Rolls Royce Cars
Pictures of Rolls Royce cars from car shows, car museums and classic car auctions across the U.S.
Rolls Royce Pages
Rolls-Royce Automobiles By Year
Rolls-Royce Automobiles By Model
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Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost - 1906 to 1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom I - 1925 to 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom II - 1929 to 1936 Rolls-Royce 20/25 - 1929 to 1936 Rolls-Royce 25/30 Rolls-Royce Phantom III - 1936 to 1939 Rolls-Royce Wraith - 1938 to 1939 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith - 1946 to 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn - 1949 to 1955 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV - 1950 to 1956 |
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud - 1955 to 1966 Rolls-Royce Phantom V - 1959 to 1968 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow - 1965 to 1980 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI - 1968 to 1991 Rolls-Royce Corniche - 1971 to 1996 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit - 1980 to 1989 Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph - 1998 to 2002 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur Rolls-Royce Phantom - 2003 to Present |
Rolls Royce Cars Pictures
Brief Rolls Royce History
Frederick Henry Royce was an engineer trained in the British electric power industry. He began tinkering with motor cars in 1902 and soon decided he could build a better car himself. By April 1, 1904, he had a running twin-cylinder car on the road and began production on a modest scale.
Charles Stewart Rolls, 14 years his junior, was born to Lord and Lady Llangattock and was educated at Cambridge University. He became fond of bicycle racing and took to motor racing in 1899 with a de Dion-Bouton tricycle. In 1902, with his father's backing, he began importing French cars to London and selling them. In the course of his business, he tested a Royce car; his friend Henry Edmunds, a pioneer motorist and founder of the Royal Automobile Club, arranged for him to meet Henry Royce over lunch in May 1904.
The two men hit it off very well, and Rolls took on the selling of Royce's entire output. The first Rolls-Royce car was shown at the Paris Salon in December 1904, and by 1905, both three- and four-cylinder cars were in production. In 1906, Rolls canceled all his other franchise arrangements and devoted himself entirely to the sales of Rolls-Royce cars. It was at this time that the two men's businesses were merged as Rolls-Royce, Ltd.
The Rolls-Royce radiator mascot, "The Spirit of Ecstacy", was designed by illustrator/sculptor Charles Sykes and debuted in 1911. The Rolls-Royce grille and mascot are covered by Britian's Protection of Monuments Act.
1912-1913 - Alpine Trials helped find weak spots in the engineering allowing "the best car in the world" to be even better.
1916 - A report in The Times told of the perfect reliability of the armoured car service in the Egyptian desert, where the cars, all Rolls-Royces, moved to timetable and engine breakdowns were unknown. "The cars have run over thousands of miles of the roughest desert, and the complete absence of engine trouble is a triumph for British workmanship."
1965 - Siver Shadow introduced. If the box type form was something of a shock to Rolls-Royce traditionalist after the smooth lines of the Cloud, there were much more radical changes under the skin: all independent self levelling suspension, disk brakes and a monocoque structure. In one fell swoop Rolls-Royce had entered the modern era.
In 1971, Rolls-Royce Ltd., was nationalized by the British Government because of the pending financial collapse of Rolls-Royce, due mostly to the money spent on the development of the RB211 jet aircraft engine. In 1973, the government sold off the motor car business by forming Rolls-Royce Motors and Rolls-Royce Plc to concentrate on the aero industry. In this reorganization, Rolls-Royce Plc maintained ownership of the trademarks of the Rolls-Royce name, logos, mascot, and grille shape.
Vickers purchased the Rolls-Royce Motors company in 1980 which they operated using the Rolls-Royce name, logo, mascot and grille shape under a license agreement with Rolls-Royce, Plc, the aircraft-engine manufacturer. In 1998 Vickers put the company up for sale.
Volkswagen out-bid BMW for the Rolls-Royce Motors assets but, in an odd twist, Rolls-Royce Plc decided to sell the license for the use of the Rolls-Royce name to BMW. Volkswagen had purchased the rights to use the "Spirit of Ecstacy" mascot and grille shape and the Bentley name and logos, but not the right to use the Rolls-Royce name. VW claimed it was only interested in the Bentley which was outselling Rolls-Royce by almost double.
Volkswagen and BMW came to an agreement whereby Volkswagen would purchase engines from BMW and rights to use the Rolls-Royce name and logo until the end of 2002. Volkswagen built its last Rolls-Royce in August 2002, ending nearly sixty years of Rolls-Royce manufacturing tradition at the Crewe, England facility.
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