charles royce — CARS — The Bad Blonde

A story of an unlikely pair who would team up to create one of the most iconic brands of the automobile industry, Rolls-Royce.

Founded in 1906 by Charles Rolls and Henry Royce with a dream to manufacture the “best car in the world”. Let’s dive into the backgrounds of each of the two gentlemen behind Rolls-Royce.

Charles Rolls, son of a Baron, lover of mechanics, and adrenaline seeker by nature. Charles’s nickname at university was Dirty Rolls as he was known to be constantly tinkering on an engine.

Roll’s purchased his first automobile at just 18, he ventured to Paris and purchased a Peugeot Phaeton in 1896. This was quite pioneering as many folks hadn’t even hear of a horseless carriage yet!

Soon Rolls would found one of Britain’s first car dealerships, C.S. Rolls & Company, selling Peugeots and Minerva automobiles.

Henry Royce had the exact opposite childhood, born the youngest of five into hard work and poverty. Royce’s family flour mill would suffer hard times and cause the family to move to London. Shortly after his father would pass away, forcing Royce to quit formal schooling after only one year.

The apt Royce would begin an apprenticeship with the Great Northern Railway through the graces and pocket book of his aunt for three years until she ran out of money. He would find himself back in London and joining the Electric Light and Power Company.

With just 20 pounds to Royce’s and a partner Ernest Claremont who fortunately had deeper pockets. Rolls would found F.H Royce and Company creating domestic electric fittings but soon moving on to dynamos and electric cranes.

But Royce saw the opportunity in the future of horseless carriages and set his sights on manufacturing his own.

Royce was a renowned hard and determined worker and he would later be known for never eating proper meals causing his health to frequently suffer.

Royce purchased a few contemporary cars but wasn’t pleased with them and set out to create his own that would match his standards. He made three cars to start, one for him, one for his partner, and one for Henry Edmund who would prove to be fateful in introducing Rolls and Royce.

Edmund arranged for his car salesman friend, Rolls to meet his carmaker friend, Royce.

The duo met at the Midland Hotel in Manchester and made an agreement that Rolls would take and sell all the cars that Royce could make.

The first Rolls-Royce 10hp was revealed at the Paris Salon in December of 1904 powered by a two cylinder engine that cranked out a whole 10 horsepower. Within three years the company was winning awards for the superiority of their cars.

Just 10 horsepower would be the humble start of a brand that would go on to conquer the luxury automotive sector over a hundred years later. A brand that according the a survey in 1987, the second most recognizable brand name second only to Coca-Cola.

Just a few years later in 1906, the duo would release the 40/50 considered their first major car design. The 7 liter six cylinder engine was capable of 40/50 Horsepower, hence the name. This was car with major innovations and ahead of the competition, with pressurized engine lubrication, advanced carburetion, and dual ignition.

To prove it’s reliability and to garner press attention, managing director of Rolls Royce, Claude Johnson, ordered an example with silver plated fittings dubbed the Silver Ghost. Driving over 15,000 miles with never breaking down. It was this car that coined the phrase “best car in the world” by Autocar and which quickly carried throughout the automotive world.

The 40/50’s performance matched it’s pricetag… For the time period it was an incredible sum of $4,000. Something to keep in mind, that did not include the body work done by an independent coachbuilder as was the custom of the times.

In the 1910s, Rolls-Royce implemented the worldwide recognized hood emblem, the Spirit of Ecstasy. This hood ornament and it’s storied background could be an entire segment.

Not all cars had hood ornaments nor did the carmaker necessarily want them. Most often, the public would purchase or buy custom one and put it on their car.

Rolls-Royce’s customers were often putting on hood ornaments of their own desire and tastes, THIS did not sit well with Henry Royce nor Claude Johnson, managing director of Rolls-Royce. Royce did not like hood ornaments in general, BUT especially did not like the mismatched of consumers buying and implementing on his cars. So he decided to create one customary for Rolls-Royce.

But before the Spirit of Ecstasy, there was The Whisper, in which a young women clad in robs delicately placing one forefiner against her lips. That would be symbolic and we will get to its back story in a hot second. It is believed only three of four of the Whisperer were ever made and that just two still exist.

It was the Spirit of Ecstasy that was decided on to adorn the bonnets of Rolls-Royce, and this ornament comes with quite story. The woman of who modeled for the sculpture was no unacquainted model, she was Eleanor Thornton, Affectionately known as Thorn, and she was the mistress of Lord Montagu.

Lord Montagu was friends with the commissioned sculpture, Charles Robinson Sykes, Sykes’ first thought for inspiration was Thorn!

Of the sculpture, Sykes said "A graceful little goddess, the Spirit of Ecstasy, who has selected road travel as her supreme delight and alighted on the prow of a Rolls-Royce motor car to revel in the freshness of the air and the musical sound of her fluttering draperies."

Get this, Henry Royce NEVER put one on his car. The utilitarian engineer thought they impaired driver’s vision.

Thorn’s future would end in tragedy, and many have painted a more sensational picture than reality. A headline could read Lord Montagu’s secret mistress lost in shipwreck potentially pregnant while the Lord survived but doesn’t do the facts of this love affair justice.

Let’s start from the begging of the voyage, Lord Montagu has been ordered to report duty in ###. Lord Montagu and Thron plan to travel together on this passage. Guess you is also aware of this? Montagu’s wife and she is perfectly happy with it. There is even correspondence of the two planning and preparing for their departure.

The SS Persia was torpedoed while passengers were at lunch and sank within 5-10 minutes. In that short period of time, only four life boats were able to launch causing the casualty numbers to be very high. 343 of the 519 passengers were killed.

The 1920s would welcome Rolls Royce’s renowned 37 liter v12 R engine, powering the Supermarine s.6b prop plane reach 407 mph.

That engine wouldn’t stay in the air for long, Sir Malcom Campell on a campaign for speed put the R engine into his Blue Bird. In 1935 and the first time ever in car history, the Bluebird gained speeds of over 300 mph.

Rolls-Royce was breaking speed records like kit-kats, after conquering land and air, they broke the water speed record by reaching over 103 mph. in a hydroplaning powerboat named the Bluebird K3.

In 1949 Rolls-Royce would release the first car with a body of their own creation, not a coachbuilders, the Silver Dawn. Following that would be the Silver Cloud and with that the beginning of a constant design similarity between models.

During this time, you would see the increase of opulent gidgets and gazmos like an electric razor,

The 50s, 60s, and 70s luxury auto arena was dominated by Rolls-Royce still maintaining their unmistakable aesthetic.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one of my childhood favorite commercials. I say Childhood, the ad came out three years before I was born. You want to elevate a condiment? Make people think they drive around with in in their Rolls-Royce.

The 80s would bring an bit unsteady path for Rolls-Royce, it would be split and change hands a few times until BMW acquired the company in 1998.

Interesting thing to note, they bought Rolls-Royce BUT they could only borrow the Spirt of Ecstasy mascot.