Rolls-Royce pre-eminent Aero Engine Maker and their cars.

[Darren C]

After tense negotiation with Vickers, VW had outbid BMW for the Business. With the announcement on the 3rd of July 1998 of the VW deal a counter attack was launched by BMW on the 7th of July.

BMW forced Vickers hand by threatening to withdraw all BMW components there and then unless negotiations continued.

3 weeks later BMW announced to the world that it had purchased the rights to Rolls-Royce Motorcars Limited.

For clarity, VW had purchased Bentley and ALL the asset and BMW had purchased the Rolls-Royce “Name” and rights to manufacture motorcars bearing that name.

Graham Morris the incumbent CEO at the time resigned as he’d made a promise to the workforce that the two brands would never be split. Graham stayed on a short while to aid Tony Gott in filling the position.

Since VW had the asset (all the premises, material and workforce) BMW would have to find a new home to build their Rolls-Royce. However they were happy that they had pulled Rolls-Royce from under the feet of Volkswagen.
As such the deal with Vickers stipulated that BMW parts would continue to be supplied to Crewe until 2001 allowing the Seraph and Arnage to remain in production during the transitional period.

Unfortunately due to an unforeseen ruling in the sale it soon became apparent that Volkswagen had ownership of ALL trademarks as part of their asset purchase.

This meant that BMW could build a Rolls-Royce motor car but couldn’t use the Radiator shape, the intertwined R-R logo and the Spirit of ecstasy mascot which were now property of Volkswagen.

I’m sure the BMW negotiators had a lot of answering to do when they arrived back in Munich.

BMW had to go cap in hand to Volkswagen and strike a deal to use the trademarks. This allegedly cost them a further circa £30Million.

While all this was going on, a few lose ends to my story at Crewe need tidying up before we move onto the new landlords.

During the courting process of the early/mid 1990’s with BMW & VW, they were both shown numerous Projects as mentioned previously.

One such project was called Bentley Bali (another resurrected name from the Blatchley era). The design studio had a brief for a new coupe. No sooner had the Continental R been launched, the replacement was being considered. By 1997 the designs had been finalised and the new coupe was to be made from Aluminium and composite materials as trialled and tested on the Sultans 6 x Project Grand Prix Coupes. The design was tamed a little and was more akin to the Arnage & Seraph as it needed to fit within the current product family and share their styling influences albeit ready for the next generation of Arnage. It was also to have a folding metal roof as per the ASC developments on project Silverstone.



In early1998 a full size clay was shown to VW by Tony Gott (who was head of engineering at that time) the day later it was announced VW had bought the company.
A few weeks later VW asked for the design to be amended.
A few months later VW put Bali on hold to explore a MSB Platform Coupe based on the VW D1 platform. The current Continental R was revised yet again to fill the stop gap.
Project Bali was laid up……

At the same time Corniche was also being worked upon. The initial replacement for Blatchley’s Corniche was side tracked into the Bentley Azure and no Rolls-Royce updated version was available.
With the development of Project SXB Seraph getting underway in the early 1990’s Corniche had again to be considered. Designs had come and gone from the mid 1980’s and into the early 1990’s without success. With the Millennium looming Rolls-Royce wanted a new Corniche.
With Graham Hull on the design team and his ability to speak a true word in jest and no real progress he said, and I quote….
“Why not do a Porsche and build the new Corniche on the old Azure”
Again what started in desperation and jest, became a reality. But not without first trying to build a convertible on the SXB Seraph platform. Engineering difficulties proved too costly and time consuming to convert the 4 door Seraph to a 2 door convertible.
In reality it was easier and financially better to fit Seraph front body panels to the Azure while retaining the Azure hood and mechanism.
The dashboard and some interior was transferred onto the Azure.
By mid 1998 this proved a blessing in disguise when BMW threatened to withdraw Engines and component supply for Seraph & Arnage, as the proposed Corniche was using the old SZ platform and old Crewe V8.
This action removed doubt from VW’s mind over the use of the old Azure platform and gave the green light for the very last Rolls-Royce model to be produced at Crewe under the new ownership of VW, before the right was lost forever to BMW in 2003.

The new and last Crewe built Rolls-Royce was launched in January 2000. The brief to supply the Corniche for the Millennium was fulfilled.
As a quirk of building on the Azure platform and doing it against the clock, all Corniches were completely hand-built.





The very last Rolls-Royce Corniche rolled off the assembly line at Crewe on the 30th of August 2002. The total number being built was 374.
The very last Corniche’s bear dashboard plaques with their build number.
Each “Last of Line” car has its number engraved with an “out of 56”. Whereby 56 was the destined number of “Last of Line” cars Rolls-Royce were to make.



By a strange twist of fate only 45 (not 56) Last of Line cars were ever built before the “Cinderella” midnight deadline negotiated date by which BMW took over ownership. The last 11 Crewe Rolls-Royce Motorcars never were to be……

[cubist]

Truly epic stuff. Do you have the film rights?

[Darren C]

Film rights My life is like Forrest Gump.....no one would believe me and too many chocolates to maintain this fine figure of a man

Tonight’s ramblings I shall call “A new broom”

With the Volkswagen deal being signed and sealed on the 3rd of July 1998 the emphasis to rid Bentley of any trace of BMW was the main objective. Work began to find engine and running gear replacement for the Arnage only as of 2003 VW couldn’t build Rolls-Royce.

