Once upon a time two people met. One was forty-years-old Frederick Henry Royce (1863–1933) — the owner of the Manchester company «Royce Ltd.», producer of electric cranes and dynamos. Another was Charles Stewart Rolls (1877–1910) — a graduate of the prestigious Trinity College in Cambridge, aristocrat and heir to a multimillion state. So they met and decided to create the best car on the planet. In 1907 at Olimpia Motor Show in London Silver Ghost was presented, the machine that created the legends around.
Later in London's garages of wealthy aristocrats the car designed as a dream come true, experienced the unimaginable transformation. It has been decorated with defiant luxury, adapted to tigers’ hunt, and even winter version has been constructed with skis instead of wheels. And Martin Scorsese recently stated that he would love to shoot the drama «Silver Ghost», where in addition to the relationship between man and woman, he will tell great story of the great car. The extraordinary producer realized should give the world another masterpiece of cinema as a story about the same extraordinary creators, as he is «in the family secrets there are too many mysteries, which have to become public.»
The hero of the film «Silver Ghost» became perhaps the most famous car in the world. Already in 1907 the creators advertised it as «the best car in the world». So this provoked Secretary of the Royal Automobile Club, and most importantly, a former partner of Rolls. Claude Johnson was so impressed with aplomb former colleagues that he decided to organize a big test runs for «Silver Ghost». At a distance of 2000 miles first (3200 km), and then 15 thousand miles (more than 24 thousand km) the car only once experienced inconvenience when the fuel cock had broken. At that time Johnson truthfully, but meticulously recorded repair cost: 2 pounds 2 shillings 7 pence.
It was the thirteenth instance (1907), which was created with the participation of the Barker firm, which supplied open five-seats body and painted it in silver color. Some other parts were silvered too in spite of glittering after careful hand finishing. But the mystery in the name of Henry Royce’s favorite child is not only in lunar shades of asphalt streets. Incredibly soft run and almost noiseless operation of the units were so impressive that another name for the first Rolls-Royce would not be suitable... Once again, the company showed its extraordinary quality.
In the beginning of the century, when in Britain maximum speed of the car was legally restricted to four miles per hour, and before each machine had to go man, waving a red flag to warn everyone about the danger, Rolls was fond of speed races and set a personal speed record — 136.4 km/h Small special series of «Silver Ghost» were produced in different years and named in honor of competition passing the corresonding year. It is said that this was a tribute to Charles Rolls who crashed in 1910 on his own plane.
Truly royal grandeur and the same price provided Rolls Royce appropriate range of buyers. Rolls- Royce was the main car in the garage of British Queen Elizabeth II and the Norwegian King Olav V. When in 1997 the Hong Kong came under the jurisdiction of China, one of the first decisions taken by the Government of the PRC — rewriting fleet Rolls-Royce to itself.
Britain and America were content with the best car of the era. And what about Russia? Oh, luxury cars were loved there. In the USA for auction was put the model which owner assured that the car belonged to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II. The car was introduced in Russia in 1913 on the auto show in St. Petersburg. Immediately after Nicholas II made a special order, which was built on the machine that has all the elements of comfort imaginable that time — electric light, soft comfortable seats, flower vases, travel bags, ashtrays and even telephone.
Meanwhile, the favorite car of «Last Tsar» was a French Delone-Belleville of 1912. In those days it was one of the most luxurious executive cars which was more precious than its English counterpart — Rolls-Royce.
At the steering wheel of Delone-Belleville Princess Dolgoruky
Rumored to be in the 20s Rolls-Royce Nicholas II was in the collection of the famous American circus impresario John Ringling of Ringling Brothers circus troupe, where working out as a show car in one of the local casinos in Las Vegas until the new owner’s death. Through the years, the car was found in the bunker when it was already considered irretrievably lost. For a few moments, by the standards of the century the price of such a rare violet «Ghost» has grown from $ 5.5 million to $ 11 million. True patriots and lovers of retro technology claim that this Rolls-Royce should return to Russia.
It is believed that Nicholas II was the first in Russia who sat on the Rolls-Royce, the second was a millionaire industrialist Ryabushinskiy, third, after it was requisitioned from the royal garage, leader of the world proletariat — Vladimir Lenin, who drove even two cars of this brand, one of which was with skis instead of the front wheels and rear tracks for back ones.
«Meeting at the Michelson factory came to an end. Lenin left the tribune and inclining the head forward and stepping wide he has gone to the exit of the garnet workshop. Accompanied by the crowd for nine yards, he went to the waiting Rolls-Royce in the courtyard „- Sergey Shumakov wrote in the article“ Silver Ghost of Lenin. »
One of the Rolls-Royces of Lenin came to Russia in 1915. Ordered his Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and court administration have paid for 17.5 thousand gold rubles, which was then 1850 pounds (exchange rate to the British pound in 1791 to today — about 420 thousand dollars). The car was assembled by master Mack Egerton in factory in Norwich, where the tradition of the company was to fix the name of the person joining the body and chassis of the vehicle. All items on it home, only a silver statuette on radiator cap was stolen in 1990 by someone from visitors of Lenin Museum, where cars still stands. And in place of the Spirit of Ecstasy symbol is quality duralumin copy.
Car legend Silver Ghost, released in 1907, was held without a single repair nearly 14,371 miles, becoming an icon of «Best car in the world.»
And the most famous before war models became models with a body Barker Tourer and Barker convertible hard top. The first car was built at the Royce at Cook Street in Manchester, and after his triumph the company moved to a new-built factory on Nightingale Road, Derby.
Today the headquarters of Rolls-Royce and assembly plant located in the hills of Sussex at Goodwood, UK. Beauty of the surrounding nature inspires not only world-renowned architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, but also all those who are making history of the legendary car brand.
