It was a nervous day – my first visit to Rolls-Royce Motors
Ltd at Goodwood to address a knowledgeable audience, but with a VIP Tour of the
plant with my wife Jo as a bonus.
The plant, like the car, is sleek and stylish and the first
cars emerged in 2002? Construction was permitted by the Earl of March, who
stages the nearby annual Goodwood Revival, as long as he could not see the
factory. It thus rests in a gentle bowl, two storeys high - like a space age
greenhouse surrounded by tens of thousands of trees.
A 1923 Piccadilly Silver Ghost graced the entrance, with
other gorgeous modern cars displayed in the imposing foyer. Straightaway, Jo
and I were fitted with dust jackets and whisked away for our tour with the oh
so enthusiastic Jane Gale together with Central Southern Committee man, Darren
Collins.
Simply breathtaking- as you might expect with great natural
light and air conditioning throughout the facility – the cleanest, quietest,
calmest factory one could ever imagine.
No photographs allowed, understandably – if you paid
hundreds of thousands for your bespoke dream machine would you want to see it
on You Tube, before your personal jet had been dispatched to collect it!
A Wraith is assembled in sixteen, 49 minute stages and then a perfect car is
tested for rattles – none of course, and then tested at tsunami levels for
waterproofing. Someone next has the envious but nerve-wracking pleasure of taking each car on the open road for
it’s first spin- what a dream of a job.
The length to which every bespoke requirement of
Rolls-Royce’s four thousand annual customers, is met, is legendary. Want some
extra gold in your paint or a hand painted fascia to match M’Lady’s lipstick,
consider it done. Woodwork and leather are sumptuous and yet engineered to
withstand extreme temperatures in the Middle East and elsewhere .Some facia features are hand-painted ..with a steady
hand indeed- even today.
Only one in twenty cars stay in the United Kingdom; premier
buyers being the USA, China, the Middle East and recently Brazil. One young
South American client came to see his Wraith in production. He fell in love
with the recent limited edition car – the Sir Malcolm Campbell Bluebird – 36
made-now all sold. ‘Can I have one of those please?’
‘Not the Wraith then Sir’?
‘But of course, I’d like both’
The company will fly completed cars to their purchasers;
however some are so eager after a six
month lead time that they fly their own jets over to collect their new
treasures.
The enthusiasm of our tour guide, Jane Gale, our host,
Darren Collins, and the kindness of PR Executive, Andrew Ball, were boundless.
The plant is simply awesome but sadly, unlike Cadburys, no free samples!
Looking at the finished cars being polished and tested,
and also for a collective noun for
them, we came up with ‘A Glory of Rolls-Royces’ – I wonder if there is a
royalty? All in all an exhilarating,
unique experience.
The lecture afterwards to the Central Southern Section
of the RREC, together with some Rolls-Royce employees, was well received and we
sold a few books. My thanks to Ted
Meacham, Darren Collins and Rolls-Royce Motors Ltd for their very kind
invitation and hospitality.
