the garage. We can assume this was with his employers' blessing since, though still only 14, he quickly graduated to the road, where he taught clients to drive. His combination of technical understanding, an intuitive ‘feel’ for the motor car and outstanding practical skills would shape his career in the years that followed.

That nascent career took a defining turn sometime around 1903 (the precise date is not known) when Hives rendered assistance to a motorist who was having trouble with one of his motor cars (likewise, history does not record whether this was at the Reading garage or out on the open road). What is certain is the motorist’s identity: The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls.

Whenever and wherever this encounter occurred, Rolls was so impressed that he promptly took Hives on as his personal chauffeur. The young man’s star continued to rise with a swift promotion to the position of mechanic at C S Rolls & Co, the prestigious London motor car dealership established by his new employer at the start of 1903.

But driving remained Hives’ true calling. He left C S Rolls & Co to work first at Owens and then Napier, for whom he drove in the gruelling Scottish Reliability Trials of 1907 and 1908, and also at the 1908 Brooklands meeting, where he sported jockey’s racing colours of yellow and white (which he described as looking like ‘a poached egg’).

In 1908, he made what would be the most pivotal move of his career; taking a job at Rolls-Royce, by now in its fourth year, as an experimental tester. His own account suggests he was less than overjoyed at the prospect, at least initially. “When I got to Derby in 1908 and walked out of the station it was raining hard,” he wrote later. “Looking up Midland Road, it was so drab that I spun a coin to decide whether to go on to Rolls-Royce or catch the next train home.” By such small chances, momentary decisions and tiny margins for error are careers, lives and history itself so often determined.

Rolls-Royce had created the new role of experimental tester following its showing at the 1907 Scottish Reliability Trial. Not that the event had gone badly for the fledgling marque, on the contrary: the 40/50 H.P. – better known as the Silver Ghost – had comprehensively beaten the opposition, including the Napier driven by Hives; even more impressively, the punishing 15,000-mile test had been the motor car’s first competitive endurance run. Never one to rest on his laurels, however, Henry Royce saw this overwhelming success as conclusive proof of the need for continued testing to, in his own words, ‘take the best that exists and make it better’.

Hives joined the company’s newly formed experimental department, and immediately proved a natural at this highly structured, technically exacting work. His insights into the subtleties of a motor car’s performance and responses – that it developed a resonance noise at a certain speed, that the chassis felt either too stiff or not stiff enough under cornering, or that the engine seemed to have a ‘flat spot’ at a particular rpm (revolutions per minute) – would have been invaluable to Royce and his design team. Indeed, such were his gifts that when the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) announced its headline 1911 endurance trial from London to Edinburgh and back, Hives was automatically chosen to drive Rolls-Royce’s entry: Silver Ghost 1701.

Designed as an ‘Experimental Speed Car’, 1701 easily won the event, in which entrants completed the entire 794-mile trip between the two capitals locked in top gear. Under Hives’ expert handling, the vehicle averaged almost 20mph and returned a then unheard‑of fuel efficiency of over 24mpg – genuinely astonishing figures given the parlous state of Edwardian Britain’s roads, and a testament to Hives’ skills, courage and powers of concentration behind the wheel, as well as Royce’s engineering.

Rolls-Royce followed up this performance by contesting the even more daunting Alpine Trials, held over eight days and 2,600km on some of the highest roads in Europe. After an embarrassing underperformance by a ‘privateer’ car in 1912, Managing Director Claude Johnson was eager to set the record straight and approached the 1913 event in typically energetic and uncompromising fashion. He assembled an official ‘works’ team of three specially prepared Silver Ghosts, each with a hand-picked driver and mechanic, plus a fourth car built to the same specification driven by private owner James Radley. Hives was one of the company’s top drivers – as proven by his being the first to exceed 100mph in a Silver Ghost – and therefore an obvious selection for Johnson’s new crack team. Piloting the Number Two car, accompanied by mechanic George Hancock, he completed a near-faultless run (he was docked a single point for stalling on leaving the parking area in Salzburg) that earned him one of the team’s three silver medals, in an overall performance that saw the Silver Ghosts generally accepted as ‘the fastest, quietest and strongest cars in the event’.

Alongside his racing exploits, Hives continued to make a vital contribution to Rolls-Royce’s research and development efforts as an experimental tester, introducing the first ‘chassis bump rig’, that could test chassis’ components to destruction. He also undertook the still potentially hazardous work of testing Royce’s latest designs on the open road. Having settled on France as the ideal place to carry out high-speed road testing, he made regular sorties along a route he devised between Paris and Royce’s winter home at Le Canadel, near Nice. For someone who had adored motor cars since childhood, this must have been as close to the perfect job as it is possible to get.

The natural-born talent and sheer love of driving that Hives first demonstrated as a teenager never left him. Many who knew him spoke of a ‘sixth sense’ he had when driving, seeming to know instinctively if the road ahead was clear and when he could take the fastest line through a corner or needed to ease off.

As his career progressed, Hives became increasingly involved with developing Rolls-Royce’s aero engines as well as its automotive products. In 1937, he became a Board Director and General Works Manager; his most significant act was to split the company’s motor car (chassis) and aero engine operations into two independent entities, which remains the case to this day.

In 1946, he became Managing Director, and in 1950, Chairman of the Board: that same year, he received a peerage and, as 1st Baron Hives, completed an extraordinary journey from working as Charles Rolls’s chauffeur to leading the great company his late employer had co-founded almost 50 years earlier. Yet the man who had doggedly worked his way up from a Reading garage to the House of Lords always remained modest, describing himself with an understatement worthy of Royce’s equally understated self-characterisation as ‘just a mechanic’. Respectfully, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars begs to differ.

