ROLLS-ROYCE HERITAGE: FROM 1904 TO TODAY – AND BEYOND

This Press Kit provides an overview of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ unique, immensely rich heritage, from the first meeting in May 1904 between its founders, Sir Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, to its contemporary activities at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood. Please note, this is not a comprehensive history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars; instead of a strict chronology, it presents the marque’s heritage as a series of discrete eras, each defined by a significant technological shift, or a distinctive focus to the marque’s interests and products at that time.

To ensure brevity and avoid duplication, this document contains links to more detailed information on specific individuals, events, products and other aspects of Rolls-Royce heritage, including the ‘Makers of the Marque’ and ‘Models of the Marque’ series prepared for the marque’s 120th anniversary in 2024.



THE FOUNDERS

The life and career of Sir Henry Royce (27 March 1863 - 22 April 1933) is the classic rags-to-riches tale. From impoverished origins and with minimal formal education, he became a giant of 20th Century mechanical engineering. With his meticulous, enquiring mind and relentless pursuit of perfection in every aspect of his life, he was responsible for designs and technology that helped shape the world we live in now.

A highly-driven – some might say obsessive – man, Sir Henry Royce had a relentless tendency towards overwork, to the extent of seriously affecting his health, resulting in a life-threatening illness in 1902. After a recurrence in 1911, he built a house at Le Canadel in the south of France, where he spent the winters for the rest of his life; for the remainder of the year, he lived in several properties in the South of England. In 1917, he moved to his beloved ‘Elmstead’ in West Wittering, just a few miles from today’s Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood.

From the company’s foundation until his death in 1933, Royce personally created the initial concept for every mechanical item in every Rolls-Royce motor car. An instinctive, intuitive engineer, he had an uncanny ability to assess components purely by eye. He firmly believed that if something looked right, it probably was, and he was almost invariably proved correct.

The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 - 12 July 1910) was Sir Henry Royce’s opposite in almost every respect: aristocratic, well-connected and Cambridge-educated, his family wealth enabled him to indulge his twin passions for motor racing and aviation, becoming a leading pioneer in both fields. A founding member of the Royal Aero Club, he made over 170 flights as a balloonist; in 1910, he became the first pilot in history to fly a powered aircraft across the English Channel and back, non-stop.

In January 1902, he opened one of Britain’s first car dealerships, C. S. Rolls & Co., in Fulham, West London. A skilled engineer and enthusiast who understood motor cars intimately, he was also an astute businessman, with extensive connections in politics, industry, the media and the aristocracy, including royalty. It was his energy, acumen and racing successes that helped establish Rolls-Royce as the world’s pre-eminent luxury motor car maker.

In 1910, less than two months after his triumphant double Channel crossing, Rolls became the first Briton to lose his life in a powered aircraft when his Wright Flyer crashed during a competition at Bournemouth. He was just 32. It’s easy to forget that on his death, he and Henry Royce had worked together for a mere six years; it is tempting to wonder regretfully just how much more he, and they, might have accomplished.



THE ORIGIN ERA

Royce and Rolls were introduced by Henry Edmunds (20 March 1853 - 18 November 1927), who knew the former as a friend and business associate in Manchester, and the latter as a fellow member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club, or RAC).

Edmunds had been enormously impressed by Royce’s 10H.P. car, having driven it in the 1904 ‘Side Slip Trials’. He also knew Rolls was desperately looking for a high-quality, British-made car to sell in his thriving London dealership. He duly arranged a meeting and earned his place in history when, on 4 May 1904 at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, he announced: “Henry, may I introduce The Honourable Charles Rolls.”

On returning to London, Rolls told his business partner, Claude Goodman Johnson (24 October 1864 - 11 April 1926), that he had found ‘the greatest motor engineer in the world’ and would sell all the cars Royce could make. Their new venture was formally incorporated as Rolls-Royce Limited on 15 March 1906.

In his role as the company’s first commercial managing director, Johnson had a profound influence that is still evident today. He had an extraordinary gift for marketing and public relations. As well as devising the names for famous models, including Silver Ghost and Phantom, he commissioned what would become the world’s most recognisable, enduring and desirable mascot – the Spirit of Ecstasy. The famous figurine was created by sculptor and illustrator Charles Robinson Sykes (18 December 1875 - 6 June 1950), and is widely believed to be inspired by Eleanor Thornton (15 April 1880 - 30 December 1915), who was assistant to their mutual employer, the magazine publisher and motoring enthusiast The Hon. John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (10 June 1866 - 30 March 1929).