The Arnage twin turbo Cosworth BMW V8 was more modern than the Turbo R Crewe V8, gave Bentleys best ever MPG, had 32 valves with double overhead camshafts and Bosch engine management. VW were keen that its replacement would be a better engine still.
Work had begun prior to the purchase of Bentley at Wolfsburg on a W16 engine, and the VW board were keen to put it into the Arnage if the model was going to survive.

Project 2000 (the code for the new Arnage mechanicals) began.
The design studio were busy implementing a few cosmetic changes to Arnage as well as a proposed MSB (Medium Size Bentley) Coupe & Saloon on the VW D1 platform and a series of Limousines and HOSCars (Head of State)
At this time much to the dismay of Graham Hull and the design team, Wolfsburg sent over VW Chief Engineer Dr Ulrich Hackenberg to replace Tony Gott and Dirk van Braeckel ex Audi & Skoda to head the Design Team.
As you can imagine there was some resistance to this.
It soon became apparent to VW that the platform of Arnage which was designed to take the lightweight BMW V8 and BMW running gear needed major changes to accommodate the W16. In the meantime the old Crewe V8 was being supplied by Cosworth for the Continental R. Two versions of P2000 ran side by side. Option 1 the W16 and Option 2 the old Turbo R Crewe/Cosworth V8. I don’t need to explain which option was preferred by the workforce, PR surveys and by a nervous customer base keen to see what VW were about to do with Bentley…..

This was the frying pan that I jumped into at Crewe after leaving the Services.

Results from the P2000 options were put to VW after much “massaging and debate” and with good sales of the Continental R in its T & SC forms, the decision went in favour of the old Crewe V8.
In reality though, this caused a serious amount of worry to us engineers….

The old pushrod 6.75-litre 16-valve engine from the Turbo R was a very heavy lump and completely upset the weight distribution in Arnage. To make matters worse; by swapping out the BMW suspension and ESC braking system for the Continental R (which was basically Turbo R, that was basically Silver Shadow) There was a loss of 7% in braking performance. The bodyshell and chassis had to be strengthed and modified adding extra weight. One small bonus was that this allowed styling to lower the floors slightly in the rear to give more leg room.
The performance of the Cosworth tweaked Continental R V8 was less free reving than the BMW engine it replaced which lost a deal of driveability in my opinion. However the increased torque was more brutal and addictive. In DDK terms it was like the difference between the 2.0L 914/4 and the 914/6.
Graham Hull, who is regarded as the Arnage creator set about making a few styling changes as directed by Wolfsburg. Dr Piech had a bee in his bonnet about amber indicators and had eradicated them from the VW empire in favour of clear indicators, so Bentley followed suit. The Arnage door mirrors came from a BMW supplier so they had to go (even though they were unique). Hull was given Audi door mirrors to replace them with.
Front bumpers had to have larger openings similar to the new Corniche to satisfy the Garrett Turbo appetite for air, and Hull designed new alloy wheels.

Arnage R was launched in October 1999.



With an option of LWB the Arnage RL



Old habits die hard at Crewe, and during this time a few Special order Arnage were built for existing wealthy customers with little taste




While Project P3000 (Limousines) also gained momentum including the statutory armoured versions from full bomb protection to assault weapons & grenades to gas tight with oxygen systems for gas attacks etc etc.

With various available lengths



Or extended “D pillar” privacy



Each Limousine received a Bespoke interior



Something Crewe was proud of and VW admittedly admired as a jewel in their new crown



Before I close the chapter on Chief Designer Graham Hull who left Crewe in March 2001 following the VW “integration” (I will spare you the details but you can work it out) he was responsible for ongoing projects such as Arnage T, the base design of the 2003 Continental GT that was taken over by Dirk van Braeckel (before Hull left!) numerous Special Orders and our very own HM Queen Elizabeth II State Limousine.

While I was at Crewe I worked on upgrading Arnage and in particular with Harvey Bailey on the suspension set up. Looking for a harder lower and better weight balance for the Arnage.
Graham left a legacy in Arnage T with his beautifully designed split rim alloys (the first production split rims at Bentley) his interior designs, turned dashboards, knurled switch gear, diamond mesh inserts, door handles etc. etc. Hull breathed the passion back into the marque for the enthusiasts in what is regarded as a rebirth post SZ model.
Like Blatchley he has left his mark in automotive history.
In comparison I just rode a little on their coat tails in trying out and testing new ideas, in an “imagineering” role.
The internet is a wonderful thing and I even found a website a while ago for prototype Bentley spotters which features some of my work!

http://www.rrab.com/apr08.htm

I applied colours to the Bentley wheel range, engineered quad exhaust tailpipes and side vents in homage to some of the earlier Bentley Specials, as well as a few bespoke interior options and lower bumper styling that was adopted on the last series of Continental R model range.

The Arnage T was launched in 2002 after Hull had left and incorporated a lot of nice touches combined with twin turbo power to make it the most powerful Arnage yet.





Some of the idea’s I worked on were not incorporated into the range until a few years later on Mulliner versions which included the side vents. Unfortunately tamed down a little and sitting below the decorative trim strips, as higher up where I’d placed them meant re engineering the washer bottle behind them and that was obviously considered as an extra limiting cost, so in the lower wing they went instead.