ELEANOR VELASCO THORNTON: 15 APRIL 1880 - 30 DECEMBER 1915

• A brief overview of the life and career of Eleanor Velasco Thornton, born 15 April 1880
• Secretary to both Claude Johnson and Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, muse of illustrator and sculptor Charles Sykes and the model for the marque’s iconic Spirit of Ecstasy mascot
• Third in a series profiling the principal characters in the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars foundation story as the marque celebrates its 120th anniversary in 2024
• Insights into the people, personalities and intertwined relationships that indelibly shaped the marque’s creation, development and lasting legacy
• Each account underlines and celebrates the essential human dimension of ‘the best car in the world’
  
  

“Eleanor Thornton has a unique place in Rolls-Royce history. She is best known as the purported model for our Spirit of Ecstasy mascot, but how this came about is part of a far more complex and fascinating story. Secrets, sacrifices and the ever-present risk of scandal dominated her tragically short but intense and colourful life. She was a strong, intelligent, self‑assured and highly influential woman in an automotive world that was then almost entirely male-dominated. She also played a pivotal part in a timeless, tangled, deeply human drama that would eventually make her, and the artwork she inspired, immortal."
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


Eleanor Velasco Thornton was born on 15 April in 1880 in Stockwell, south-west London. Little is known of her early life: what's certain is that as the 20th Century opened, she was working as assistant to the ebullient and charismatic Claude Johnson, General Secretary of the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the RAC) and soon-to-be business partner of The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls.

Eleanor rented rooms at The Pheasantry on the Kings Road, Chelsea; now a Grade II Listed building, its eclectic and flamboyant architectural flourishes were the work of its then owner, the artist and interior decorator Amédée Joubert. At that time, it was home to a thriving colony of artists (in the 1930s, the basement became a restaurant and drinking club, the regulars of which included the painters Augustus John and Francis Bacon, the poet Dylan Thomas and legendary actor Humphrey Bogart; it remains a nightclub to this day). Amid these bohemian surroundings, Eleanor lived a remarkable double life: by day, a professional executive assistant; by night, a life-model for the Pheasantry's resident artists. One of those for whom she regularly posed was a talented illustrator, Charles Sykes. 

Eleanor's life changed completely and irrevocably in 1902. That year, almost 100 miles from London, on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, was grappling with a longstanding problem. He was yet to ascend to his future title of 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu; in the interim, for all his impeccable lineage and shining prospects, he was perennially short of cash. By a double misfortune, his life's great passion was the motor car, which in those pioneering days was still very much the preserve of those with deep pockets. 

Happily, Montagu had a flair for journalism, so his inspired solution was to set up one of Britain's earliest dedicated motoring magazines, The Car Illustrated. Montagu could handle the writing, editing and publishing himself; but for images, he needed a professional illustrator. In one of those odd coincidences that so often shape history, the man he hired was Charles Sykes.

Among Montagu's circle of motoring friends was Claude Johnson. When, through him, Montagu met Eleanor, he was instantly captivated by her intelligence and promptly poached her, offering her the position of Office Manager at his magazine. Eleanor accepted, and the aristocratic publisher and his new colleague – 14 years his junior – soon embarked on a lengthy clandestine affair.

Thereafter, Sykes and Eleanor found themselves suddenly thrown together as colleagues at The Car Illustrated, while already well acquainted with one another under very different circumstances. Whether this caused any awkwardness between them is impossible to say; but it seems unlikely, since Eleanor was soon posing for him again.

During this period (the precise date is unknown) Sykes produced a mascot for Montagu's Rolls‑Royce Silver Ghost. Called ‘The Whisper’, it was a small aluminium statuette of a young woman in fluttering robes with a forefinger to her lips. It has been confirmed that Eleanor was the model: whether the mascot was a token of appreciation from Sykes to his friend and employer, or made at Eleanor’s instigation as a gift for her lover, remains a mystery. Whatever the truth, Montagu displayed it on every Rolls-Royce car he owned until his death in 1929; perhaps as a discreet acknowledgment of his love for Eleanor, which he kept secret for so long.

Tragically, Eleanor was among hundreds who drowned when the P&O passenger ship SS Persia sank in the Mediterranean in 1915. Montagu was among the handful of survivors: he spent three days adrift on an upturned lifeboat, having suffered a fractured shoulder. He was also nursing a broken heart. Devasted, he never fully got over the emotion of the loss of Eleanor – of which, naturally, he could never speak publicly. But for the rest of his life, she was with him in spirit wherever he travelled in his Rolls-Royce motor car.

HENRY ROYCE: 27 MARCH 1863 - 22 APRIL 1933

• A brief overview of the life and career of Henry Royce, born 27 March 1863
• The self-taught engineering genius who designed and personally approved every component in every Rolls-Royce motor car from 1904 until his death in 1933
• Second in a series profiling the principal characters in the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars foundation story as the marque celebrates its 120th anniversary in 2024
• Insights into the people, personalities and intertwined relationships that indelibly shaped the marque’s creation, development and lasting legacy
• Each account underlines and celebrates the essential human dimension of ‘the best car in the world’

 
“Henry Royce’s life followed a truly extraordinary arc. From impoverished origins and with minimal formal education, he became a giant of 20^th Century engineering and innovation, responsible for designs and technology that helped shape the world we live in now. But this classic rags-to-riches tale belies the complexity of the man, and understates the many challenges he faced during his remarkable life. After 120 years, his influence on the marque he co-founded remains powerful and pervasive; he literally made us who we are today.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Frederick Henry Royce was born on 27 March, in 1863 at Alwalton, near Peterborough. He was the youngest of five children in a family with dire financial problems: Henry’s father was finally declared bankrupt and, under the law of the time, imprisoned. This early poverty and hardship would affect Royce’s character, and his health, for the rest of his life.

