Both today and 100 years ago, “What is the World's Best Car?” The answer to the question has not changed: Rolls-Royce. Rolls-Royce, which produces very luxurious and expensive cars, has been defining the pinnacle of the automotive industry since 1904.
Founded by engineer Henry Royce and the UK's first motor vehicle dealer, Charles Rolls, Rolls-Royce aimed for the best in the automobile frenzy of the turn of the previous century. For Rolls-Royce, which produces personalized cars, many of the habits of those days continue today. Now let's go back to some history and remember what the "World's Best Car Brand" did.
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, OBE (27 March 1863 – 22 April 1933) was an English engineer famous for his designs of car and aeroplane engines with a reputation for reliability and longevity. With Charles Rolls (1877 – 1910) and Claude Johnson (1864 – 1926), he founded Rolls-Royce.
While the Rolls-Royce brand consists of the combination of the surnames of Henry Royce and Charles Rolls, the hyphen (-) sign symbolizes the loyalty and devotion between the two and under no circumstances can the name of the brand be written without hyphenation.
The first automobile produced by Henry Royce dates back to 1904 and its name is Royce 10. Charles Rolls, who saw the vehicle and liked it very much, proposes to continue this business by establishing a partnership with Henry Royce. After this model, which has 4 different power levels in its 2, 3, 4 and 6-cylinder engines, the first model bearing the Rolls-Royce brand is the Rolls-Royce 10 HP and is introduced at the 1904 Paris Motor Show. Rolls-Royce 40/50 models are introduced in the next 2 years. The gray car driven by Claude Johnson, one of the company executives, soon became a phenomenon after the unofficial model name, when it started to be referred to as the Silver Ghost by the press and the public. Rolls-Royce 40/50 models, produced in approximately 6,000 units, also provide the infrastructure for the first armored British car used in both world wars.
Rolls-Royce was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester, United Kingdom by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's reputation established with his cranes they quickly developed a reputation for superior engineering by manufacturing the "best car in the world".
There are certain success stories in the British brand's being the "Best Car in the World". Early cars were not considered reliable due to their constant breakdown and repair difficulties. Rolls-Royce relied on its quality to prove otherwise. In 1907, the spotlight began to rise above the vehicle when a Silver Ghost traveled 27 times without stopping between London and Glasgow, leaving 14,371 miles behind. Rolls-Royce, which received the title of "The Best Car in the World" after this great success, still continues to produce vehicles with this motto.
After the Silver Ghost, the smaller and more affordable Twenty Series was introduced with the effect of World War I. When the dates showed 1925, the Phantom took the place of a legend and today, the continuity of this model name continues with the Phantom VIII. In the 1930s, the Phantom III, the first V12-powered Rolls-Royce, was introduced.
In the 1930s, vehicles using the Rolls-Royce engine began to break speed records on land and water. While Sir Malcolm Campbell reached 438 km/h in his Bluebird vehicle in 1933, he was able to reach up to 445.5 km/h in his subsequent trials with the Rolls-Royce, which had 2,300 HP in its 36.7-liter V12 engine. In 1937, this time 502,444 km/h was reached with a double Rolls-Royce "R" engine vehicle named Thunderbird under the pilot of George Eyston. On the water, Sir Henry Segrave held the record for a long time by reaching over 190 km/h on his boat named Miss England II with Rolls-Royce "R" engines.
II. Rolls-Royce, which continued its activities in the military field with the start of World War II and produced the best aircraft engines in the world, made innovations in production techniques with the end of the war. In 1938 the first Wraith hit the road. While the production of custom bodywork continued, the need for standardization in this area started to emerge with the increasing sales numbers. Rolls-Royce, which started working with the newly established pressed metal factory in those years, was building Silver Dawn with the panels coming from this factory when the dates showed 1949.
Rolls-Royce's Phantom series went into its 6th generation in 1968 and was produced until 1992. Silver Cloud and Silver Shadow accompanied the Phantom Series, which serves the world's most important royals. Especially Silver Shadow enabled the brand to reach a much wider audience for 15 years, from 1965 to 1980.
The Silver Shadow, which was produced in approximately 30 thousand units, also gave its platform to the Corniche, which is considered the world's most luxurious open-top 4-seater for 29 years without interruption. During this period, an alternative coupe model called the Camargue took its place on the roads.
When the dates came to 1971, Rolls-Royce's automobile department, which had liquidity problems caused by newly produced aircraft engines, transferred to a limited company named Vickers as of 1980. The inclusion of BMW in this tender due to the agreement, which was sold to Volkswagen Group in 1998 but did not cover certain parts of the company, paved the way for a new war in automotive history. 5 years after this date, the Phantom VII, developed by BMW on its own terms, once again showed how the ultra-luxury sedan market should be. Volkswagen Group, on the other hand, sealed the deal by acquiring Bentley. The Phantom VII, which was produced completely from scratch instead of vehicles such as the Silver Spur and Silver Seraph, which dates back to 1980, restarted a long-forgotten tradition with its rear-opening rear doors.
Rolls-Royce, which continues on its way with a completely new understanding with the new millennium, but does not compromise on the title of being the "Best Car in the World", has revealed the Ghost as a more affordable alternative to the Phantom VII. More modest in size and price than the Phantom VII, the Ghost was still far more luxurious than almost any car in the automotive industry. Ghost, which has been a very powerful and smooth super sedan since 2009 with its 6.6-liter twin-turbocharged V12, also has a long chassis version.
Today, Rolls-Royce has a wider and more customizable product line than ever before. Except for the Phantom VIII, Rolls-Royce is experiencing its golden ages with Ghost, Dawn, Phantom Drophead, Wraith, Phantom Coupe, and finally Cullinan, the brand's first SUV. A single person paints the final sideline of each of the Rolls-Royce models, which are currently completely hand-assembled in the UK. While 65 percent of the Rolls-Royce models produced to date are still in use, they are also guaranteed to provide service all over the world. Not just a car, the Rolls-Royce remains the most luxurious means of transportation you can travel on the road.