Some Interesting Facts about Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars

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Some Interesting Facts

Nostradamus said in 1548.
"From Albion's shore shall come a marvelous conveyance, a
carriage silincieux bearing the arms of Rolles De Roi."

The first 10 hp Rolls-Royce was sold for £395...Today it is worth over £250,000

More than six out of ten of all Rolls-Royce Motor cars built are still roadworthy

At the Rolls-Royce factories in Crewe and London the cars are always referred to as Royces.

They are never called Rollers

The Rolls-Royce radiator grille is made entirely by hand and eye - no measuring instruments are used

It takes one man one day to make a Rolls-Royce radiator, and then five hours are spent polishing it

The Rolls -Royce radiator was not registered as a trademark until 1974

It takes over 800 man-hours to make the body of a Phantom VI

During the First World War Rolls-Royce made rifles

You will never open an ashtray in a modern Rolls-Royce and find a cigarette end.

It empties automatically

A Rolls-Royce does not break down. It 'fails to proceed.'

Notices have been hung around the factory bearing the legend: 'Beware silent cars.'

Even today every Rolls-Royce engine is completely hand built

The cooling capacity of the air-conditioning system in the Silver Spirit is equivalent to that of

30 domestic refrigerators

No one is certain who designed the Rolls-Royce radiator grille or the interlinked RR badge

The hydraulic tappets on Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars are given a natural finish

of a 16-millionth of an inch

The oldest known Rolls-Royce still on the road is the 1904 10hp owned by Mr Thomas Love Jr of

Scotland

Rolls-Royce did not make a complete car until after the Second World War. Before that they made only

chassis, the bodies being added by outside coachbuilders

Sir Henry Royce's first job was a newspaper delivery boy for W H Smith & Son Ltd

Sir Henry Royce was always known as 'R' at the factory. The practice of addressing people by their initials,

especially on written memorandums, is still continued at the factory

In 1949 an Italian owner, seeking permission to modify his Rolls-Royce, commissioned a seance to

call up Henry Royce's spirit. Rolls-Royce legend has it that the advice from beyond the veil was:

"Consult your authorised distributor"

Examine the coachline that extends the full length of the Silver Spirit, you may be surprised to learn that it is
applied by hand. This unerring line is 15' 6" long.

At one time, Rolls-Royce engines held World Speed Records in the Air, on Land and on Water,
simultaneously.

It is possible that Rolls-Royce Motors is the best known British company name in the World. Letters have
been received from remote corners of the globe addressed to the Royal Family, care of Rolls-Royce, England.

There are 27 Electric Motors in every Silver Spirit.

The Vicar of St Marys, Nantwich, took a Rolls-Royce into his church and blessed it, along with fruit &
vegetables at the Harvest Festival service. A member of the congregation remarked "It's going in for it's first service".

The badge on the Rolls-Royce was changed from Red to Black not, as popularly

believed to commemorate Henry Royce's death, but because Royce himself decided

Black was aesthetically more appropriate. Some customers complained that the red badge often clashed with the

colour of the car. The Prince of Wales was particularly outspoken on the subject.

Every piece of glass in a Silver Spirit is given a final polish with powdered pumice of a fineness normally used for polishing optical lenses

Just inside the main entrance to the offices at the Roll-Royce factory in Crewe, there is a bust of Henry Royce facing one of Charles Rolls. For many years the bust of Royce stood in No 1 shop at the Derby factory and contained his ashes, until they were sent to Alwalton church were Royce had been christened.

The 4 final polishings on some gearbox components was not done with jewellers rouge (which is too coarse) but fine ground oat husks

Although he designed some of the great aero engines of all time, Royce never travelled in an aircraft.

'I have only one regret' said Royce as he lay dying, 'that I have not worked harder.'

After singing the praises of Rolls-Royce Cars over tea with Henry Royce, an aristocratic lady asked,

as an afterthought, 'but Sir Henry, what would happen if the factory at Derby produced a bad car?'

Sir Henry answered,

"Madam. the man on the gate would not let it out of the works."

Royce left £112,000 in his will, mostly to his faithful nurse, Ethel Aubin.

At the Crewe factory Rolls-Royce run an 'Employee Learning Centre' an initiative started by the company in 1994

and run by George Ellis, who's brief was to develop a learning culture throughout the factory. It was considered that the best way to do this was to encourage employees to learn non-voctional subjects entirely of their own choice, with all learning to be done outside of working hours and according to George it has been a huge success. George says, " This year a thousand employees will have been on courses as far apart as Golf lessons, Indian Cooking, Ballroom Dancing, Computer Basics, GCSE Maths and Mig Welding, all paid for by the company. Last year I enrolled an employee on a joinery course and he has since made a bed, this year he has enrolled on a Bricklaying course, he says he is going to build an extra bedroom to put the bed in!"

True or False

(Judge for yourselves)

Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos have lunch together in New York. Afterwards they pass a Rolls-Royce showroom and buy a Corniche each. Niarchos goes forward to pick up the bill. 'No, no, no, Stavros,' says Onassis,

'Let me get these - you paid for lunch.'

One of the first men to have a phone in his car was show-biz king Jack Hilton, shortly afterwards

( or so the story goes ), Lew Grade, anxious not to be left behind in the status race, also had one installed. Naturally, his first call was to the car of his arch rival. The devastating reply from Hylton's chauffeur; 'I'm sorry, Mr Hylton is on the other phone.'

That most eminent pillar of the British justiciary, The Late Lord Denning - who ought to speak the truth if any man should - told in after dinner speeches that after he was gazetted as Master of the Rolls, a lady wrote to him to 'arrange a service for her Corniche'