THE COACHBUILD ERA

Until 1949, Rolls-Royce motor cars were produced only as ‘rolling chassis’, equipped with an engine and drivetrain, on which a specialist coachbuilder then built bodywork to the customer’s specification. The rolling chassis did, however, include the bulkhead (the panel separating the engine compartment from the passenger cabin) and the radiator, which determined, at least in part, the finished motor car’s overall proportions.

Today, Rolls-Royce motor cars are still regarded as ‘the best cars in the world’ – an accolade first granted to the 40/50 H.P., better known by the name Claude Johnson conferred upon an early example, Silver Ghost. First sold in 1907, it was enormously successful, with almost 8,000 examples built in the UK and US over an 18-year period. That so many remain in full working order – and, indeed, regularly perform the same feats they achieved more than a century ago – is a lasting monument to Sir Henry Royce’s engineering genius.

In 1922, Royce produced his new 20 H.P. model. Known simply as ‘The Twenty’, it was the first Rolls-Royce designed expressly to be owner-driven rather than chauffeured. It was a huge technical leap forward: its straight six-cylinder engine would provide the template for Rolls-Royce engines right up to Silver Cloud in the 1950s.

Three years later, Rolls-Royce unveiled its first motor car to bear the fabled Phantom nameplate. Then, as now, it was intended to be the most magnificent, desirable and, above all, effortless motor car in the world – the ultimate expression of automotive excellence. The first ‘New Phantom’ would be followed by six further generations of body-on-chassis models, concluding with Phantom VI.



THE COMPETITIVE ERA

From the outset, Claude Johnson saw the immense promotional opportunities afforded by the gruelling, high-profile reliability trials that were the benchmark for early 20th Century motoring endeavours. In 1907, 40/50 H.P. chassis number 60551 – the original Silver Ghost– took a convincing victory in the Scottish Reliability Trial, covering some 2,000 miles without a single ‘failure to proceed’. To underline the motor car’s reliability, Johnson immediately arranged for it to be driven back and forth between London and Edinburgh continuously (except on Sundays), amassing nearly 15,000 miles – the first 4,000 of which he drove himself – and setting a new world endurance record.

In 1911, Rolls-Royce entered a new version of the Silver Ghost in an RAC-ratified London-Edinburgh reliability trial, a return run of almost 800 miles between the two capitals; to add to the challenge, the motor cars were locked in top gear from start to finish. Chassis number 1701 recorded an average speed of 19.59 mph, returning a then-unheard-of fuel efficiency of over 24 mpg; it achieved 78.26 mph on a half-mile speed test conducted soon afterwards and went on to become the first Rolls-Royce motor car in history to exceed 100 mph.

Perhaps Rolls-Royce’s greatest motorsport successes came in 1913. On 15 June, two Silver Ghosts contested the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix, a three-lap, 192-mile course taking in two formidable passes in the rugged Guadarrama mountains, northwest of Madrid. The race was won by the splendidly named Don Carlos de Salamanca y Hurtado de Zaldivar, later Marqués of Salamanca, who was Rolls-Royce’s agent in Madrid; third place went to Rolls-Royce test-driver Eric Platford (25 February 1883 - 20 November 1938), who had been responsible for many of the marque’s previous trials successes.

A week later, a Rolls-Royce Works Team of three Silver Ghosts, plus one privately-owned car prepared to the same standards, were on the start line for the 1913 Alpine Trial. Held over eight days and covering 2,600km, it started and finished in Vienna and included some of the highest mountain passes in Europe. The Silver Ghosts swept the board, taking the first four places overall in an event that saw only 31 of the 46 starters reach the finish. Although the Alpine Trials continued until 1973, Rolls-Royce never again entered a Works Team; but it did not need to; the title of ‘the best car in the world’ had been won – and would never be relinquished.



THE TRANSITION ERA

Rolls-Royce’s automotive and aerospace activities were formally split into separate divisions in the late 1930s by Ernest Hives (21 April 1886 – 24 April 1965), whose remarkable career would take him from working as The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls’ personal chauffeur to Chairman of the company. From 1939 to 1945, the marque concentrated entirely on aero engine production; when peace returned, it faced an entirely changed commercial landscape.

In 1946, Rolls-Royce launched Silver Wraith, the first of its new ‘Rationalised Range’ that shared common parts, a new engine that could be offered in straight-four, six- or eight-cylinder variants, and a single chassis that could be configured in variable dimensions. Like all its predecessors, Silver Wraith was a rolling chassis, but in 1949, the company produced its first complete Rolls-Royce motor car – Silver Dawn. This marked a profound change for the marque, reflecting the realities of the post-war market but also giving it greater control than ever before over the design of its motor cars.

