I found this great video review of a white Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I. According to the reviewer, “Heaven is in the details” and the Silver Cloud is testament to this.

iChauffeur have a similar Old English White Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II wedding car. The video above demonstrates just how a white Rolls-Royce can always find employment!

According to Wikipedia, “The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud was the main car manufactured by Rolls-Royce from April 1955 until March 1966. It replaced the Silver Dawn and was, in turn, replaced by the Silver Shadow. The design was a major change from the pre-war models and the highly derivative Silver Dawn. The main design work was by J. P. Blatchley.

What a superb design, the Silver Cloud II was very popular in the States. It also inspired the classic advertisement from David Ogilvy, “At 60 mph the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”.

The Silver Cloud II featured a new aluminium V8 engine, an engine that although highly refined over the years was still being fitted to Rolls-Royces manufactured in the 1990s! The new “baby Rolls” aka RR4 will also have a new engine. I wonder if they will still be using it in 30 years time?

The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé has helped Rolls-Royce achieve their best ever year. 2007 sales were up 25 per cent, compared to 2006, with Rolls-Royce selling 1010 cars. This is the first time sales reached four figures and the fourth successive sales increase since BMW took the helm in 2003.

75 per cent of sales were for the four door models – the Phantom and the Phantom Extended wheelbase, but it was the stunning Phantom Drophead Coupé, which was launched in the summer which really helped the volume increase.

“Everybody at Rolls-Royce is delighted with this tremendous result which marks our fifth anniversary in the best possible way,” said Ian Robertson, Chairman and Chief Executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “It confirms Rolls-Royce as the most desirable brand in the super luxury market and is a credit to the passion and dedication of our teams at Goodwood and around the world. The customer reaction to the Drophead Coupé has been astonishing, exceeding all our expectations.”

2008 looks like being another great year for the Goodwood based company. They plan to launch a two-door coupé model based on the Phantom. Looking further forward to 2010, the “baby Rolls-Royce” (codename RR4) will start competing against the Bentley Continental range.

Plans are being made to commission a statue of Sir Henry Royce in Knutsford, Cheshire. Rolls-Royce Motors support the idea for a lasting tribute to the great engineer to be constructed in Regents Street.

In 1962 a memorial window was dedicated to Sir Henry Royce in Westminster Abbey, the only time an engineer has been honoured at the Abbey.

The proposed statue in Knutsford will celebrate Henry Royce’s move to Brae Cottage, Legh Road, Knutsford, in 1898. The engineer often worked on his inventions in the cellar until the early hours.

Learn More

The Rolls-Royce clientele are demographically classified as high-net worth individuals. With an average bank balance of $30 million, the typical Rolls-Royce customer is from a very exclusive club. A club where quite simply money talks. Even at these rarified heights of wealth the Rolls-Royce customer may not always get what they want, as Bojan Pancevski writes in the Telegraph.

The idea of customising a Rolls-Royce is nothing new – the Spirit of Ecstasy was fashioned to help stop inappropriate mascots being appended to the front of Rolls-Royces. Some owners have even had Spitfire engines fitted to their “Rollers”. When John Lennon had his Phantom Rolls-Royce painted in psychedelic colours, one particularly outraged elderly lady beat the car with her umbrella, shouting, “You swine, you swine! How dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce.”

The fact is you don’t just buy a Rolls-Royce, you commission one.

Customising a Rolls-Royce is part of the whole Rolls-Royce experience. Early Rolls-Royces were just a chassis from which the Rolls-Royce customer could commission a coach builder to furnish the body. Companies such as Mulliner and Park Ward would build designs for these new motorised coaches. Each one unique and totally bespoke. With the new BMW lead Rolls-Royce selecting Mutec to be the only officially licensed company permitted to customise Rolls-Royce cars. They have signed a non-disclosure agreement and plan to open a showroom for their clientele in the near future. Along with bullet proofing and armour plating they also fashion purely cosmetic customisations.

However not all ideas are approved, no matter how lucrative. A gold plated Rolls-Royce Phantom is simply not in keeping with the Rolls-Royce marque – even if you are a multi gold disc winning rapper. A gold Phantom would show ‘poor taste’, not in keeping with the Rolls-Royce ethos. You can get Lincoln or Bentley to do a hot pink car – but not on a Rolls-Royce thank you very much.

The nouveau riche mainly from Russia, the Middle East and the Far East have been knocking on Mutecs door since they got the Rolls-Royce approval. American rapper, Nelly has had a mink fur interior installed to his Phantom Rolls-Royce while about 100 other customers have had everything from footbaths for Muslims or extra long wheelbases to accommodate leggy Russian girlfriends. It seems that for 2008 a customised Rolls-Royce is the thing to have for anyone with deep enough pockets.

One lucky and extremely deserving person, Mr James Kilby has won a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Mr Kilby has been raising money for the Macmillan Cancer Support and on the 7th of December received a very exciting phone call, he had won a 1968 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in a raffle!

Mr Kilby is planning to sell the car after Christmas, and some of the proceeds will help fund his future charity runs.

He writes, “Really need to sell the car soon, as I want to use some of the proceeds to fund my running for 2008, that way everything I raise will go to charity and no costs will have to come out, also it is a big car and I have limited space, so it will need a new lovng owner asap. If anyone is interested please contact me on my email that is on the justgiving website and I can give you more details.”