As Hull left (the same time give or take a couple of weeks) I carried out the factory driver training courses to aid with Test & Analysis.



Combined with skid pan training in an Arnage, Roadcraft and Evasive driving techniques, it was one of the most memorable two weeks training ever!
I was officially certified to drive HM Queen Elizabeth II…..
If I told you anymore, about this I’d have to kill you…..

In a very timely fashion Liz placed an order for a new Bentley State Limousine for her Golden Jubilee in 2002. For good measure 2 identical cars were built (building 2 was obviously Top Secret)
Based upon the Arnage platform following an earlier Hull design brief the cars final design was that of Dirk van Braeckel. The car is obviously armour plated and has many other features that as an ex services engineer I admire but cannot divulge.







Each of the identical cars were estimated to have cost in excess of £10million to build but were the Feather in the Cap for Wolfsburg.

[Darren C]

Tonight I’d like to tie up a few loose ends 1998-2003 before Rolls-Royce production finally ended at Crewe. Some of the information I am about to disclose during my time at Crewe is controversial and not what the history books quite say….
As previously explained at the end of the 1990’s while the Design team was headed by Graham Hull, the Arnage had been launched and Hull and team were instrumental in the phase out of BMW components. At the turn of the Millennium Hull had got approval for his teams design on the new corporate face of the Bentley with 4 distinct separate round headlights and lower profile grille. Work had already been completed on a facelift Arnage to split the twin headlights into 4, in keeping with the new design. With launch of the Arnage T in 2002 and with Hull gone by then, his designs were not implemented on Arnage until 2005 model year.
While Arnage was being future proofed in VW form work was continuing on project BY713 & BY711 the new 2 door & 4 door cars.

After much work Hull and his team had several design options which were the evolution of Grand Prix meets Bali externally, combined with Java interior. The Bentley Continental GT was born.
Out of the blue Wolfsburg had sent over Dirk van Braeckel and Hull had been told that Dirk was to replace him.
In a rather abrupt way Hull was told that Wolfsburg thought the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Styling department at Crewe, “although good, wasn’t world class!” and Dirk had been sent to resolve the issue. As you can imagine this made Hulls position untenable.
By mid 1999 the destiny of BY713 & BY711 was set. VW had finalised the platform the car was to be built on as being their new Phaeton W12 platform.
The exterior designs drawn up by Hull and the interior designs penned by Simon Loasby were handed over to the care of Braeckel. It was at this point another young designer Raul Pires was brought to Bentley on the express wishes of Braeckel.

As a bit of background history to fill you in; Braeckel was an apprentice for Ford working at Cologne where he was encouraged and sponsored by Ford to study car design at the RCA (Royal College of Art) in London. Much to the dismay of Ford, on graduation he went to work at Audi. Beginning on the A8 & A3 projects he was selected by Dr Ferdinand Piech to work at Skoda. There he revised the body designs on the team that created Fabia & Octavia. Joining Crewe in August 1999 from Skoda.

As a replacement for Graham Hull, you might start to understand why the existing Design team at Crewe may have had reservations as to how much trust or knowledge Wolfsburg had in their abilities.

This is where the story gets a little stranger…

Raul Pires was a Brazilian-Italian designer with a true artistic creative flair. He worked at Skoda for 6 years and was involved in the design of the Fabia, Fabia Estate, Octavia facelift and Superb. His signature is all over the Skoda design book…..

After moving to Bentley, Braeckel handed Hull’s designs over to Pires and gave him the task of finishing the styling to suit the VW Phaeton platform.
In an attempt to cleanse the design project of any previous Crewe team input and to “start a fresh” the two projects were re-named.
BY713 became Project BY614 the Coupe and BY711 became BY611.
Graham Hull stayed on until March 2001 to suit a redundancy package so kept his head down. Fortunately Dirk was absent for a good amount of time and Raul’s abilities and personality shone through making things more comfortable in the styling office and Hull worked on the MPW limousines.
In November 2000, the original coupe and 4 door saloon designs had been crafted nicely onto the VW platform, modelled in full size clay and were ready for sign off.



Early 2001 the names became Continental GT for BY614 & Flying Spur for BY611



You will note Pires signature on the final body designs…..

With Styling complete, Volkswagen appointed Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg to lead the engineering work on the Phaeton platform beneath the Continental GT and completed by Dr. Joachim Rothenpieler.

The bizarre thing about the GT & Flying Spur Projects is that Dirk van Braeckel seems to take full credit (as he does for Skoda). As director of design at Bentley Motors Braeckel was awarded the European Automotive Design Award by Designers (Europe) for the Continental GT. (Previous winners include Giorgetto Giugiaro and Sergio Pininfarina). Hull, Loasby, the Crewe Team & Pires don’t seem to get a mention???
In a strange twist, most photos that show Braeckel associated with the award have Pires drawing flipped in reverse as some odd way of making his signature un-readable?