Aged just 10, Royce started working in London, first as a newspaper seller and later as a telegram delivery boy. Then in 1877, with financial support from his aunt, he secured a coveted apprenticeship at the Great Northern Railway (GNR) workshops in Peterborough. His natural aptitude for design and working with his hands were immediately obvious. A set of three miniature wheelbarrows he made in brass demonstrated the exacting standards he would set for himself and others throughout his career.

But two years later, his aunt’s own money troubles left her unable to pay his annual apprenticeship fee. Undaunted, Royce returned to London and, in 1881, began work at the fledgling Electric Lighting & Power Generating Company (EL&PG). Electricity was then so new it had no professional institutions, and therefore no formal examinations or entry qualifications. For Royce, who had only the most rudimentary schooling, this was a priceless advantage.

His fascination for the subject, formidable work ethic and commitment to improving himself (he attended evening classes in English and Mathematics after work) meant that in 1882, the EL&PG, by now renamed the Maxim-Weston Electric Company, sent him to manage the installation of street and theatre lighting in Liverpool. But when the company abruptly went bust, Royce, still only 19, again found himself unemployed.

But not for long. In late 1884, he founded F H Royce & Co in Manchester. Initially producing small items such as battery-powered doorbells, the company progressed to making overhead cranes, railway shunting capstans and other heavy industrial equipment.

By 1901, years of overwork and a strained home life were taking a severe toll on his health, which had probably been permanently weakened by the privations of his childhood. Matters worsened the following year when the company found its finances stretched, owing to an influx of cheaper imported electrical machinery that undercut its prices. Ever the perfectionist, Royce was not prepared to compromise the quality of his products, but the resulting strain meant that in 1902, his health collapsed completely.

Royce’s doctors prescribed complete rest and persuaded him to take a 10-week holiday with his wife’s family in South Africa. On the long voyage, he read a newly published book, ‘The Automobile – Its Construction and Management’. What he learned would change his life – and ultimately, the world.

On his return to England, fully revitalised, Royce acquired his first motor car, a French-built 10 H.P. Decauville. The story usually goes that this first car was so poorly made and unreliable that Royce decided he could do better. In fact, his holiday reading had already focused his mind on producing his own car. He chose the Decauville precisely because it was one of the finest cars available to him, in order to dismantle it and then, in his most famous phrase, ‘take the best that exists and make it better’.

He began by building three two-cylinder 10 H.P. cars, based on the Decauville layout. With these foundational machines, he demonstrated the analytical approach, attention to detail and pursuit of excellence in design and manufacture that were the hallmarks of his life.

His friend and business associate, Henry Edmunds, borrowed one of these original Royce 10H.P. cars to complete in the 1,000-mile Slide Slip Trials organised by the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club, or RAC) in April 1904. Edmunds was enormously impressed, and realised this was precisely the high-quality, British-made model that a friend and fellow Club member was looking for to stock in his new London car dealership. That friend was, of course, The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls.

As the technical mastermind behind the new partnership, Royce’s output was astoundingly and relentlessly prolific. From the company’s foundation in 1904 until his death in 1933, he personally created the initial concept for every mechanical item in every Rolls-Royce motor car. An instinctive, intuitive engineer, he had an uncanny ability to assess components purely by eye. He firmly believed that if something looked right, it probably was – and he was almost invariably proved correct.

As demand grew, and the motor cars themselves became increasingly complex, he established a design team, governed by his maxim, ‘Rub out, alter, improve, refine’. Everything the team produced would then either be rejected and sent back for more work, or finally signed off, by Royce alone. In contrast to modern motor manufacturing, where models are introduced, updated and replaced at defined intervals, Royce made continuous improvements to his products, without any announcement or notice. Some of these improvements were tiny – a washer here, a hose-clip there – but the net effect was that almost no two Rolls-Royce motor cars were exactly alike in every detail. This system, allied with Royce’s relentless pursuit of excellence in all he did and supervised, made Rolls-Royce motor cars the nearest thing to mechanical perfection possible, given the knowledge and technology of the day.

It is worth restating that Royce never designed a complete car: up to 1949, Rolls-Royce produced only ‘rolling chassis’, equipped with engine and drivetrain, upon which a specialist coachbuilder then built bodywork to the customer’s specification. The rolling chassis did, however, include the bulkhead (the panel separating the engine compartment from the passenger cabin) and the radiator, which determined, at least in part, the finished motor car’s overall proportions.

A highly driven – some might say obsessive – man, Royce brought his meticulous, enquiring mind and insatiable appetite for hard work to every aspect of his life. Such is the power of his ethos, it still informs and inspires the company that bears his name 120 years later.

HENRY EDMUNDS: 20 MARCH 1853 - 18 NOVEMBER 1927

• A brief overview of the life and career of Henry Edmunds, born 20 March 1853
• Earned his place in history as the man who arranged the historic first meeting between his friends Henry Royce and Charles Rolls on 4 May 1904
• First in a series profiling the principal characters in the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars foundation story, each released to celebrate the subject's birth date, as the marque celebrates its 120th anniversary
• Insights into the people, personalities and intertwined relationships that indelibly shaped the marque’s creation, development and lasting legacy
• Personal histories underline and celebrate the essential human dimension of ‘the best car in the world’, as exemplified in the modern era through Bespoke and Coachbuild commissions

 
“This year we celebrate the 120^th anniversary of the first meeting between Henry Royce and Charles Rolls. But while it’s their two names that became world-famous, Rolls-Royce as we know it might never have existed without the intervention, influence and contributions of others. In this series, as well as the founders themselves, we remember those crucial actors, perhaps less recognised by posterity yet absolutely essential to the Rolls-Royce story – beginning, appropriately, with the man who arranged that first historic encounter.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Henry Edmunds was born on 20 March 1853, in Halifax, West Yorkshire. His father, an engineer and iron merchant, gave him an informal apprenticeship, from which the young Henry developed an enduring passion for the then-new world of electricity. Having befriended Joseph Swan (the inventor of the incandescent lightbulb) he became a salesman for the Swan Lamps company. Among his customers was the Royal Navy: in 1881, HMS Inflexible became the first British warship to be lit with electric bulbs. He was also friends with Thomas Edison (the inventor of almost everything else) and was present at both the first successful sound recording and telephone call.

