Some Interesting Facts
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 arecalled 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
Notices
have been hung around the factory bearing the legend:
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 refridgerators
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
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 thecolour 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.
Although
he designed some of the great areo 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!"
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;
That
most eminent pillar of the British justiciary, Lord Denning - who ought
to speak the truth if any man should - tells 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'