Anyway I’ve explained how the Continental GT came to be at the time when Rolls-Royce & Bentley were still joined at the hip. Despite all of this, the Continental GT is a superbly engineered Motorcar.
Although I had left Crewe by 2003 (when GT was launched) and was working for BMW on Project Rolls-Royce Goodwood, I was briefly involved in some of the GT’s re-engineering of traditional Bentley fittings such as window switches, to a cheaper/lighter VW version during 2001.
With a few contacts at Crewe I managed to blag an invite and attend the launch of the Continental GT







It wasn’t until 2005 that Flying Spur saw the light of day





With my story told so far you may find this mighty VW/Bentley interpretation interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrpHc9jksYk

Things have evolved a little since 2003 for the Continental GT which has gone from strength to strength.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOfIFbjwHGY

While Mulliner are doing what Mulliner do best….applying great craftsmanship to personal commissions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjsJPPZF4TA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7PPnBdAqYU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmzmxeNcOD4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3aqueqIYIQ

and Italian Design Studios are still making bespoke specials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNyVxYicIUg

Whatever you may think, you cannot be anything but impressed by the branding machine VW have built and the financial success of Bentley that has followed.

For various reasons that will unfold later, I took a leap of faith and left Crewe to go and be part of the new beginning for Rolls-Royce Motorcars under the ownership of BMW…………

[Darren C]

A new beginning….

Following the purchase of the name Rolls-Royce by BMW Group in 1998 the search began for a location to build the new car.
It was decided very early on that the target date for the new Rolls-Royce Motorcar would be 2003. This only allowed 5 years to design, test and bring the new car to production.
Furthermore where was it going to be built?
Long debates took place in Munich and it was unanimously agreed that a Rolls-Royce could only be built in the UK.
To appease the cars potential purchasers, motoring press and enthusiasts, the car could not be just a BMW 7 Series in a posh frock.
A completely new platform and drive train was designed by BMW and the body was NOT to be styled in Munich, it had to be done in the UK, by UK stylists.
Ian Cameron and Tim Leverton were poached from Range Rover and headed up the newly formed top secret design team.
Karl-Heinz Kalbfell was appointed Managing Director of “Project Rolls-Royce” while BMW rented Johnny Depp’s (the actor) old apartment in the centre of London near to Hyde Park as the Design Studio and the car started to take shape.
An Architectural competition was then set by BMW for the design of a revolutionary new production plant.
After evaluating several proposed sites, BMW announced in early 2001 that the home of the new Rolls-Royce Motorcars facility would be the Goodwood Estate near Chichester.
The location was chosen due to the availability of the Goodwood Motor Circuit for testing, the motoring heritage of the area and the local skills base of luxury yacht builders on the Southcoast.
The initial expectation was that due to the hand-crafted nature of the production process, about five cars a day would be manufactured by 350 employees, while benefiting the local economy.

Project Rolls-Royce signed a 100 year lease for the land from Lord March with very tight conditions imposed by the Goodwood Estate and local Council.
The building competition was won by UK architects, Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, who had been responsible for many other award winning projects.
The majority of building had to be located partly below ground level in an area created by gravel extraction. The site was to be extensively landscaped and screened to have minimal impact and match the topography of the land due to it being located in an area of natural beauty.
The main roof was to be a 'living green roof', which when viewed from outside would blend into the surrounding countryside. A specially constructed lake at the front of the buildings would receive rainwater from the roof and the site, which is recycled. In addition the series of weirs through several lakes would act as a heat sink/condensing water & heat pump for production and office space environmental control.
Planning permission was submitted to Chichester District Council and approval with constraints (voted 14 to 1 in favour) was given at the end of 2001.

Work on the construction of the new £80Million facility began at the beginning of August 2001.
As I had a home near Chichester with my then wife & young son and was travelling at the weekends between Chichester & Crewe it became an attractive proposal for me to jump ship.

In around April 2001 Project Rolls-Royce team set up a small office in Vinnetrow Road Chichester on a old Farmyard industrial estate. The Project consisted of about 5 employees including Fred Fruth (the PR man) & Carsten Pries (Manager Strategy and Control). I called in on them on the first day they took over the office and made acquaintances and helped unload boxes from their car into the new industrial unit.

Fred & Carsten had visited 10 Downing Street on Friday 16 March to give the government an update on the current status of the Project, before visiting the Headquarters of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club (RREC) 18th March 2001 to do the same. As a long standing Committee member of the RREC and resident of the chosen location for the new facility, I was mightily impressed by BMW’s approach to asking and implementing our opinions for “getting it right”.

Ian Cameron & Carsten Pries had done a grand job on the styling and engineering of the new car and it isn’t public knowledge but by the end of 2001 the new Rolls-Royce Motorcar was at a very advanced stage with the first prototypes being subjected to extensive winter testing in northern Scandinavia during the winter of 2000 and were undergoing further testing under extremely hot climate conditions at the end of 2001.

Ian Cameron had even managed to get John Blatchley to give his blessing to their design earlier that year (as I touched upon in one of my early posts in this thread)

At the end of October 2001 a recruitment drive began for the first 80 jobs at Project Rolls-Royce.
With all the shenanigans going on at Crewe and the key positions being filled by VW personnel (like in the movie the Body-snatchers) it was not surprising that a good majority of CV’s found their way from Crewe down to the small office in Vinnetrow Road, Chichester. Not withstanding mine that was handed in on the day the team moved in earlier in April!
The first ground was dug in August 2001 and by November the steelwork had begun to be erected.



