Struggling against recession, the oil crisis, an ageing product line-up and a more egalitarian, changing culture, Rolls-Royce went into receivership in 1971. The company was split into two units, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars (including Bentley) and Rolls-Royce Plc, comprising the aeronautical operations, though car sales continued as before for two years until the firm was floated on the stock market. New Carmargue models were launched in 1975; these two-door coupes were based on the Silver Shadow platform, but had bodywork designed by Italian coachbuilders Pininfarina, the first non-British company to style a Rolls-Royce. The coupe bodies were designed to metric dimensions, and the cabins incorporated the latest luxury features such as dual-level air conditioning.
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| Silver Spirit |
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The so-called Project SZ also continued: the development of the Silver Spirit and Silver Spur. These finally came to fruition in 1980; the Spirit, also built on the Shadow's platform but with a more modern body had new suspension, as used on the 1979 Corniche and Carmargue models. Some 8,125 Silver Spirit models were made, and over 8,000 longer-wheelbase Silver Spurs, produced and updated right up until 2000. A Silver Spur limousine, with 42 inches of extra legroom, was also made between 1982 and 1999; 101 of these were built. Revisions of all the models, special versions such as the 1990-91 Mulliner Spur, the 1996-99 Park Ward Limousine and the 25-car Silver Spur Centenary cars (1985, celebrating 100 years of the motor car) helped to keep the Rolls-Royce name alive, but did little to dispel the knowledge that the basic design of the cars was 30 years old. Bentley, too, was struggling, with its cars no more than badge-engineered versions of the Rollers, apart from the odd high-powered, turbocharged special edition model. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars had been bought out by the aerospace group Vickers in 1990, but the late 1990s, the loss-making company was up for sale again.
In July 1998, the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands separated. Bentley and the Crewe factory were bought by the Volkswagen Group, but the rights to the Rolls-Royce brand and the Spirit of Ecstasy symbol remained with the former Rolls-Royce Plc. BMW stepped in and purchased these - many say simply to stop Volkswagen from getting them - for a relatively small sum of money, but effectively bought little more than a sheet of paper entitling them to use the brand name.
With a completely clean slate to design a totally new Rolls-Royce (Volkswagen had the rights to all existing components, products and plans), BMW set up a studio in a former bank near Hyde Park. A further studio was established in Holborn, and a team led by Rolls-Royce chief executive and chairman Tony Gott began work on the modern-day Phantom, scheduled for launch on 1st January 2003, the day BMW took over full ownership of Rolls-Royce and its trademarks.
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| Silver Seraph |
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In the meantime, Volkswagen retained ownership of Rolls-Royce alongside that of Bentley, though the interim Silver Seraph (1998-2001, a sister model to the Bentley Arnage) The long-wheelbase Park Ward version was displayed at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show alongside the new Corniche convertible, hailed by many as the last 'real' Rolls-Royce, even though it was effectively a version of the Bentley Azure. With a 6.75-litre, 325bhp V8 (good for 544lb ft of torque, 135mph and 0-60 in 8 seconds), the technology was elderly, but the hand-finished interiors exquisite, with boxwood inlays and veneers, hand-finished Connolly leather and Wilton carpets - as you'd expect, at £250,000.
The Last of Line special edition Silver Seraph models were announced in July 2001. 170 of these were made, 45 for the UK market, and they featured two-tone paint finishes and red-detailed badging, as on the pre-1933 Rolls-Royces. The last Rolls off the production lines at Crewe, however, was a two-door Corniche made in August 2002: this remains at Crewe, and has a uniquely-designed interior based on that of the original 1907 Silver Ghost, with special upholstery, wood veneers and intricate marquetry.
Volkswagen embarked on a £500m revamp of the factory, converting it solely to Bentley production and upgrading it to make the all-new Continental GT: BMW, meanwhile, built from scratch a state-of-the-art facility for Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, Sussex, on the Earl of March's estate.
