With the imminent arrival of the Rolls-Royce Black Badge, the most extreme edition from the famous manufacturer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London is celebrating some other extremes from the company’s history, reports MATILDA FRANCES
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]utomotive enthusiasts, freaks and collectors around the world know that Rolls-Royce is not a toy for the kids. Neither is it a car that would be sold at buy-one-get-one-free. But all these and more have been experienced by marketers of the super luxury vehicle.
Or how does one describe a 12-year-old boy placing an order for a Rolls-Royce? Extremism, that was. For it happened. Would anyone expect somebody to order for three Rolls Royce at a go? It happened. Extremism it was.
Truly, since 1927, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars flagship showroom based at Berkeley Square in Mayfair, West London, has seen all manner of extremes.
A release made available to Motoring World International at the weekend, contains a record of nine extremisms in the history of automotive purchase anywhere in the world.
Enjoy it.
Starting early: What car did you drive in your early 20s? A Rolls-Royce might not be within reach for every 21-year-old, but that is the age of the youngest customer ever to have bought a car through Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London. It wasn’t just any car – it was the one-off Rolls-Royce Inspired by Film, which really brings the bespoke element of Rolls-Royce to life.
Amazingly, this Rolls-Royce buyer isn’t the youngest anywhere in the world, though, as a gentleman from Taiwan who ordered his first Phantom at the age of just 12.
Precise pink: Rolls-Royce offers limitless possibilities for personalization, allowing you to choose your car in whatever colour you like. The most specific colour scheme chosen by a Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London customer was a red exterior and a bubblegum pink interior. It wasn’t just any red and pink, though, as the buyer brought in a t-shirt that he wanted to match the colours to.
Three at once: Taking delivery of a new Rolls-Royce is usually a special occasion, but for one customer June is going to be a time to really treasure. They are taking delivery of three Rolls-Royce Dawns – the first time that a customer has bought three cars in one go from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London.
Special occasion :When a customer does take delivery of their new car, it is far from being a simple hand over of the keys and the documents. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London makes sure it is an occasion to remember, and takes the new owner through every aspect of their car. The process takes on average three hours, and is the perfect 
introduction to life with a Rolls-Royce. As a final, and personal touch, the new owner even gets a gift specific to their car.
All about timing :When a car is sold through Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London, it is treated with the utmost care and attention. Before it is deemed worthy to be handed over to customer, it will be thoroughly prepared, with each car taking five hours to valet and get just right.
Carefully painted: To achieve the Rolls-Royce mirror-like finish, the only robots you will find at the Home of Rolls-Royce apply five layers of paint. Highly skilled paint experts paint any hard-to-reach spots. In total the process of applying a flawless exterior finish takes 7 days and uses over 100lb of paint.
Find the lady: The Spirit of Ecstasy is the a finishing touch of simplistic elegance on the bonnet of every bonnet, but the mechanism that moves her up and down is anything but simple – there are as many as 24 unseen linkages and bearings that work together to tuck her out of sight.
Finely tuned: Even though many elements of a Rolls-Royce can be changed according to a customer’s desires, the 1300 Watt, 18 speaker Bespoke Audio system in a Rolls-Royce is so exhaustively tuned, interior designers must seek the permission of the Engineer who created it before making any design changes.
Stars above: The Starlight Headliner, one the most popular Bespoke features in a modern Rolls-Royce, comprise 1340 individually hand-woven fibre-optics in the interior roof. Customers are able to specify a specific constellation, which will be verified by a local observatory, and more than 2km of cabling is painstakingly hand-woven to achieve the eye-catching effect.
