Rolls-Royce : "World's best car"

Sir Frederick Henry Royce (1863 - 1933) was a self made electrical engineer and was involved in making electrical fittings and electric cranes through his own company Royce Ltd. In 1902 , he bought a second hand Decauville car and was not satisfied with its performance and quality. He went about building his own car based on the Decauville car and created a 2-cylinder Royce 10 car in 1904  -

Charles Stewart Rolls (1877 - 1910) was form a rich family. In 1903 , he founded the C S Rolls and Co to import and sell Peugeot cars from France and Minerva cars from Belgium,  in England.

Charles Rolls was introduced to Henry Royce and they created Rolls- Royce Ltd in 1906 with an agreement that C S Rolls and Co will sell the entire production of Rolls-Royce Ltd. By 1907 , C S Rolls and Co was integrated in to Rolls-Royce Ltd.

The first and the most famous car from Rolls-Royce was Silver Ghost , launched in 1907 and continued in production till 1925.

The Silver Ghost did a non-stop 14371 miles gaining the name - "The best car in the world". 

Henry Royce was a perfectionist and the Rolls-Royce cars were known for their smoothness , reliability and quality. The company followed its founder's dictum of - "Take the best that exists and make it better".

1927 , the Silver Ghost gave way to the next generation of famous Rolls-Royce , the Phantom -

In 1931 , Rolls-Royce acquired Bentley Motors.

During the war , Rolls-Royce was forced to manufacture aero engines and were excelling in aircraft engines, creating successive airspeed records.

In 1971 , financial trouble led to nationalization of Rolls-Royce Ltd. In 1973, it was again de-nationalised , forming Rolls-Royce Motors for Automobiles and Rolls-Royce plc for aircraft engines.

In 1980 , the company was taken over by Vickers, an engineering company.

Rolls-Royce continued to manufacture classic cars which were used by the British Royalty and movie stars.

Some of the Rolls-Royce cars -

A 1979 Silver Shadow -

In 1998 Vickers sold off the Rolls-Royce Motors to BMW and Volkswagen in a complex deal. As per the deal, Volkswagen got the Rolls-Royce factory and the patented radiator grill design and BMW got the Rolls-Royce name and logo. This led Volkswagen not being able to use the Rolls-Royce name. After sustained negotiations , in 2003, the entire Rolls-Royce rights were transferred to BMW and now BMW owns Rolls-Royce.

Some of the Rolls-Royce cars , post BMW ownership -

2012 Rolls-Royce Ghost

2013 Rolls-Royce Wraith

The Rolls-Royce logo and hood ornament - the spirit of ecstasy.