In 1886, Edmunds became a partner in electrical cable-makers WT Glover & Co, based in Manchester. The company’s fortunes were transformed with the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 – and, more specifically, the docks and the world’s first dedicated industrial estate, Trafford Park, alongside it. Glover’s won the contract to supply the cabling for the vast arc-lighting system, which was designed and manufactured by another Manchester company, F H Royce & Co, owned by one Henry Royce.

To complete the works, both Royce and Glover’s needed capital. Through a complex series of reorganisations, changes of name, mutual shareholdings and management overlaps between their respective firms, Henry Royce and Henry Edmunds became established business associates and close friends.

In 1899, Edmunds joined the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club, or RAC). Edmunds was captivated by motoring and eagerly applied his agile, inventive mind to the infant technology’s myriad challenges and possibilities. The following year he entered the 1,000 Mile Trial from London to Edinburgh and back, organised by the Club’s imposing and ebullient secretary, Claude Johnson. Among his fellow entrants was The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, and the three became firm friends.

By 1904, Edmunds had taken a business interest in the Parsons Non-skid Co Ltd, which made ‘chains’ that fitted to car tyres to prevent what was known as ‘slide-slipping'. They entered a competition, the Slide Slip Trials, at the end of April that year, but at the last minute found themselves without a suitable car. Edmunds asked Royce if they could use his first 10 H.P. car. Royce agreed and the car was hastily sent by train to London, where Edmunds drove it successfully in the 1,000-mile event. Charles Rolls also took part, but there is no record of his having anything to do with the Royce car.

Edmunds was enormously impressed by the 10 H.P. He also knew Rolls was desperately looking for a high-quality British-made car to sell in his thriving London dealership. He was determined to bring the two men together, and earned his place in history when, on 4 May 1904 at The Midland Hotel in Manchester, he announced: “Henry, may I introduce Charles Rolls”.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars celebrates the first vehicles ever commissioned in the Goodwood era
• Two hand-built gravity racers took part in the 2001 and 2002 Soapbox Challenges at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, before the company had officially relaunched
• A team of Rolls-Royce Apprentices have worked together to refurbish the cars
• The racers have now been loaned to the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club, and are proudly displayed at their Northamptonshire headquarters

“It has been a great privilege to reminisce on the first vehicles ever produced at the Home of Rolls-Royce. Not many will know that, before any of the first Phantoms were handed to clients, a pair of hand-built gravity racers took part in the Soapbox Challenge at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Having been retired from racing activities and subsequently displayed in our headquarters, we are delighted to announce that they have been refurbished by our Apprentices, who have worked tirelessly to restore them to their former glory. Over two decades on from their first outing, these priceless artifacts act as a pleasant reminder of how far we have come in the last 20 years at the Home of Rolls-Royce. We are confident that they will be cherished by our friends at the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club, where they will add to an already vast archive of Rolls-Royce’s rich and storied history.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Today, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars commemorates the first vehicles of the Goodwood era. Contrary to popular belief, this was not the first new Phantom handed over to its commissioning client at 00.01 on 1 January 2003; in fact, Rolls-Royce’s modern renaissance began two years prior, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Soapbox Challenge.

Before Spectre, Cullinan, Ghost or Phantom, there were the Rolls-Royce Close Coupled Drophead Gravity Racers. A teaser to the marque’s Goodwood resurgence, these four-wheeled, motorless vehicles – codenamed RR-0.01 and RR-0.02 – were true one-of-one commissions, built by the same skilled hands that would soon relaunch the brand in the West Sussex countryside. With ‘Project Rolls-Royce’ still in its infancy – planning permission for the new facility had only just been granted – the racers were commissioned to participate in the Soapbox Challenges at the 2001 and 2002 editions of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, a gruelling downhill race for gravity powered vehicles.

The lines on RR-0.01 offered tantalising clues to the design of the first Goodwood Phantom. Built from carbon and glass fibre, composite honeycomb plates and precision aluminium components, its monocoque shell bore a striking resemblance to Phantom VII, winning the award for the best design at the 2001 Festival of Speed. It was adorned with a unique, ‘March Hare’ mascot on its bonnet; the redesigned Spirit of Ecstasy would not make its debut on Phantom until the newly built Goodwood site officially opened its doors in 2003. In the 2001 Soapbox Challenge, it was driven by Ian Cameron, Rolls-Royce’s first Design Director of the modern era, who was able to overhaul the Bentley racer on the final corner.

RR-0.02 was inspired by the Silver Ghost, winner of the 1911 London to Edinburgh Trial and the 1913 Alpine Trial, accomplishments which cemented Rolls-Royce’s position as creators of the ‘best car in the world’. Like its illustrious predecessor, RR-0.02 was built with speed in mind, with its formula racing-style steering racks combining with its slick, tubular tyres to minimise rolling resistance; in a fitting tribute, Ian Cameron led the team to victory in the speed challenge at the 2002 Soapbox race, lifting the Newton Apple award for the fastest racer. It was also bestowed with the Merit of Excellence by the ‘Wazir’ of Goodwood, a discretionary award for racers of particular distinction, earning the honorary title of Grand Soap Wazir. Made from aluminium and carbon fibre, with a painted wood aft deck and leather trim, it was emblazoned with a one-of-a-kind, double-question mark monogram above its pantheon grille, offering further hints to the marque’s Goodwood revival.