I found myself ankle deep in the mud desperately trying to keep the factory plans clean and dry…..
My role on the new build began as Technical Project Manager for Project Rolls-Royce reporting to the Facilities Engineering Consultant. It involved plant installation and layout, which soon evolved to troubleshooting, replacement and redesign…..

[keith fellowes]

I have never heard of the Bentley Flying Star, (clearly not well heeled enough!) but for for a big car what a lovely shape.
Thanks for sharing the videos.
Wish i had the wherewith-all to buy one, and run it!

[Berny]

We know you have the cash Keith! Nice to see you at Race Retro, hope to see you in Belgium soon.

[Darren C]

Ownership costs are no different to Porsche these days

Tonight I will continue with the miracle that was the build of the new Rolls-Royce Facility at Goodwood.
Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, Senior Vice President BMW Group Marketing and Director of the Rolls-Royce Project said that the timetable was “challenging but achievable” in 2001. He wasn’t kidding.

With my experience of taking several warship into refit and in particular the first Type 23 Frigates as head of section, writing the spec, planning, overseeing and managing the works while meeting the MOD deadlines for front line readiness and emergency contingencies if we went to war, I knew the pressure that we were against as project managers to deliver what initially seemed impossible with the R-R factory build.

Not only was the nut & bolt construction work intense but the building was unique & ambitious with the Grimshaw (ex Eden Project Architect) design freaturing Europe's biggest 'green roof'. A total of 35,000 square metres of living sedum plants, blended in with the surrounding landscape.This caused no end of issues with the roof sheeting, weather proof membranes and every single penetration.
In particular the design featured raised circular skylights. These were installed to plan but on one afternoon Lord March was walking his dogs nearby and didn’t like the raised glass that could just be seen over the horizon. In a mad panic the manufacturers had to invert the sectional “domes” and I had to figure out a new design for drainage as we’d ended up with 12 forty foot diameter glass funnels that caught more rainwater than you could possibly imagine!
Alongside the construction work, extensive landscaping was carried out on site with perimeter mounds, huge lakes, Lilly ponds, fountains and swales being formed.
The wheels of BMW Munich turned and new Rolls-Royce Dealer candidates were nominated for the UK, Europe and overseas markets.
Towards the end of 2001 the approval of the final design of RR01 (the new cars project number) meant that tooling and parts were being released to enable series production. The plant and assembly rigs were also being designed and details passed to site as to where everything needed to go. Everyday 100’s of details arrived that needed to be implemented.
Completely out of the blue on the 23rd of January 2002 and announcement was made from BMW head office in Munich and delivered on site by Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, that Anthony D Gott will take over full responsibility for Project Rolls-Royce Goodwood in the south of England and chair the company.
From senior engineer at Lotus Cars at the start of the 80’s joining Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motor Cars in 1984 rising to CEO, Gott was instrumental in negotiations with BMW group on project SXB (Arnage & Seraph) so it was no real shock he was now earmarked for chairman and chief executive of the newly formed BMW/Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Goodwood.

I obviously knew Tony from Crewe and from his passion outside of work which was his 1926 WO Bentley so we shared a lot in common. I was keen to find out why he’d not stayed at Crewe with Bentley for VW? With each passing week more faces started to appear at Goodwood from Crewe.
By February 2002 the steelwork was complete as was most of the cladding and final fix was taking place in nominated areas and the target was late summer to start having RR01 on site (but that was all top secret back then) for now we all concentrated on the miraculous building that had been raised from the muddy gravel beds of the Goodwood Estate.



June brought occupants into the newly completed Building 10, which was to be the new head offices attached to the main facility via a large intricate flying bridge.
Employees arrived quick and fast with 250 at the end of June on site, 100 off site and another 100 to follow.
The cars were to be painted on site using the very latest paint technologies and the first half of the facility (Building 40) was being fitted out as the new Surface Technology Centre. By mid June trials for the Robot spraying processes were being carried out. The area was truly amazing with automated indexing robotic carriages taking test bodyshells between spray booths, ovens, prep & polishing booths and storage carousels.
The day the first RR01 arrived on site was shrouded with secrecy as the building was teeming with a 1000 contractors still carrying out installation, testing and commissioning of equipment…

But before I move on to RR01 I’d like to show you a sneaky little 3D virtual reality factory scan this evening that only a few folks in the know, know exists, in plain sight to the world on youtube.
The wonder that is the building I helped create.

Watch it now, on full screen and be amazed before it gets pulled from youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5QN1POoRD8

[shoestring7]

That's an awesome video Darren.

>C

[Darren C]

Thanks Charles, yes the detail of the 3D scan is mind-blowing. They used the same machine recently on TV, in the secret history program about the old buildings & cities in Italy.



Project RR01

Back in July of 1998 BMW started work on designing the new Rolls-Royce motorcar. They knew VW were planning to oust their engines from Seraph and Arnage and they also knew that VW initially proposed a W16 engine as the replacement.