Over the following decades, Rolls-Royce would continue to offer some models, notably Phantom, as rolling chassis; the last coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the pre-Goodwood era was Phantom VI, built between 1968 and 1993. Its discontinuation effectively ended the tradition of coachbuilding, until it was revived at Goodwood in 2017 with ‘Sweptail’.

Increasingly, the marque favoured monocoque construction, where the body and floorpan are integrated into a single ‘unibody’, with the suspension and other mechanical components carried on front and rear subframes. The first model to be offered as a complete car only was the Silver Shadow, launched in 1965.

In 1971, Rolls-Royce split its motor car and aero engine activities into two separate entities – a distinction that remains to this day. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW Group, and entirely unrelated to the aero engine manufacturer, Rolls-Royce plc.



THE GOODWOOD ERA

In July 1998, BMW Group acquired the Rolls-Royce brand. Starting from a blank sheet of paper, it announced its intention to create a new company, build a new factory in Britain, and launch a new car, all by 1 January 2003. It was an enormously ambitious undertaking, described at the time as ‘the last great adventure in automotive history’.

At 00:01 on New Year’s Day 2003, the first Phantom VII was handed over to its new owner, marking the official start of production at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood; the marque’s new corporate headquarters and Global Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence were officially open for business.

Over its 13-year lifespan, Phantom VII cemented Rolls-Royce as the world’s foremost superluxury motor car manufacturer, and its own place as the marque’s pinnacle product. Over the next two decades, Rolls-Royce launched a series of new models, beginning in 2010 with Ghost. This was followed by the fastback coupé Wraith(2013), the drophead Dawn (2016) and the ‘Rolls-Royce of SUVs’ Cullinan (2018), together with their respective Black Badge variants. Spectre (2022) became the first-ever electric series Rolls-Royce motor car, followed by its Black Badge variant in 2024.

In 2017, Rolls-Royce ushered in a new era of contemporary coachbuilding with ‘Sweptail’. Further Coachbuild commissions came in 2021 with the three Boat Tail masterpieces; in 2024, Rolls-Royce presented Droptail, its first true two-seater in more than 50 years.

As of 2025, the product portfolio comprises Phantom VIII Series II, Ghost Series II, Black Badge Ghost Series II, Cullinan Series II, Black Badge Cullinan Series II, Spectre and Black Badge Spectre.

Every model embodies Rolls-Royce’s design DNA and philosophy, incorporating proportions and dimensions first defined by Sir Henry Royce himself. The marque is keenly aware that the motor cars it builds today can trace their lineage directly back to 1904, and that heritage is an important part of the design process. The launch of Black Badge in 2016 rekindled the spirit of endeavour that began with Charles Rolls’ early exploits in motor racing and aviation, and the numerous speed records set on land, water and in the air with machines powered by Rolls-Royce engines. In 2022, Spectre fulfilled Rolls’ prophecy, made in a magazine article more than a century before, that electricity’s clean, immediate and noiseless power would one day prove the perfect means of propulsion for the motor car. And in 2025, the marque crowned a year of celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of Phantom with the unveiling of the Phantom Centenary Private Collection, commemorating the people, places and events that shaped its pinnacle product in exquisite material and extraordinary works of Bespoke craftsmanship.

More than 2,500 individuals are now employed at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood – including many highly-skilled manufacturing and craft specialists – as well as around 7,500 people in the company’s wider UK supply chain. In 2023, an independent study by the London School of Economics (LSE) demonstrated that Rolls-Royce Motor Cars contributes around half a billion pounds to the UK economy every year, as a leading representative of ‘UK PLC’.



THE NEXT ERA

In 2024, Rolls-Royce announced a landmark investment exceeding £300 million to extend the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood. Representing the single largest investment since the plant opened in 2003 (when 300 people produced one motor car each day), this transformation creates the space for ever more ambitious Bespoke and Coachbuild projects, ensuring that Goodwood remains the only place in the world where Rolls-Royce motor cars are designed and hand-built.

It is both an act of growth and a declaration of intent; to carry forward the spirit first set in motion by Charles Rolls, who urged the world to dream and to dare, and Henry Royce, who insisted that greatness must always be refined, never assumed. More than a century on, their vision is not a memory but a mandate — a living philosophy that continues to shape objects and experiences which inspire, astonish and endure, reminding the world that the pursuit of perfection is infinite, and that the truest measure of heritage is how powerfully it shapes the future.