Following these triumphs, the racers were proudly displayed in the main reception area of the newly completed Home of Rolls-Royce, attracting attention and admiration from curious clients and visitors for many years. A testament to the Goodwood site’s formative years, they would have their racing swansong in the fifth and final Soapbox Challenge in 2013. Once again, they successfully completed the course, with RR-0.02 reaching a top speed of 72mph on its way to the finish line just outside Goodwood House.

These remarkable vehicles have now been faithfully restored to their former glory by the next generation of skilled artisans and craftspeople at the Home of Rolls-Royce, ready for the next chapter in their fascinating history. The racers recently underwent a full-body and mechanical restoration, managed by a team of Rolls-Royce Apprentices. This included a complex repair to the front grille on RR-0.01, and a handmade replacement front-screen veneer on RR-0.02, both having been originally damaged during their racing exploits.

From Goodwood, the racers travelled to the headquarters of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club at Hunt House in Northamptonshire. Here, they take pride of place in the Club’s unrivalled collection of Rolls-Royce records and memorabilia, over 20 years since they kicked off a new dawn for the marque.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars reflects on the lasting influence of the company’s first chief executive, Claude Goodman Johnson (24 October 1864 - 11 April 1926)
• A gifted publicist and marketer who became known as ‘the hyphen in Rolls-Royce’
• Managed the company from 1906 until his death 20 years later
• Retiring in November 2023 after almost 14 years, Torsten Müller-Ötvös is the longest-serving CEO of the modern era, and second only to Johnson in time at the head of the marque
• Continued a long line of influential Rolls-Royce CEOs who shaped both the company and the wider automotive and luxury industries during their tenure

 
“Though perhaps less familiar in the public mind, Claude Johnson is probably the most important and influential figure in the annals of Rolls-Royce apart from the founders themselves. As we mark the retirement of Torsten Müller-Ötvös after almost 14 years as our Chief Executive Officer, this seemed the ideal moment to shine a light on the only person in the marque’s history to have held the top job for longer. A larger-than-life character, Johnson was evidently a force to be reckoned with; it was his energy, enthusiasm, vision and dedication that made Rolls-Royce a household name around the world. Even today, he's still known as ‘the hyphen in Rolls-Royce’ – a fitting tribute to a truly remarkable man.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


A BIG PERSONALITY

The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls first met Henry Royce in Manchester on 4 May 1904. On his return to London, the first person he told about his historic encounter was his business partner, Claude Johnson.

Large-framed, broad-shouldered and extrovert, Johnson was 13 years Rolls’ senior. A gifted marketer and organiser, he began his career running scientific and trade exhibitions, then spent six lively years as the very first Secretary of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, which would become the Royal Automobile Club (RAC).

In 1903, he joined C S Rolls & Co, one of Britain’s first-ever car dealerships, which Rolls had established in January of the previous year. When Rolls and Royce set up their new company following their 1904 meeting, Johnson brought much-needed commercial acumen and financial backing to the fledgling enterprise.


MAKING HIS MARK

In 1906 Johnson became the first Commercial Managing Director of Rolls-Royce Limited, taking on the job of sales and marketing. A natural showman with a prodigious talent for generating publicity (for himself, as well as the company) it was a task to which he was ideally suited, and applied himself with both great zeal and tremendous success. It was he who persuaded Royce to refine the company’s offering to a single model, the 40/50 H.P., which became world-famous under the name Johnson coined for it – the Silver Ghost. It was Johnson who also overcame Royce’s numerous objections and convinced him of the virtues of offering to supply every Rolls-Royce motor car with an official mascot. More than a century later, the Spirit of Ecstasy, designed by the sculptor Charles Sykes, remains one of the world’s most recognisable and desirable brand emblems.


A FRIEND INDEED

In 1911, after years of accumulated stress and overwork, Royce’s health collapsed. As part of his recuperation, Johnson took him on an extended road trip through Europe to Egypt. During a stop in the South of France on the return journey, Royce became enchanted with the tiny hamlet of Le Canadel, near Nice. Johnson knew his man, and promptly bought a parcel of land, where he commissioned a new house for Royce, plus a smaller villa for visiting draughtsmen and assistants. For the rest of his life, Royce (very sensibly) spent his winters working from home at Le Canadel, and from 1917, summers at his beloved Elmstead in West Wittering, West Sussex.


‘THE HYPHEN IN ROLLS-ROYCE’

Johnson remained in charge of Rolls-Royce until his death in 1926, at the age of 61. His 20 years at the helm make him the longest-serving chief executive in the company’s history. His influence on the marque was wide-ranging, profound and indelible; indeed, such was his pivotal importance to its growth and success, he is still known today as ‘the hyphen in Rolls-Royce’.


WORTHY SUCCESSORS

The job title of Rolls-Royce’s most senior executive changed over time. Johnson was Commercial Managing Director; those who followed him were referred to as Chairman, then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – the designation still in use today. Of Claude Johnson’s successors in the years prior to the present-day Goodwood era, two in particular stand out for their lasting contributions to the company’s identity and commercial success.


DRIVEN TO SUCCEED

Ernest Hives worked as Charles Rolls’ chauffeur, then in the workshop at C S Rolls & Co, before joining Rolls-Royce as an experimental tester in 1908. In this capacity, he took part in the 15,000-mile endurance test of 1907, and the famous 1911 London to Edinburgh run with the cars locked in top gear only; in the same year, he became the first to exceed 100mph in a Silver Ghost (chassis 1701). He also headed up the Rolls-Royce works team, again with Silver Ghost cars, on the legendary 1913 Alpine Trial, which cemented Rolls-Royce’s reputation as ‘the best car in the world’.