With Tim Leverton in charge of Project RR01 engineering in UK BMW wanted an engine to not only rival but exceed VW’s W16.
By late 1998 it was decided that the whole new platform being developed for the new car would be powered by an all new V16 engine. The platform and body were to be constructed entirely from Aluminium, unlike anything in the then BMW portfolio.
Engineering development moved fast and within a couple of years a very refined 9 litre V16 had arrived with a whopping 770BHP at 5900rpm and 1100lb/ft of torque at 2900rpm.
The platform, engine bay, bulkhead and centre tunnel was subsequently designed around this new drive chain.
Mean while in Johnny Depp’s old apartment in London, Ian Cameron and his team had come up with a few potential body designs to show the Board.
Clay models were made and presented for approval.



The design was chosen



And in full size approved for production (note the BMW alloys!)



Allowing the fixtures and fittings to start being sourced



By the beginning of 2001 the first prototypes were being assembled for test & analysis.
Here’s a photograph of the V16 in place where it was intended.



Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) by early 2000 VW had dropped the W16 idea in favour of the old Crewe V8 and the Continental GT project was favouring a W12 Phaeton platform.
With concerns over emissions and green credentials, BMW decided to halt the V16 engine choice with only 3 fully built and tested prototypes made.
4 cylinders were quickly shaved off the design and a new V12 was created.



The new V12 version was 6.75 litre (to match exactly the size of the Crewe V8) producing 453 BHP and capable of propelling the 2.5 ton car from 0-62mph in 5.9 seconds.

The Summer of 2002 was an amazing time at Goodwood. The first dummy “bodies in white” had started to arrive under deep security and the Paintshop had begun testing the new robots and training the staff amidst what seemed like organised chaos. The Leathershop & Woodshops were starting up machinery for the very first time and ex Rolls-Royce (Crewe) craftsman sat beside new employees.
Parts and teams arrived from Munich & London where the prototypes had been assembled and began to test each section of the newly assembled production line.
The line is split into numerous bays (Takt bays) where a given number of tasks are carried out in a set time before the car moves on to the next bay.
A plan had been already drawn up, bays equipped with machinery & tools and between the teams from Munich and the new employees, the tasks were learnt and perfected as waste skips filled up with items that failed the grade.
The first handful of cars were assembled, dismantled and assembled numerous times (maybe 8-10 times) before the majority of issues were resolved and the staff trained.
It was a very interesting time to see RR01 coming together, and many, many long over-nighters for the engineering teams, subcontractors and suppliers to get everything in place and working. Like most ambitious projects of this nature a few things occurred to test us and a good amount of 11th hour Imagineering was done to resolve them. Over the next few months I was called to numerous parts of the production facility and had to rework equipment or look to suppliers and manufacturers for alternative machinery to meet new requirements.
As you can imagine there was a lot going on, not only at work, but at this critical time I was going through a divorce, so all in all I didn’t really get time to dwell on stuff. Looking back now with rose tinted spectacles, it was probably a blessing in disguise, but certainly not much fun at the time.

On 1 January 2003 Project Rolls-Royce became Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited as per the details of the deal agreed with Vickers during the 1998 purchase.
5 days later on January 6th 2003 an all new Rolls-Royce, named “Phantom” was unveiled to the waiting world at the Detroit Motorshow and simultaneously to the UK Press at Goodwood. The Mighty Marketing Machine began to rumble into life and Phantoms began to roll out of the door.








With its new V12 in place and only a small number of design team ever knowing about the V16



The promises that had been made back in 1998, to build a whole new car worthy of the name Rolls-Royce in an all new factory by 2003 had been kept…

[keith fellowes]

That is one amazing building.
So how do you drain the water from the upturned domes to appease Lord March?

Wonderful to see how other industries work, and all the clay models

[Darren C]

That was quite a tricky one Keith.
Basically the skylights are made of panes of isosceles triangular double glazed glass in a spider web frame. The frame in the centre was re-worked to incorporate a stainless drain pipe with floating flange. On to the underside of this was connected a drain pipe that runs into the rainwater collection system.The roof membranes were altered around the perimeter to seal the exposed roof cross section.
All was good until the resident shitehawks (we’re close to the sea) decide to build nests and drop all sorts of debris into the funnel, plus the living roof vegetation grows and falls in, which combined block the drains. Since the glass is 10m up and non load bearing you need Tom Cruise dangling on a mission impossible wire from a helicopter to clear the debris out. Once they start to block up the water fills up the glass and the pressure and weight overwhelm the seals and its like a leak on a submarine with the final act from Titanic when the glass dome above the staircase fails.
After a rethink I designed a special weir trap box containing a secondary drain and a large access cap for putting your hand through from below so you can reach up into the funnel from below (off a cherry picker) to pull out the twigs etc. The special 50mm deep weir section catches moss and silt so as not to block the main rainwater harvest pipe which can be cleared manually or by flushing using the emergency drain fittings. Phew…hope you kept up with all of that!
Anyways, my bespoke engineering solution is what protects the whole production line (as the skylights run along it from above) and appeases Charlie March and the shitehawks.
In any press, video or photo’s you see of the main production hall from the courtyard you will see 86 vertical blinds running along the length of the glass façade that emulate the radiator grill of a Rolls-Royce. They open and close to maintain the light level within the production hall. Designed by Grimshaw, but engineered by me. They never worked from installation. I redesigned the actuator mountings, sourced and fitted new actuators, link bars, pivot pins and bearings, making several prototypes at home in my shed on my lathe. Once I got these perfected we sub contracted it out to a local engineering company to mass produce CNC them. The control PCB’s I soldered together on my office desk.
Every time you see the blinds open and close it’s a fantastic automated spectacle, especially at launch evenings where a film is projected onto them in a panoramic super wide screen at night that appears as the blinds close and the factory lights up as they open to reveal the view of the production line at the end. I made that possible, it’s part of what I do!
Anyways less of the building and more of the car story….


