--- title: Rolls-Royce · HICONIUM description: The best car in the world — and the standard luxury answers to. canonical_url: https://hiconium.com/manufacturers/rollsroyce image: https://hiconium.com/og/marque/rollsroyce.png --- > HICONIUM · Index: https://hiconium.com/llms.txt · Every page: append `.md` or send `Accept: text/markdown`. > Path: [Home](https://hiconium.com/) › [Manufacturers](https://hiconium.com/manufacturers) › Rolls-Royce > On this page: [The essential Rolls-Royces](#the-essential-rolls-royces) · [Every Rolls-Royce on file](#every-rolls-royce-on-file) · [Vintage · Silver Ghost & Phantom](#vintage--silver-ghost--phantom) · [Post-war Classics](#post-war-classics) · [Coachbuild](#coachbuild) · [Engineering continuity, made individual through coachwork.](#engineering-continuity-made-individual-through-coachwork) · [Who drew and built the Rolls-Royce files](#who-drew-and-built-the-rolls-royce-files) · [Two letters, one handshake.](#two-letters-one-handshake) ![Rolls-Royce — manufacturer stage](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/stage/rollsroyce.jpg.w1920.q75.webp) [Manufacturers  /  Rolls-Royce](https://hiconium.com/manufacturers) # Rolls-Royce Goodwood, England · est. 1904 Engineering continuity, made individual through coachwork. Rolls-Royce built its reputation on quiet, durable rolling chassis, later bringing body construction in-house. Original coachwork and documented provenance separate significant examples. Models 13 Top value €25M Period 1904– [Explore models](https://hiconium.com/manufacturers/rollsroyce#essential) [Manufacturer profile](https://hiconium.com/manufacturers/rollsroyce#house-profile) ![Rolls-Royce — manufacturer stage](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/stage/rollsroyce.jpg.w1920.q75.webp) Curated entry points ## The essential Rolls-Royces Three cars that explain the manufacturer: its origins, its engineering peak and the shape of its modern ambition. [1906–1926 ### Silver Ghost The 40/50 hp that earned the marque its name. Collectibility 96 / 100 Indicative value €1.4M](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/silver-ghost) [1929–1936 ### Phantom II The Continental chassis made it a true grand routier. Collectibility 88 / 100 Indicative value €550k](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/phantom-ii) [2017 ### Sweptail The car that restarted coachbuilding — a single panoramic-roof commission. Collectibility 90 / 100 Indicative value €11M](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/sweptail) Complete catalogue ## Every Rolls-Royce on file 13 models · 3 families By family Sort Filter ## Vintage · Silver Ghost & Phantom 5 The cars that built the legend — the Silver Ghost that won the name, and the pre-war Phantoms that defined the coachbuilt grand car. The blue-chip top of the vintage market. [1906–1926 · 3 variants Silver Ghost The 40/50 hp that earned the marque its name. €1.4M 124 sales · median $296.78K 96 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/silver-ghost) [1925–1931 · 2 variants Phantom I The first Phantom — a pushrod overhead-valve six. €380k 101 sales · median $166.15K 84 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/phantom-i) [1929–1936 · 1 variants Phantom II The Continental chassis made it a true grand routier. €550k 121 sales · median $210.13K 88 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/phantom-ii) [1936–1939 Phantom III The only pre-war Rolls V12 — Royce’s final design. €450k 45 sales · median $86.1K 86 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/phantom-iii) [1946–1959 · 2 variants Silver Wraith The last fully coachbuilt-only Rolls — bespoke to the end. €140k 69 sales · median $42K 78 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/silver-wraith) ## Post-war Classics 4 The cars of the marque’s great post-war run — the stately Silver Cloud, the monocoque Silver Shadow, and the rakish Corniche and Camargue that brought coachwork into the modern age. [1955–1966 · 4 variants Silver Cloud The definitive 1950s Rolls; the dropheads lead the market. €220k 169 sales · median $66.33K 85 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/silver-cloud) [1965–1980 · 3 variants Silver Shadow The first monocoque Rolls — the affordable way in. €60k 100 sales · median $11.68K 72 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/silver-shadow) [1971–1995 · 2 variants Corniche The long-lived two-door; the convertible is the prize. €130k 90 sales · median $68.77K 79 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/corniche) [1975–1986 Camargue Pininfarina-styled, divisive, and the most expensive car of its day. €180k 28 sales · median $41.73K 76 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/camargue) ## Coachbuild 4 Goodwood’s revival of true coachbuilding — cars designed around a single client and built in ones and threes. The Boat Tail is reputed to be the most expensive new car ever made. [2017 · One of one Sweptail The car that restarted coachbuilding — a single panoramic-roof commission. €11M 90 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/sweptail) [2021 · One of one Boat Tail Three built, each with a hosting deck — the most expensive new car ever. €25M 95 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/boat-tail) [2023– · One of one Droptail A four-car coachbuilt series — the marque’s first modern two-seater roadster. €25M 93 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/droptail) [2017– · 3 variants Phantom The modern flagship and the canvas every Coachbuild car is built on. €550k 93 sales · median $144.54K 80 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/rollsroyce/phantom) The house ## Engineering continuity, made individual through coachwork. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce met in 1904, and within two years the 40/50 hp Silver Ghost had earned the marque a single, enduring claim: "the best car in the world." It was won on engineering — a six-cylinder engine so smooth and so reliable it made every rival feel unfinished. For a century the formula held. Royce supplied the chassis and the running gear; the great coachbuilders — Mulliner, Park Ward, Hooper — clothed them to order. A pre-war Phantom or a post-war Silver Cloud was a bespoke object before the word existed, and the best of them are blue-chip collectibles today. Under Goodwood, Rolls-Royce revived that tradition as a department: Coachbuild. The Sweptail, the Boat Tail and the Droptail are coach-built one-offs and three-offs in the original sense — designed around a single client, and priced as the most expensive new cars in the world. Founded 1904 Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first met on 4 May; Rolls-Royce Limited was incorporated in 1906. Record annual deliveries 6,032 Rolls-Royce reported this total for 2023, then the highest annual figure in the marque's history. Current architecture Aluminium spaceframe The proprietary Architecture of Luxury debuted with Phantom and also underpins Ghost, Cullinan and Spectre. Documented auction sale $2.97m Gooding sold the Barker-bodied 1912 Silver Ghost Double Pullman Limousine at Pebble Beach in 2007. Selected milestones ### A bloodline, not a list. 1. 1904 Rolls meets Royce Charles Rolls agrees to sell every car Henry Royce can build under the combined name. 2. 1907 The Silver Ghost proves the chassis Chassis 60551 completes the Scottish Reliability Trial and a subsequent run of nearly 15,000 miles, establishing quietness and endurance as engineering claims. 3. 1925 Phantom succeeds the 40/50 H.P. The New Phantom begins the long-running flagship line while retaining separate-chassis construction. 4. 1965 Silver Shadow adopts unit construction The first Rolls-Royce sold only as a complete car replaces the traditional rolling chassis with a monocoque body and subframes. 5. 2003 Production begins at Goodwood Delivery of the first Phantom VII starts the BMW-owned Rolls-Royce Motor Cars operation at its new factory. 6. 2017 Coachbuild returns Sweptail revives the practice of creating a complete body around one client's brief after a 24-year interruption. 7. 2023 Electric deliveries begin Spectre becomes the first electric series-production Rolls-Royce delivered to clients. What defines Rolls-Royce ### Quietness by engineering Balanced engines, isolated structures and acoustic tuning treat refinement as a mechanical requirement. ### Commission before catalogue Coachwork, Bespoke and modern Coachbuild let the client's brief determine the finished car. ### Proportion through change A long bonnet, formal grille and rear-passenger emphasis persist while the underlying construction evolves. The hands ## Who drew and built the Rolls-Royce files One name in the register stands behind this manufacturer. Their own file follows the work wherever it went. - [Sir Henry Royce Founder-engineer — the standard the house is measured by. 4 files · engineering engineering 4 files](https://hiconium.com/people/henry-royce) [The whole register of people](https://hiconium.com/people) The mark ## Two letters, one handshake. The badge is the partnership itself: Rolls the salesman, Royce the engineer, their initials interlocked. The letters were red until the early thirties — and the myth says they turned black in mourning when Royce died in 1933. The record is drier: Royce approved the change himself, before his death, because red clashed with customers’ paintwork. The figure everyone knows is not the badge at all. Charles Sykes delivered the Spirit of Ecstasy in February 1911, reworked from his earlier figurine The Whisper — Eleanor Thornton with a finger to her lips. In 2020 Pentagram’s Marina Willer did to the monogram what Royce did to the red: removed what got in the way. Spirit of Ecstasy: Charles Sykes, 1911 · 2020 identity: Marina Willer, Pentagram ![Rolls-Royce crest, 1906–1934](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/history/rollsroyce/crest-1906.png.w1920.q75.webp) 1906–1934 The Edwardian mark: heraldry and laurels around the two names. ![Rolls-Royce crest, 1911–1973](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/history/rollsroyce/logo-1911.png.w1920.q75.webp) 1911–1973 The interlocked Rs — red until Royce ruled it a clash with the paint. ![Rolls-Royce crest, 1973–1998](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/history/rollsroyce/logo-1973.png.w1920.q75.webp) 1973–1998 Boxed in navy — the badge of the newly separate Motors company. ![Rolls-Royce crest, 1998–2020](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/history/rollsroyce/logo-1998.png.w1920.q75.webp) 1998–2020 Silver and dimensional — the plate of the BMW era. 2020– Willer’s redraw: the rectangle removed, the monogram alone.