Rolls-Royce

Frederick Henry Royce was so dissatisfied with the quality of his French-built car that in April 1904 he developed 3 of his own prototypes of a 2-cylinder, 10-horsepower vehicle in Manchester. These drove more reliably and word of mouth dictated that a friend of his business partner persuaded a certain Charles Rolls to meet Royce. Rolls, one of the first commercial car dealers in Britain, had been looking for higher quality cars than those he imported from Belgium and France for some time, so Royce and Rolls had the same goal from the start. Without a big contract, the idea to "mass produce" the first Rolls-Royce model, the Rolls-Royce 10hp, was realized. Rolls-Royce was born!
As early as 1911, the first Silver Ghost bore the legendary ́Spirit of Ecstasy ́ radiator mascot, a female figure with a scarf blowing in the wind.
In the 1920s, Rolls-Royce vehicles were already legendary and were driven by the nobility and celebrities worldwide. In 1931, the largest competitor to date, Bentley, was bought up in order to be able to offer sportier self-driving vehicles. During the Second World War, production was suspended after the death of Henry Royce.
From 1946, the numerous namesakes for today's models were produced - including the Dawn, Wraith and Phantom. In the 1970s, the actual Rolls-Royce company went bankrupt. The engine manufacturers and car production were separated from each other.
From 1997, the rights to the Rolls-Royce radiator and radiator mascot ́Spirit of Ecstasy ́ belonged to Bentley. However, BMW had already secured the rights to the name, so Bentley and Rolls-Royce were separated and from the early 2000s Bentley belonged to the Volkswagen Group and both production and rights to Rolls-Royce belonged to BMW. This is still the case today, so both brands are in strong partnership with global German automakers.