Read More

One of the most important engines ever, the Merlin was Sir Henry Royce’s final design. An aero engine which arguably changed the outcome of World War II. It was fitted to the legendary Spitfire fighter along with many other British aircraft including the Lancaster bomber as well as tanks. The American P-51 Mustang also later adopted this amazing engine. The massive engine produced over 1400 horsepower helped by it’s two-stage supercharger. Later generations would produce even more power.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom II was unveiled at the 1929 Olympia Motor Show. An evolution of the ‘New Phantom’ it featured an improved six-cylinder engine, transmission, hydraulic shock absorbers and under-slung semi-elliptic springs. Approximately 1767 Phantom II’s were produced. Only one however was fitted with the 27 litre Merlin V12 engine. Producing over 1100 horsepower with out a supercharger. This behemoth Rolls-Royce could out accelerate a 1958 Vanwall Grand Prix car!. The only comparable vehicle is a Merlin powered Phantom III now owned by American comedian Jay Leno.

This amazing Rolls-Royce has just been sold at the Al Wiseman collection auction for $412,500.

Last nights showing of the excellent The Nature of Britain BBC programme examined some interesting places and in particular for this viewer the Rolls-Royce factory roof in Goodwood.

Alan Titchmarsh MBE highlighted the plight of the skylark, a bird with a beautiful song, which in the wild would expect to see only one third of it’s chicks surviving as they are easy prey for hedgehogs, weazels and stoats. Some enterprising skylarks have found an ingenious means of keeping their nest out of harms way – by nesting on the green roof of the Rolls-Royce factory.

Designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, the architect of the Eden Project in Cornwall. The 60 million pound Rolls-Royce building features the largest green roof in Europe. One that nesting skylarks have taken full advantage of, and one that keeps them out of reach of many of their natural mammal predators.

The eight acre roof has been planted with sedum plants which have water-storing leaves which helps to foster insects, which in turn creates the perfect environment for nesting skylarks. It is hoped that the Rolls-Royce roof will help keep their beautiful bird song in full chorus over the rolling Sussex Downs.

Over 400,000 trees and shrubs have been planted in the Rolls-Royce grounds where even the man-made lake acts as a heat sink for the climate control systems in the office buildings, resulting in savings in air conditioning costs. Custom-made owl boxes are also being deployed to encourage the increase of barn owls, which are now a specially protected species in the UK.

BMW the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd, are renowned for their driving machines. But their Hydrogen 7 powered cars offer a glimpse of how eco-friendly travel will in the future be as luxurious as it is frugal. I hope that Rolls-Royce will be one of the first manufacturers to incorporate this technology, as soon as the fuel infrastructure is in place…

The world’s oldest Rolls-Royce sold at Bonhams on the 3rd of December 2007 for a record £3.2 million plus premium and tax (£3.5 million).

View details of the lot.

Sir Alan Sugar’s Bentley Continental S1, as owned by Sir Elton John fetched £130000 plus Premimum and tax.

View details of the lot.

Driving a Rolls-Royce Phantom is often a very rewarding experience. Wafting along in the two and a half tonne work of art, could hardly be called hard work. Yet it is a very large motor car, and finding parking spaces large enough to suit, is not always easy. However one Scottish owner of a Phantom has come up with a way of parking his Phantom anywhere he likes. He regularly parks it on the yellow lines just outside his office in Glasgow.

“Mr Love cheerfully admits he’s happy to pay the fines, as long as he can keep his car close to his office. “I feel I am doing the council a favour,” he said. “I am giving them a bit of revenue.”

The local council can’t do alot about it, the car is too heavy to be towed away. So the wealthy Mr Love just keeps paying the fines. As a chauffeur I couldn’t possibly afford to flout the law in this manner, but for well-heeled owners like Mr Love, it is quite affordable and apparently many Glaswegians like spotting his Rolls-Royce Phantom. “We like it. We think he brings a bit of class to the street.”

Read more from The Herald.

The word “bespoke” could have been crafted especially for Rolls-Royce. By their very nature, cars from the Rolls-Royce stable are exclusive and tailor-made. As Rolls-Royce say, “You don’t just buy a Rolls-Royce: you commission it, like a piece of fine art or a super yacht.”

The Rolls-Royce Phantom Tungsten is a perfect example of what one can ‘commission’ from the Goodwood factory. With styling cues taken from the 101EX concept car, the Tungsten features a brushed aluminium bonnet, seven-spoke forged aluminium wheels, a visible stainless-steel exhaust and ‘Xirallic’ Darkest Tungsten paintwork. These exterior highlights are themselves not the star of the show though, as you take a peek inside you’ll see Smoke Grey leather and Navy blue hide along with a full width metal fascia and bespoke treadplates, but as your gaze lifts vertically you’ll witness the “Starlight” headliner. Using over 800 fibre optic lights the ceiling creates the impression of a star-filled night sky.

To be sold in strictly limited quantities the Tungsten is an exceptional version, of an exceptional car.

Learn more about the Rolls-Royce Phantom Tungsten.

It has just been announced that six Tungsten Phantoms are already destined for the Middle East.