Venerable motoring vision… across the Atlantic
[caption id="attachment_1443" align="alignright" width="300"]
Rolls-Royce Pinnacle Travel Phantom[/caption]
They might have been created in garages thousands of kilometres apart, with distinctive engineering cultures, but two of the world’s most iconic car brands share at least two qualities: impressive longevity and visionary founders.
Established in Detroit, the Ford Motor Company celebrated its 111th birthday on 16 June, while Rolls-Royce held special celebrations one month earlier at Goodwood and in Manchester to mark the 110th anniversary of the first historic meeting between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce.
[caption id="attachment_1445" align="alignright" width="300"]
Ford Model T[/caption]
A pioneer at a time when many people thought motoring was a fad that would soon pass, the Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls was raised with aristocratic privilege. He was an enthusiastic and accomplished motorist, and a shrewd businessman and talented engineer. Rolls raced bicycles, motorcycles and motor cars and was an early advocate of aviation, firstly with balloons and later with aeroplanes. He funded his sporting activity by running a London-based car sales and service depot, C.S. Rolls and Co, mostly selling cars that were imported. This caused him great frustration, and he often voiced criticism about the lack of British initiative in this field.
[caption id="attachment_1453" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Charles Rolls[/caption]
Sir Henry Royce had more humble origins: one of five children, he helped support his family selling newspapers for W.H. Smith, before becoming a telegraph boy for the Post Office. An aunt offered to pay for an apprenticeship at the Great Northern Railway Works at Peterborough, the cradle of many great British engineers, and his apprenticeship, combined with self-taught knowledge, resulted in a job with the Electric Light and Power Company in London. He subsequently set up his own successful engineering business in Manchester. Also frustrated by the standard of construction and workmanship of motor vehicles In the early 1900s, Royce set out to design and build his own car, the 10hp “Royce”.
[caption id="attachment_1455" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Henry Royce[/caption]
Colleagues in their respective companies suggested they meet, and they did so on 4 May 2004 in the Midland Hotel in Manchester. After a drive in the “Royce” Rolls was so impressed he agreed to sell all the cars that Royce could build. “I have met the greatest engineer in the world,” he said later. It was decided to name the result of their collaboration the Rolls-Royce motor car. The famous radiator shape was devised and shortly afterwards the badge of entwined first letters from each man’s surname.
One year earlier, the Ford Motor Company had been launched in a converted factory with $28,000 in cash from 12 investors, including John and Horace Dodge (who went on to found their own car company). Henry Ford had originally set up the Henry Ford Company on 3 November 1901 but he left following disputes with stockholders and they renamed it after the French explorer who founded Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.
[caption id="attachment_1447" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Ford Mustang[/caption]
The first Ford Model T was produced in 1908 and, by 1916, 55 per cent of all cars on the road were Model Ts – partly due to the fact its price was less than half that of its rivals.
In 1911, a Ford agent named Henry Alexander drove a Model T to the top of the UK’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, to prove its ruggedness. Traversing snow and rock, the ascent took five days. Famously known for being available in any colour “so long as it is black”, the Model T was actually originally offered in several colours. With the introduction of the moving assembly line in 1913, Ford went with the black-only option, as black paint had the quickest drying time. The Model T was produced for 19 years and by the time the last of them rolled off the assembly line at the Highland Park Plant in Michigan, on 26 May 1927, Ford had produced 15 million of the models. In 1999, the Ford Model T was named “Car of the Century” by the Global Automotive Elections Foundation.
[caption id="attachment_1449" align="alignright" width="300"]
Contemporary sophistication in La Zagaleta[/caption]
So that’s the history… More recently, the two companies have produced such engineering masterpieces as the Ford Mustang and bespoke Rolls-Royce Pinnacle Travel Phantom featured here, the perfect accessories for anyone buying this villa in the ultra-exclusive La Zagaleta urbanisation, currently undergoing a major renovation which will transform the property into an exceptional contemporary home.
