Rollin’ with Rolls-Royce
India has always had a great love for opulence. As the Rolls-Royce (RR) was after all the most opulent car in the world it was little surprise that India’s maharajas used to buy nearly 25 per cent of all the Rolls-Royce (RR) cars produced between the two world wars.
India’s royalty may have taken a bit of a beating in a socialist India but India’s new industrial maharajas have continued the tradition and RR notched up a sale of 80 cars in India last year clearly demonstrating that India’s luxury market is on a gallop. RR admitted that they had underestimated the demand and could have probably sold over a hundred units. The growth of this super luxury car market where the BMW owned RR shares space with Volkswagen’s Bentley and DaimlerChrysler’s Maybach seems to be following the trend of the lesser luxury cars from Audi, BMW, Mercedes- Benz, Volvo that had increased sales from around 10,000 cars to 16,000 last year.
Once upon a time, RR was the favorite cars of the Maharajas as India’s royalty enjoyed huge revenues but had no wars to fight. RR’s were a favourite for shikars as the engines were so silent. This silence inspired names like Phantom, Silver Ghost and Wraith. As India’s royalty were a fussy lot, RR had a special production line for the Maharaja specials as there were many strange requirements like ‘purdahs’, coach lamps, snake shaped horns, etc.
RR itself had a remarkable history. Fredrick Henry Royce, creator of the great marque was of surprisingly humble origins. He was orphaned at 11 and did not have much education. He had a little experience as an apprentice in a railway works and two electric companies. But he taught himself with such determination that by the age of 21 he was able to set up his own company making, electric devices, electric cranes and motors. He bought his first car in 1903 at the age of 40. Dissatisfied with it he decided that he could build a better car himself. His partner of later times, Charles Stewart Rolls, by contrast, was born rich and was a keen motorist who had achieved a land speed record of, for the times, an incredible 150-kmph (93-mph) in 1903. When he tried the new RR he recognised that with a car of such quality it could make his name famous.
The writer is an automotive expert and the former editor of a national magazine
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