Armed with the in-depth engineering knowledge he gained on these events, Hives set up a fully-fledged experimental department, which helped develop Rolls-Royce’s aero engines as well as its automotive products. In 1937 he was appointed a Board Director and General Works Manager; his most significant act was to split the company’s car (chassis) and aero engine operations into two independent entities, which remains the case to this day. During the Second World War, Hives oversaw production of some 160,000 Merlin aero engines; he was also a staunch and early champion of the emerging jet-engine technology.

In 1946, Hives became Managing Director and in 1950, Chairman of the Board. The man who at 17 had been Charles Rolls’ chauffeur was now head of his former employer’s eponymous company. He retired in 1957.


A COMPLETE CHANGE

In 1945, Dr Frederick Llewellyn Smith – known simply as ‘Doc’ – was given the daunting job of converting Rolls-Royce’s factory in Crewe from its wartime role making Merlin aero engines to civilian car production. To his role as a Main Board Director and Managing Director of the Motor Car Division, he brought not only great organisational skills, but an uncanny knack of foreseeing future trends.

On a visit to the USA in 1950, he became convinced that the traditional British coachwork still being fitted to many Rolls-Royce chassis was hopelessly outdated, and that a ‘new look’ was urgently needed. Under his auspices, the marque produced the Silver Dawn and highly successful Silver Cloud, the first complete cars (chassis plus bodies) ever to be designed and built in a Rolls-Royce factory. Even these pioneering models were fairly conventional: it would be with the Silver Shadow that his bold vision was finally realised with its chassis-less, semi-monocoque design. The advanced engineering was ahead of its time, and the Silver Shadow became the best-selling Rolls-Royce of the entire pre-Goodwood era. Popular with the workforce, Doc succeeded Ernest Hives as Chairman, a post he held until his retirement in 1967.


INTO THE MODERN ERA

In 2010, the baton passed to Torsten Müller-Ötvös, who has led Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for almost 14 years – the second-longest tenure of any Chief Executive since Johnson himself. Like his 20^th Century predecessors, Torsten has overseen a complete transformation of the brand and its products. Dawn, Wraith, Cullinan and the Black Badge family have all been introduced under his leadership, which has also seen a huge expansion in Bespoke and the renaissance of coachbuilding as a permanent capability. In 2022, Torsten guided the company into the future originally prophesied by Rolls in 1900 with the launch of the first all-electric Rolls-Royce, Spectre.

Torsten retires on 30 November 2023. His successor is Chris Brownridge, who joins Rolls‑Royce having previously served as CEO of BMW UK.

• Members of the 20-Ghost Club conclude their epic re-enactment of the 1913 Alpenfahrt in Salzburg
• Event marks the 110th anniversary of the 7-day, 2,600km trial that immortalised Rolls-Royce as ‘the best car in the world’
• Participants – including pre-1940 and contemporary Rolls-Royce motor cars – closely followed the original Alpenfahrt route over some of Europe’s highest roads
• Inaugural ‘Inspiring Greatness Trophy’ presented by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, echoing the prizes awarded to the all-conquering Rolls-Royce Works team in 1913

“The dominant performance by the Silver Ghosts of the Rolls-Royce Works team at the 1913 Alpenfahrt confirmed Rolls-Royce as ‘the best car in the world’. This wonderful re-enactment, marking the 110^th anniversary of that landmark event, is a tribute to their achievements, and to the engineering excellence of these historic Rolls-Royce motor cars. That so many examples remain not only fully operational, but able to undertake the same extraordinary endeavours they did more than a century ago is a testament to their devoted owners’ meticulous care and attention. These remarkable people and their magnificent motor cars inspire greatness every time they take to the road; I’ve been honoured to be part of this unique adventure.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


The participants in the 110th anniversary re-enactment of the 1913 Alpenfahrt, comprising members of the 20-Ghost Club (the world’s oldest Rolls-Royce owners’ club and devoted exclusively to models built before 1940) make a triumphant return to Salzburg after a 16-day, 2,600km odyssey through the Alps. Members were accompanied on part of their adventure by Bespoke examples of the marque’s Ghost and Black Badge Ghost models, created at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, which celebrates its own 20th anniversary this year.

The 2023 rally closely followed the route of the original event, taking in some of the highest roads in Europe. Among the cars taking part were Silver Ghosts, including one of the original motor cars that formed part of the original 1913 Works Team that helped seal Rolls-Royce’s reputation as ‘the best car in the world’.

Although today’s drivers were engaged in a more leisurely tour – rather than a fiercely fought contest between powerful commercial and sporting rivals – Rolls-Royce Motor Cars added a further touch of competitive authenticity by awarding its inaugural ‘Inspiring Greatness Trophy’. Judged and presented by Ken Forbes and Nick Naismith, it recognises the 20-Ghost Club member who most perfectly embodies the marque’s central value, ‘Inspiring Greatness’.

• Rolls-Royce marks the 110th anniversary of its emphatic win at the first-ever Spanish Grand Prix on 15 June 1913
• Silver Ghosts took first and third places in the 192-mile race, run over tough, mountainous terrain north of Madrid
• Team tactics and personal sacrifice secured first place for Don Carlos de Salamanca, the marque’s new agent in the Spanish capital
• Third place taken by Eric Platford, who would lead the Rolls-Royce Works Team to further success at the fabled 1913 Alpenfahrt later the same month
• An early example of the marque Inspiring Greatness in its owners and staff

 
“Rolls-Royce’s dominance of long-distance trials in the early 20th Century is well-known; but motor racing, especially in continental Europe, was also crucial in securing the marque’s reputation for performance and reliability. Today, we look back on the Silver Ghost’s victory in the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix on 15 June 1913, which was a triumph not only of Henry Royce’s technology, but also of team spirit and self-sacrifice.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Today, Rolls-Royce marks the 110th anniversary of the 1913 Spanish Grand Prix in which Silver Ghosts took first and third places – a technical and tactical domination that would set the template for the marque's legendary triumph at the 1913 Alpenfahrt a few weeks later.