Click
here to see more.
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Rolls-Royce Pinnacle Travel Phantom[/caption]
They might have been created in garages thousands of kilometres apart, with distinctive engineering cultures, but two of the world’s most iconic car brands share at least two qualities: impressive longevity and visionary founders.
Established in Detroit, the Ford Motor Company celebrated its 111th birthday on 16 June, while Rolls-Royce held special celebrations one month earlier at Goodwood and in Manchester to mark the 110th anniversary of the first historic meeting between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce.
[caption id="attachment_1445" align="alignright" width="300"]
Ford Model T[/caption]
A pioneer at a time when many people thought motoring was a fad that would soon pass, the Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls was raised with aristocratic privilege. He was an enthusiastic and accomplished motorist, and a shrewd businessman and talented engineer. Rolls raced bicycles, motorcycles and motor cars and was an early advocate of aviation, firstly with balloons and later with aeroplanes. He funded his sporting activity by running a London-based car sales and service depot, C.S. Rolls and Co, mostly selling cars that were imported. This caused him great frustration, and he often voiced criticism about the lack of British initiative in this field.
[caption id="attachment_1453" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Charles Rolls[/caption]
Sir Henry Royce had more humble origins: one of five children, he helped support his family selling newspapers for W.H. Smith, before becoming a telegraph boy for the Post Office. An aunt offered to pay for an apprenticeship at the Great Northern Railway Works at Peterborough, the cradle of many great British engineers, and his apprenticeship, combined with self-taught knowledge, resulted in a job with the Electric Light and Power Company in London. He subsequently set up his own successful engineering business in Manchester. Also frustrated by the standard of construction and workmanship of motor vehicles In the early 1900s, Royce set out to design and build his own car, the 10hp “Royce”.
[caption id="attachment_1455" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Henry Royce[/caption]
Colleagues in their respective companies suggested they meet, and they did so on 4 May 2004 in the Midland Hotel in Manchester. After a drive in the “Royce” Rolls was so impressed he agreed to sell all the cars that Royce could build. “I have met the greatest engineer in the world,” he said later. It was decided to name the result of their collaboration the Rolls-Royce motor car. The famous radiator shape was devised and shortly afterwards the badge of entwined first letters from each man’s surname.
One year earlier, the Ford Motor Company had been launched in a converted factory with $28,000 in cash from 12 investors, including John and Horace Dodge (who went on to found their own car company). Henry Ford had originally set up the Henry Ford Company on 3 November 1901 but he left following disputes with stockholders and they renamed it after the French explorer who founded Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.
[caption id="attachment_1447" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Ford Mustang[/caption]
The first Ford Model T was produced in 1908 and, by 1916, 55 per cent of all cars on the road were Model Ts – partly due to the fact its price was less than half that of its rivals.
In 1911, a Ford agent named Henry Alexander drove a Model T to the top of the UK’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, to prove its ruggedness. Traversing snow and rock, the ascent took five days. Famously known for being available in any colour “so long as it is black”, the Model T was actually originally offered in several colours. With the introduction of the moving assembly line in 1913, Ford went with the black-only option, as black paint had the quickest drying time. The Model T was produced for 19 years and by the time the last of them rolled off the assembly line at the Highland Park Plant in Michigan, on 26 May 1927, Ford had produced 15 million of the models. In 1999, the Ford Model T was named “Car of the Century” by the Global Automotive Elections Foundation.
[caption id="attachment_1449" align="alignright" width="300"]
Contemporary sophistication in La Zagaleta[/caption]
So that’s the history… More recently, the two companies have produced such engineering masterpieces as the Ford Mustang and bespoke Rolls-Royce Pinnacle Travel Phantom featured here, the perfect accessories for anyone buying this villa in the ultra-exclusive La Zagaleta urbanisation, currently undergoing a major renovation which will transform the property into an exceptional contemporary home.
Click here to see more.