6 weeks after launch of the new Rolls-Royce Phantom production began to ramp up from ONE to THREE cars being built per day. While a new optional rear seat “Theatre”configuration was announced ahead of the Geneva Motor Show on the 4th March 2003. All cars built during the first 3 months were dealer support vehicles and the first Customer cars were delivered in April of 2003. (With the exception of Phantom No 1 that went to a VVIP private owner in Australia)
The new theatre package was based around two separate power operated rear seats and a dedicated DVD entertainment system with screens in the backrests of the front seats that were concealed when not in use.
On May 10th 2003 the Factory had its official opening ceremony headed by Tony Gott, with much pomp & circumstance accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and VVIP guests. A marvellous time was had by all.
Just one week later I had to dust of my DJ once again wearing my other hat for the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club, following guiding members around the plant a special VIP Black Tie Dinner was held in the Charlton Suite at Goodwood Racecourse. (For anyone that knows the Racecourse on the top of the Southdowns, the Carlton suite is on the top floor with stunning panoramic views of the Goodwood Estate, Motor Circuit and R-R Plant). Guests from Rolls-Royce included Tony Gott (Chairman), Axel Oesterling (Marketing Director), Dieter Udelhoven (Manufacturing Director), and Fred Fruth (General Manager, Public Affairs). Beginning the evening Tony Gott gave a brief resume of the current progress of the Company and the Plant.
I was starting to enjoy this new lifestyle!
Production was moving up a gear by the end of 2003; 481 Phantoms had been built, 200 of which, were in November and December such was the large gear change that took place. Goodwood was a frantic place but by now everyone had settled into a routine.
By the end of 2003 Phantom had reached all 4 corners of the Globe. In January 2004 1 year after launch the Phantom returned again to the Detroit Motorshow.

2004 was a very special occasion as it marked the beginning of the 100-year anniversary celebrations of Rolls-Royce. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first met in May 1904 at the Midland Hotel in Manchester and agreed to go into business together. Rolls selling the Royce motorcar. Plans were underway for a new Red Badge Celebration Special to mark the event.
On January 13th the 500th Phantom was built.

While all eyes were on Phantom, behind the scenes new models were being designed tested and evaluated. Following Rolls-Royce tradition, new models once into prototype stage become EX or sometimes referred to as EXP “Experimental” cars.

3 years earlier work had begun on 100EX
On the 2nd March 2004, 100EX was unveiled at the Geneva motor show to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rolls-Royce. With a shortened Phantom lightweight aluminium spaceframe, the 100EX was an open-top, four-seat, two-door drophead.
“The overall impression is intended to be of an elegant motor yacht at speed”, said head stylist Marek Djordjevic.
The rear of the car was finished with teak decking and tapers into a boat-tail style with “countryman” boot that is split to give a separate lower tailgate ideal for picnics or for use as an elevated platform.
CEO, Tony Gott, said, “It is always exciting to unveil something new at a motor show, but particularly something as fresh and innovative as the 100EX. In wanting to mark this very special year we decided that there would be no better way than to revive the EX motor cars philosophy and produce something unique to show around the world.”
(As a tale for another day, go back through this thread and take a look at the original registration plate on my 1936 Rolls-Royce)





This old little film captures this point in the history of Rolls-Royce Goodwood very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X4Yzp_ ... 0560B5CBAF

With everything going so well, barely 2 months later a shock announcement would be made…….

[Darren C]

With everything going to plan a historic event took place on the 30th March 2004.
The very first Rolls-Royce Dealership opened at No1 Red Square Moscow next door to the Kremlin!
To mark the occasion a pre war Phantom tourer once belonging to Lenin was on display alongside the new Goodwood Phantom.

Just a few weeks later on the 25th May 2004, completely out of the blue Tony Gott, the CEO of Rolls-Royce, was replaced by Karl-Heinz Kalbfell.

An announcement was made in the press the following day and as a result the workforce were addressed. BMW said that they had accepted the resignation of Tony Gott but no-one knew why? All we were told was that it was Tony’s decision to resign. In a statement BMW said "We did not ask him to resign. It was his personal decision. The first we were aware of his intention to resign was when he told us this morning."
Tony didn’t have another job to go to and it seemed all too familiar to me after Graham Morris quit when VW moved into Crewe and even John Towers CEO of Rover had quit, shortly after BMW had taken over there.
Everyone was absolutely gobsmacked, it was only a couple of months after revealing EX100 Phantom Drophead and the company was going from strength to strength.
I did subsequently find out that Tony had, had a run in with Helmut Panke Chairman of BMW over how to “run” the site at Goodwood which had resulted in his departure.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed that year was one to remember as Rolls-Royce had the central display outside the House to celebrate the 100 year anniversary.
The centrepiece of the event was a large sculpture designed by Gerry Judah, which was the most ambitious construction ever for the Festival. Encompassing world speed records on land, on water and in the air, the three most famous Rolls-Royce powered world record-breakers had been mounted on a specially-designed structure high above Goodwood House:
Sir Malcolm Campbell's 1935 Bluebird car (body by A.F.McNeil, Gurney Nutting) Flt Lt LR 'Batchy' Atcherley's Supermarine S6/6A 'N248' Schneider Trophy sea-plane and an exacting replica of Sir Malcolm Campbell's and his son Donald Campbell's Bluebird K4 boat.
Also on display was AX201 the famous Silver Ghost and one of the very first 10HP Rolls-Royce motorcars ever made. Ironically with VW purchasing the Asset back in 1998, they “owned” all the factory historic Rolls-Royces, history and archives. True to form they taunted BMW over this.
I remember going down to watch the Bluebird and S6 being lifted into place by crane and as this was on behalf of RRMC the insurance was set at £30Million just in case the crane had a little accident!



