How would you like your Phantom, Sir?

“It can’t be done” is a phrase that’s never used at the Rolls-Royce Motor Car plant in Goodwood. Here, in West Sussex, you’ll find people who are passionate about the motorcar, building them by hand and customizing them to the tastes and specs of their future owners.

Rather the maxim followed here is that it will it be done, and done to perfection.That is why amongst all the tools ever used to build a Rolls-Royce Phantom, there is also a tailor’s tape measure.
“We used it to measure an inside leg” said Clive Woolmer, head of Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke Business.
When I was in England last, I drove down to Goodwood to visit the RRMC plant and to find out more about their Bespoke programme and spend some time with a Rolls-Royce Phantom. I was as excited as a little boy out on a picnic because not only was I going to see these fine cars being built and meet the people whobuild them, but I was also going to take one out for a drive.

The tape measure mentioned above epitomizes the values of the Bespoke programme wherein the Rolls-Royce Phantom, a car that defines automotive luxury, is made in accordance with a customer's specifications or requirements. While the Phantom already has an extensive options list, the Bespoke programme allows customers to create a car that is completely personal to them by specifying features that are not usually available.

Gavin Hartley, manager Bespoke interior design, explained that the tape measure was used when a customer requested foot rests in his Rolls-Royce Phantom. “Just clapping on standard footrests is never an option.” Mr Hartley emphasized. “The customer’s inside leg was measured and shoe size noted so that special foot rests could be fabricated and perfectly positioned”.

The Goodwood plant doesn’t sound like a factory at all, because the hum of assembly line robots is missing. On the spotless factory floor, technicians put the car together by hand. It takes a minimum of two months to put a Rolls together. The only robots employed are in the paint shop since it ensure an even and perfect application that painting by hand cannot match.

But then again robots cannot replace Mark Court who painstakingly hand paints the coachline – the six meter pinstripe down the side of the car - using brushes made of ox and squirrel hair. It’s a three-hour process requiring immense concentration. Mark, a trained sign writer, spent six months learning the coachlining technique. He also does special artwork requested by customers, such as initials or coats of arms.

The impression I got at the works is that Rolls-Royce firmly believes that there is no substitute for the trained human eye and the sensitivity of human finger tips. This is why in the woodworks department skilled technicians work to shape the 42 wood parts required for each Phantom using the latest woodworking technology and traditional handcraft skills.

In the leather area producing leather covered trim components and seat covers, sixty people work to select the best quality hides, check them for defects and then stitch them together using computer assisted sewing equipment.

Within the Bespoke programme the interior trim and seat shapes and sizes can differ so each of the components and seat covers are sewn individually to ensure a perfect fit. Fitting the leather to the component part is a highly skilled job and facilitated using

the latest fully adjustable servo assisted, custom built jigs.

A Rolls-Royce is not bought, it is commissioned.
Mr Woolmer explained to me that customers very often visit the factory and have a chat with Gavin Hartley about what they want in their car. Mr Hartley invites them to relax in the plush Bespoke lounge. There, through photographs of previous cars, stunning visual displays and sometimes with the help of quick sketches, he makes suggestions and explains to them how their ideas for accessories or unique design elements can be implemented. A Phantom is also parked in the lounge so that the customers can indicate what they want where, on the car itself.

“Most customers love the sense of involvement in customizing the car to their tastes” Mr Woolmer says.

And the degree of customization is large. The Phantom features champagne cooler and flutes, but one customer was fond of Grey Goose Vodka, which comes in an awkwardly long bottle, and a cooler was fashioned specifically to accommodate that bottle.

Like the footrests, cigar humidors aren’t just clamped on, the length and girth of the preferred brand is noted as is the optimal humidity and a humidor is fashioned accordingly. The humidors as with the pen cases are a work of art that the customer can detach and take

along and would look beautiful on a dinner table. Other design details that can make your Rolls unique are personal monograms in the upholstery, unique motifs etched onto the wood trim, luggage that goes with the leather of the car, champagne glasses for the champagne cooler with your monogram etched on each. The possibilities are endless.

Much like the torque I realized when I was driving the car - it seemed endless. I just tapped the accelerator and there was enough power to warrant just a gentle caress of the pedal.

Seventy five percent of the torque is available when the engine is turning at just thousand times a minute. This makes the Rolls speed along in a stately unhurried way. On the cobbled English village roads we drove the air suspension gobbled all bumps and delivered a ride smooth enough for a passenger to sign a cheque with a fountain pen.

I had the Rolls for almost a day and I was going to enjoy it to the max, so after driving it our my heart’s content on country roads and the motorway we pulled off onto a meadow near the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. The wine and the juice that had been put into the cooler were now chilled, we pulled straws and the designated driver got the juice. The sandwiches we bought from the café at the museum were made from flour milled on site and were delicious.The boot of the Rolls opens to form a bench that can take 150kgs and it made the perfect picnic table. Afterwards under the shade of a mammoth old oak tree we sat like English lords on the rear seats and watched ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ on our individual TV sized LCD screens.

The Phantom features the very best in audiovisual technology. The Lexicon sound system employs 15 speakers and a nine-channel amplifier to deliver 420 watts of sound. Two subwoofers are housed within 16-litre resonance chambers in the space created by the Phantom’s double floor, while a combination of 100 mm mid-range and 25 mm tweeter arrays located all around the car result in an acoustic ‘sweet spot’ that encompasses the whole interior. It felt like being in the West Sussex multiplex. The movies Moscow car chase seemed to be happening inside the car.

Of course all this comes at a price that resembles a phone number. But what you get is the ultimate in automotive luxury, designed just for you. And that makes a very powerful statement.