It was a victory built on three foundations: the Silver Ghost’s overwhelmingly superior engineering and performance; deliberate team tactics executed to perfection; and the self-sacrifice of one of Rolls-Royce’s most experienced and devoted employees.


RACING AHEAD

In the early 20th Century, endurance trials were the principal means for motor manufacturers, including luxury marques like Rolls-Royce, to demonstrate their products’ capabilities. Rolls-Royce had an enviable record in these gruelling tests, having demolished the field in a series of blue riband events including the 15,000-mile Scottish Reliability Trial in 1907, and the legendary run from London to Edinburgh in 1911, which was completed entirely in top gear.

During the same period, motor-racing was also rapidly growing in both sophistication and popularity. In 1906, France staged its first Grand Prix, under the auspices of the Automobile Club de France, of which the Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, a successful motor-racing pioneer himself, had been a member since the age of 18.

As a rule, the company preferred trials to racing; but by 1913, three years after Rolls’ tragic early death, managing director Claude Johnson was keen to boost sales in Europe, and saw Continental racing as another important promotional opportunity.

The company therefore entered two Silver Ghosts in the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix, to be held on 15 June 1913.


HIGH ENDEAVOURS

The Spanish Grand Prix appealed to Rolls-Royce because it was a test of endurance and reliability – at which the Silver Ghost naturally excelled – not just raw speed.

The 192-mile course comprised three laps and included two formidable passes in the rugged Guadarrama mountains, northwest of Madrid. It was open exclusively to four-seater touring cars, which had to be fitted with mudguards, lamps, hoods and two spare tyres. Bonnets were sealed, and no water could be added to the radiator once the race was under way, despite a shade temperature well above 30°C at the start in La Granja.

Two modified Silver Ghosts were among the 17 starters. The first was owned and (against the company's express wishes) driven by Don Carlos de Salamanca y Hurtado de Zaldivar, later Marqués of Salamanca, who had recently become Rolls-Royce’s new agent in Madrid.

The second was a company-owned Silver Ghost driven by Eric Platford, one of Rolls-Royce’s most experienced and dedicated engineers, who had been responsible for many of the marque’s previous trials successes.


STRATEGY AND SACRIFICE

Three hours into the race, Platford had built up a commanding lead of more than 20 minutes. But this was a hard-headed commercial undertaking, not just a sporting challenge, and Platford was racing under strict instructions. Setting aside his own personal ambitions, he therefore pulled over and allowed Don Carlos de Salamanca to pass him. The company’s Madrid agent went on to win his home nation’s first-ever Grand Prix race in a time of 3 hours, 34 minutes and 12 seconds, at an average speed of 54mph.

Sadly for Platford, his selfless manoeuvre also opened the door for another rival, the Marqués de Aulencia in a Lorraine-Dietrich, who took second place just three minutes ahead of him ­– a very narrow margin in an age when races could still be won or lost by hours.


JUST REWARDS

Platford's sacrifice did not go unrewarded, however. After the race, he drove his car to Madrid, where he received a congratulatory telegram from Claude Johnson; he was later awarded a holiday in Venice, partly as a gift and partly to escape the inevitable press attention. He also received two gold watches by way of compensation: one presented by the Rolls-Royce directors ­– and the other by a very grateful Don Carlos de Salamanca.


ON TO THE ALPENFAHRT

The 1913 Spanish Grand Prix victory came just a week before the start of the 1913 Alpenfahrt, the daunting 1,600-mile trial through the Alps. Platford, as team manager, would lead the Rolls-Royce Works Team to a clean sweep of the top four places, sealing the Silver Ghost's reputation, described in the media as 'the best car in the world'. In his team spirit, dedication, selflessness, courage and constant pursuit of excellence, he perfectly exemplifies the ethos of Inspiring Greatness, which continues to resonate at the heart of the marque today.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks the 110th anniversary of its successes in the Alpine Trial in 1913
• Original trial event spanned eight days and 2,600 kilometres
• Marque’s dominance of event cast Silver Ghost’s reputation as 'the best car in the world'

• Rolls-Royce looks back on the characters, cars and conditions that made automotive history
  
  
  

“At the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, we design and hand-build what many call ‘the best car in the world’. That title was first bestowed on Rolls-Royce 110 years ago, following the Silver Ghost’s total domination of the daunting Alpine Trial in 1913. As custodians of this unique legacy, we proudly uphold the exceptional design and engineering excellence that made those early Rolls-Royces so successful. These exquisite examples of our founders’ art are a true inspiration; thanks to the skilled care and attention today’s proud owners lavish on these astonishing motor cars, we are still able to experience and enjoy their remarkable attributes. The Silver Ghost’s unequalled marriage of performance, strength, reliability, technological innovation, driver engagement and comfort provides a template for everything we do more than a century later.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks the 110th anniversary of its success in the Alpine Trial in 1913 – an event whose significance in Rolls-Royce’s legend cannot be overstated. It was this challenge, held over eight days and 2,600km, that established Rolls-Royce's reputation as ‘the best car in the world’ – a crown it retains to this day. Rolls-Royce looks back on the characters, cars and conditions that helped make automotive history.


A DAUNTING CHALLENGE – AND UNMISSABLE OPPORTUNITY

From its foundation in 1904, Rolls-Royce immediately earned an enviable reputation for quality and reliability. This was cemented in a faultless performance by the new 40/50 hp, or Silver Ghost as it came to be known, in the 1907 Scottish Reliability Trials, followed by a peerless demonstration at the famous 1911 London to Edinburgh Top Gear Trial and Brooklands 100mph Run.