Since BMW sponsored the sculptures they didn’t take kindly to having any VW “asset” nearby, so to keep the peace, the Goodwood Estate placed AX201 & the 10HP the other side of the track on the cricket green.



Just as things were starting to settle down at the Plant, in October Karl-Heinz Kalbfell left overnight too!

Both men were good men in my book, and things were starting to get a little worrying. Karl who I got on well with was into motorsport, Tony was into his old vintage WO Bentley and a classic Alfa he drove regularly. The CEO position was not something they’d give away lightly.
Karl got a job as CEO for Alfa Romeo which left our ship Captain-less.
Stefan Krause was despatched from Munich leaving his job there as Board Member in charge of Finance (which kinda said a 1000 words) to step in as temporary CEO

Shortly afterwards it was announced that Ian Robertson (who I found out later had a degree in maritime studies, so guess what…..me being ex Navy and all….) was to be the new CEO as from February 2005
Ian had worked is way up to purchasing director at Rover and by 1994, he’d become the MD of Land Rover (At the same time R-R Crewe had been involved in the Bentley Dominator project) in the same year (1994) BMW acquired the Rover Group including its subsidiary brands Land Rover, MG and Mini. Ian was also privy to the Rolls-Royce Crewe project Java and its influence/integration on the Rover 75.
Working at Landrover until 1999, Ian had moved within BMW group to become the MD of BMW South Africa.
As a little insight into Tony Gott’s departure, I can tell you that Ian Robertson’s brief upon joining Rolls-Royce Motorcars in 2005 was to “improve on the lacklustre sales performance of Phantom since it’s launch” (There’s a DDK exclusive)

One thing that moved up a gear that was immediately noticeable was the introduction of a seemingly endless set of Limited Edition cars, creating exclusivity and with it came demand.
A run of Red Badge 100 year anniversary Phantoms had been finished which were stunning and followed quickly by an 80th anniversary of the name Phantom (1925) Limited Edition. Each time, out doing the one before.
My favourite area of the site “Bespoke” started to expand and I was kept busy moving walls, diverting services and building expanded workshops.

Meanwhile amidst all the drama at the top, a new model was being finished off.
Hot on the tail of 100EX came 101EX a coupe version.

As I know a few of you like to see the clay models, I’ve dug a few out of the birth of 101EX







Much to my delight the design team brought in a Delorean in to Area 51 to look at and assess the option of brushed stainless steel bonnet and windscreen surround.

On the 28th February 2006 at the Geneva Motorshow 101EX was unveiled.





The 101EX shared its aluminium space frame chassis technology with the Phantom Drophead 100EX as well as the Phantom 6.75-litre V12 engine.



101EX also had the very first “starlight” headliner, featuring the sky at night in the Northern Hemisphere on 1st January 2003 when the New Rolls-Royce Motorcars came into being.



(I built the turntable rigs upon which all the Starlight headliners are made)

I had to laugh back then when Ian Robertson announced to the world at the Geneva unveil of 101 EX
“Currently there are no plans to develop a production version of 101EX”.


That’s how to create demand in a market of wealth….tell them they can’t have it!

Obviously we were tooling up for both 100EX & 101EX and on the 1st January 2007 the announcement was made that the 100EX shown over 2 years earlier would go into production and the 101EX production run announcement was made later that year on 23rd October.
Again this was a very busy time for me, re-engineering the production line services, Takt bays and associated expansions of all departments.
101EX did catch the eye of a longstanding customer and automotive connoisseur, who I first met in 1985 and several occasions since.
A certain Mr Rowan Atkinson. Mr Atkinson knew about the marque history, and from a few undisclosed sources, knew about the first designs and in particular the 3 completed V16 engines.
As a complete enthusiast he made a private request to purchase one of the first 101EX coupe’s but fitted with 1 of the 3, V16 engines.
As part of the deal for doing this the car was to be featured in the movie Johnny English Reborn.
Obviously Ian Robertson jumped at the chance.



In super secrecy the deep metallic blue car came down the production line and away from prying eyes, the V16 was installed.
To finish this evening I’ll let Mr Atkinson tell you about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_KXaNr7uiE

[nrc914]

Darren, I have to give it to you - how do you remember all this history in so much detail?

[jtparr]

Love the stories Darren...but I am sure that whilst Grimshaw may have initiated the design intent of the moving sunshades it would have been a performance specification for the ultimate design and construction to be the responsibility of the facade contractor

Looking forward to more
Jonathan