The first Rolls-Royce car made by BMW was launched yesterday, with military levels of secrecy. There were no blindfolds or physical gags ahead of the launch, but there were confidentiality papers to be signed and verbal warnings not to talk or write about the car were given before anyone was allowed in to the purpose-built Chichester assembly plant. The design of Project RR01 was kept under wraps at Holborn Film Studios in London, codenamed "the bookshop".
It seems inevitable that when one finally sees the 320,000 euro (£240,000) Phantom it looks like some bulky military vehicle, albeit of a diamond-studded variety. The war analogy continues when the Rolls-Royce chairman and chief executive, Tony Gott, arrives to talk about the car and immediately acts as if hit by nerve gas and says he must retire to a sick bed.
It turns out Mr Gott has flu and several days later he is back on the phone, fit and eager to speak about "the last great adventure in motor cars".
He is highly excited by the project but willing to reveal, ahead of yesterday's formal unveiling, neither the name of the four-door saloon nor its price.
Twitchiness
Some of this twitchiness can be explained by the fact that BMW was only to take control of the brand name Rolls-Royce on New Year's Day. The rights were transferred from another German car group, Volkswagen, and relations between the two have been fraught. Rolls-Royce car production was halted by VW last summer and the new BMW-backed company will build only the Phantom model.
Mr Gott has been connected with Rolls-Royce for rather longer than BMW, working for 18 bumpy years during which the marque hit as many lows as highs.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the 46-year-old argues that what is still probably the most celebrated name in British - if not world - motoring history now has the firm investment and operational platform (with BMW) to be great again.
"This is not quite a completely new beginning because the brand is still vibrant, it did not disappear, but it is a new start for the business, the motor car and what it stands for," he says. "Mr Royce was striving for the best solutions, using the best materials and product technology of the day. We are doing the same. There is almost no compromise."
No compromise on quality maybe, but traditionalists will have to swallow the fact that the "Britishness" of the new shiny beast has been somewhat diluted.
The V12 6.7-litre engine has been developed and will be produced in Munich, as will the lightweight aluminium bodyshell. The cars will be assembled in West Sussex, where BMW has invested £65m designing and constructing a hi-tech headquarters and plant.
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, the highly regarded architect of the Eden project, produced the plans for the offices and factory, which are situated on a part of the Earl of March's Goodwood estate, less than 10 miles from the former West Wittering home of the company's founder, Sir Henry Royce.
Mr Gott says that 350 British workers will put the vehicles together, making and hand-finishing interior parts in wood and leather.
"Mr Royce was striving for the best materials and product technology of his day and we have done the same to produce engineering excellence with superb reliability and effortless performance. We would not claim this is the best car ever but it is a very remarkable machine," he says.
The chief engineer, Tim Leverton, is also British. He and Mr Gott have been involved in a team of around 30 people, some of whom have been working on creating a new generation of Rolls-Royce cars since January 1999.
A new company, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, has been established to operate as a stand-alone subsidiary of BMW. The firm will have its own exclusive network of 60 or so dealers around the world. The Rolls-Royce board will be headed by Mr Gott with BMW-linked finance and manufacturing directors plus a number of other independents.
BMW has a lot of commercial ground to make up with Rolls-Royce because the name has been tarnished by years of under-investment and ownership changes that saw it hived off from the aero-engine side of Rolls-Royce, then passed on to Vickers and VW before ending up in BMW's hands.
The Bentley marque, which was connected with Rolls for so long, is being retained by VW and those cars will continue to be constructed in Crewe.
Mr Gott is aware that some members of the public now associate the Rolls-Royce car as much with East End scrap dealers as with the David Beckhams of this world.
He expects this to change with the new car and a marketing push which comes as rival volume car makers such as Ford and General Motors are struggling with a downturn in consumer spending and high levels of debt.
Chichester plans to produce only 1,000 cars a year and, Mr Gott points out, potential purchasers are unlikely to be strapped for cash even in a global slowdown. He admits that they might be weighing up a new Rolls as against a luxury power boat or a new holiday home in the West Indies. So, in the more egalitarian times of the 21st century is Mr Gott not slightly embarrassed to be peddling such an unashamedly élitist product?
"I don't like that phrase," he responds. "It is not necessarily élitist; it is for people who appreciate the very best quality, be it a yacht, a helicopter or just a wonderful guitar."
Others might question whether gas guzzlers such as the Phantom are really appropriate in today's world of climate change and environmental awareness.
Mr Gott argues that 80% of all Rollers ever produced are still being driven, whereas most other cars hit the breaker's yard after a relatively short period. "There is more energy used in producing a car compared with the amount it consumes during a lifetime," he says.
So does the chief executive get a Roller on the house? "Yes, I am able to drive one. It is important I know the car well so I can talk with knowledge to customers and dealers."
Preoccupation
It's not surprisingly to learn that Mr Gott was the son of a manager with the Michelin and then Pirrelli tyre companies. A preoccupation with cars started with traditional toys on the living room carpet, according to his mother. His personal favourite is probably his own 1926 vintage Bentley, and he admits to being in seventh heaven tinkering "to a fault" with any old engine he can get his hands on.
Mr Gott's enthusiasm for the new venture is almost outdone by his admiration for the German parent group. "I admire BMW. They are a fantastic company, brilliant to work for, tremendously alive, superb processes," he says. He reserves the biggest praise for the area where the UK is traditionally seen as very weak - long-term thinking - but refuses to be drawn too deeply on why Germany can seemingly do things Britain cannot.
"I have got theories - the transient nature of roles and jobs - that fact that (British) people don't commit themselves long term. In the end it's maybe just cultural differences and an ability to align personal with corporate longer term goals," he muses.
The secrecy is over, the wraps are off and the car is heading for the official launch at the Detroit motor show on Monday. Now all Mr Gott has to do is sell a few.
The CV
Born 13 February 1956
Education Loughborough University, engineering
Employment 1978, development engineer, TI group; 1982, senior engineer, Lotus Cars; 1984, senior design engineer, Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motor Cars; 1994, project director;1997, board member (engineering);1999, chief executive; 2002, head of BMW group - project Rolls-Royce; 2003, chairman and chief executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
Hobbies Climbing, walking and tinkering with 1929 vintage Bentley
Family Wife and two children, aged 16 and 12