These endeavours earned Rolls-Royce the soubriquet ‘the best British car’. However, for energetic, ambitious managing director Claude Johnson, who described himself as the hyphen in Rolls-Royce, this was merely the beginning. He wanted to conquer the European market and knew that success in a high-profile continental event was the key. The 1913 Alpine Trial would provide precisely the opportunity he was looking for.


PERFECTLY PREPARED

Johnson personally selected a Rolls-Royce Works Team, with Eric Platford – one of the company’s most trusted employees and former mechanic to Charles Stewart Rolls himself – as manager. The specially prepared Silver Ghosts would be driven by Curt Friese, the marque’s representative in Austria, experienced Alpine driver Jock Sinclair, and EW Hives, a senior member of the Experimental Department at Derby and the first man to drive the Silver Ghost at 101mph.

Johnson also invited an enthusiastic privateer Silver Ghost owner, James Radley, to act as the team’s pacesetter.

The Works cars were meticulously prepared for the hazards of a springtime crossing of the Alps. Then as now, these included extreme temperatures, high altitudes, punishing gradients and vertiginous descents – but all without the benefit of the modern road surfaces of today.

The most significant technical modifications to the Silver Ghosts included a new four-speed gearbox with a special low gear, strengthened chassis and suspension, a larger main fuel tank together with a reserve, and a new starting system that could get the engine running in under a minute even in freezing temperatures.

After a successful reconnaissance mission in May – in which the cars overcame appalling conditions with perfect composure – the team travelled to Vienna for the start of the Alpine Trial on 22 June 1913.


DAY 1 (260 MILES, MAXIMUM ELEVATION 4,000 FT)

As the most powerful vehicles taking part, the Silver Ghosts were sent off first, led as planned by James Radley. Starting at 5.00am, Radley crossed the first day’s finish line in a little over eight hours, followed 45 minutes later by the rest of the Works Team. No other cars came near to matching their pace, and even this relatively straightforward stage saw the event’s first retirements.


DAY 2 (262 MILES, MAXIMUM ELEVATION 5,700 FT)

The second day saw the competitors tackle the oldest road over the Alps, the Tauren Pass, which rose 2,900 ft in just 12 miles with a maximum gradient of 27.9%. Compounded by atrocious weather and road conditions, the task proved impossible for many. The Silver Ghosts, however, sailed over at half-throttle, with Radley averaging 25mph and never falling below 17mph, even on the steepest slopes.


DAY 3 (246 MILES)

On a much easier, largely level run finishing at the shores of Lake Garda, the Rolls-Royce team led from the start, with Radley complaining about the slow pace set by the officials’ car in front.


DAY 4 (192 MILES, MAXIMUM ELEVATION 7,400FT)

Stage four took the teams over the Dolomites and included the Trial’s highest point, the Pordoi Pass. Rain soon turned to heavy snow, but the Rolls-Royce team were undaunted and took the first four places on the day.


DAY 5 (205 MILES, MAXIMUM ELEVATION 3,500 FT)

Despite freezing conditions, the Works Team again led from start to finish on a long drive through southern Austria via steep, rugged and copiously hair-pinned roads including the Wurzen and Perdils passes to the port city of Trieste.


DAY 6 (242 MILES, MAXIMUM ELEVATION 3,500 FT)

After a rest day in Trieste, the teams took on the steepest pass of the entire event – the Loibl, which gained 2,300 ft in just three miles – en route to the final overnight stop in Klagenfurt, where the Rolls-Royce team completed another clean sweep. Radley reduced the record time for the ascent from six-and-a-half minutes to just five, delighting onlookers by taking a drink as he rounded the final hairpin.


DAY 7 (260 MILES, MAXIMUM ELEVATION 5,000FT)

Between Klagenfurt and the finish in Vienna lay the notorious Stubalpe Pass. The road included 125 gullies that drained water across the road and could only be negotiated at walking pace. As usual, the Silver Ghosts were untroubled and led onto the fast, final stretch to Vienna, where Radley hit 70mph on three occasions.

However, as they passed through the village of Guntramsdorf, Jock Sinclair’s Silver Ghost was struck by a speeding car driven by a non-competitor and forced into a telegraph pole. After repairing the near-side front wheel and tyre, Sinclair limped into Vienna in his one functioning (third) gear. It was the first and only time the team failed to take the first four positions in the event.


UNDISPUTED CHAMPIONS

Of the 46 starters, only 31 reached Vienna. The Rolls-Royce cars’ outstanding speed, strength and reliability made them the event’s unrivalled stars. This earned their drivers the most prestigious individual prizes, presented by Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria. Radley received a special prize from the city of Trieste.

The marque’s exceptional performance drew universal praise and admiration across the automotive world. Of perhaps even greater importance to Claude Johnson, this success translated into European sales that quickly grew to match those in the UK.

Although the Alpine Trials continued until 1973, Rolls-Royce never again entered a Works Team; there was no need. The title of ‘the best car in the world’ had been won – and would never be relinquished.


A LASTING LEGACY

The Silver Ghost remains arguably the most famous Rolls-Royce ever made. That so many examples remain not only in perfect working order, but able to undertake the same extraordinary endeavours they did over a century ago is a testament to their proud owners’ care and attention. These devoted enthusiasts play a central role in conserving and celebrating this priceless automotive heritage, and are an inspiration to all who know and love historic Rolls-Royce motor cars.

But masterpieces like those participating in the anniversary reenactment also represent part of a larger legacy. Around 80% of all Rolls-Royce motor cars ever made are still in existence and in active service – a lasting, tangible monument to our founders’ skill, vision, technical expertise and relentless pursuit of perfection.

As their successors, the team at the contemporary Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, which marks its own 20^th anniversary in 2023, are the fortunate custodians of that indelible legacy. Every motor car hand-built at Goodwood today upholds the standards for performance, strength, reliability, comfort, driver experience and engineering excellence first established by the Silver Ghost, and recognised and respected around the world ever since.