History of Rolls Royce

Symbol of the luxury on four wheels, today he visits our blog dedicated to the engine, Rolls Royce. British company dedicated to the construction of the most exclusive and elegant cars, also it is capable of making powerful engines for the air and naval industry.

• Rolls Royce; the United Kingdom.
• Founded in 1906 by Henry Royce and Charles Stewart Rolls.
• Emblematic models: Silver Ghost, Phantom I, II, III and IV, Silver Shadow, Corniche.
• Models in production: Dealerships, Phantom, Goodwood, Ghost.

In 1884 Henry Royce opened a workshop of mechanics and electricity of the motorcar. In 1904, of his factory of Manchester there was going out his first creation, a model called Royce. In May of the same year it met C.S. Rolls and they came to an agreement so that the last one was commercializing all the cars that Royce was making. In the contract it remained clear that the cars would be called Rolls Royce and that the exclusivity of his commercialization was relapsing into Rolls. The company was founded on March 15, 1906, and moved his facilities to Derby in 1908.

Silver Ghost, which was supported in production for 19 years, was the principal causer of the good reputation that the signature already acquired in his first years. Considering the strong demand, Rolls Royce, turned out to be forced to open a plant in the United States, specifically in Springfield, Massachusetts. The above mentioned factory opened his doors in 1921 and closed them in 1931 after making 1.701 motorcars.

In 1931, the company was bought by Bentley, whose economy could not overcome the big depression. Since then and until 2002, the models of both marks have been almost identical, it was possible only to differentiate them for the broilers of the radiators and some small detail more.

The British signature moved in 1946 to Crewe. After the economic disaster provoked by the development of the new turbojet RB211 for the aviation, Rolls Royce, was nationalized by the government in 1971. Two years later, the motorcars business separated of the mark as Rolls Royce Motors. In 1980, Vickers buys Rolls Royce to get rid of her in 1998, I joust when the tendency begins to grow for vehicles and marks inspired in the past.

The big marks of the industry went out in the hunting of Rolls Royce and although BMW was already giving him components, the elected one was Volkswagen that offered 430 million pounds sterling for the British signature. Nevertheless, the division of engines of aviation decided to sell the patents and licenses of the name and logotype of Rolls Royce to BMW and not to Volkswagen who had acquired the rights of the emblem of the mark “Spirit of Ecstasy” and of the design of the radiator. BMW paid 40 million pounds sterling for the logotype “RR“, for many the most valuable property of Rolls Royce.

After a series of agreements between both companies and from 2003, alone BMW might use the mark Rolls Royce, and Volkswagen the mark Bentley.

Images: Logo, Vehicles.

Related posts:

1. History of the motorcar: principal dates
2. Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, tuneado
3. Analysis of Rolls Royce Ghost