Rolls-Royce: interesting facts

So, what don’t you know about the famous luxury car brand Rolls-Royce? Well firstly, did you know that the chassis of Rolls’ first successful motor car – the 40/50 or ‘Silver Ghost’ – served as the basis for the original British armoured vehicle? The Rolls-Royce Armoured Vehicle (catchy name, huh?) was used by the British army throughout WWI.

The company has a very strange and complicated history of being bought, sold, split up, nationalised and re-privatised. The manufacturer was nationalised by the UK government in 1971 and then – just two years later – the car division separated as Rolls-Royce Motors. Rolls-Royce Ltd continued as a nationalised company before being privatized in 1987 as Rolls-Royce Plc. Some years later, Volkswagen AG got hold of the rights to the grill shape which, in 2003, was purchased by BMW. Confused? Same here.

Finally – and this is a real testament to both the build-quality and the enduring style and elegance of the cars – a staggering 65% of all Rolls-Royce automobiles ever produced are still on the road today and, bearing in mind they began producing cars at the turn of the century (20^th, that is!), that is a very impressive statistic!

(Source: rolls-royceandbentley.co.uk / wikipedia.org / ndtv.com / rolls-roycemotorcars.com / rolls-royce.com)