That treasure trove of appalling autodom described in the most gnarled English imaginable, otherwise known as eBay Motors, serves up today's flavorful morsel of weird and wonderful. Why wait for the upcoming Rolls-Royce RR4 when you can just throw $50K at this heavily customized Chrysler 300C? It's got the ostentatious grille, the suicide doors, the RR embroidered headrests, but most importantly, a HEMI V8 underhood. HEMI, apparently now transmuted to mean "multi-displacement system," will save you fuel as you rent the car out for the dreamy rate of $750 per day as the seller suggests. At least with a Chrysler lurking underneath all that nasty, you can be assured that repair costs will be nominal compared to the real thing.
The RR4 -- the Rolls-Royce that asks that you "don't call me 'baby'" -- is slowly undressing, striptease-like, before its final reveal at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. Previous spy shots hinted at rear suicide doors, or coach doors as Rolls-Royce refers to them, and now it is official: the hinges on the rear door are on the rear of the door. The car has plenty of Phatom-esque cues, and although it doesn't look anything like the initial sketch, it looks like it could be a very attractive proposition when it shows up for the big dance. Still no word on engines, but we have no doubt its output will be something along the lines of prodigious.
After having maxed-out the Phantom range with sedan, coupe and convertible variants, Rolls-Royce has been hard at work preparing its second range. Known tentatively as the RR4 (following in succession after the three Phantoms), the new "baby Rolls" will be anything but, and is expected to be unveiled next March at the Geneva show.
Based on a heavily-modified version of the BMW 7-series, the RR4 will offer direct competition to the Bentley Continental. And not just the four-door Flying Spur, either. Although the RR4 will initially appear – in concept form – as a sedan, the platform is expected to spawn additional coupe and convertible body-styles just like its big brother and its targeted competitor. Although many details still remain big question marks for the luxury sedan – including whether it will bear the "suicide" rear doors of the Phantom and what engines (including potential diesel and hybrid powertrains) will appear underhood – the RR4 is anticipated to double the output of the stoic British marque from its production of 1000 Phantoms last year to 2000 once production gears up on the as-yet-unnamed baby Roller.
The baby Rolls-Royce, perhaps called the Silver Ghost and arriving in 2010, will more than double the firm's sales according to Rolls-Royce CEO Ian Robertson. While sales figures currently hover around 1,000 per year for Rolls-Royce, we don't know if the figure he's talking about doubling will include the Phantom Coupe, which goes on sale later this year. The RR4 -- the baby Phantom's code name for now -- will share a platform with the upcoming 7-Series and is expected to give the scales a workout at 5,000-plus pounds.
The engine choice is still a mystery. Some speculate that there will be a twin-turbocharged version of BMW's 4.4-liter V8. However, Robertson has said that Rolls-Royce engines will remain unique to Rolls-Royce, in which case a 12-cylinder motor, unshared with any BMW product and smaller than the Phantom's, has been suggested. And in a nod to green, a diesel option is being floated after the car's introduction.
The car with which the RR4 will compete, Bentley's Continental Flying Spur, has suffered no ill-will for using a VW engine in its Continental series, so perhaps Rolls-Royce will be more welcoming of BMW power when the time comes. The new Rolls is expected to be priced between $250,000 and $300,000, which is considered "entry-level" for this brand.
We've seen plenty of photoshopped renderings of Rolls-Royce's next effort, the RR4, but this morning, the BMW-owned British luxury icon released the first official sketches of the new car. The RR4 won't be coming to market for another two years, but its design is complete and vehicle development and testing is well underway. The marque's Goodwood factory is undergoing renovations that will allow its production lines to accommodate the full Phantom range as well as the new RR4.
Based on the sketches, it looks like the RR4 will be retaining the same long-hood, high-beltline proportions as the Phantom series cars. Although rumors have had the RR4 being built on a derivative of the new 7-series platform, Rolls isn't saying anything about that right now. The car will apparently have a unique new engine not shared with any other models.
We've shown you spy shots before of the upcoming "Baby Rolls", dubbed internally by Rolls Royce as the RR4, but none as good as these. Caught in clear view by KGP photographers, the upcoming "entry level" car by Rolls Royce that's based on the same underpinnings as the next BMW 7-Series looks for all the world like a little Phantom, just wearing less conspicuous consumption on its sleeve. What we have here is a Rolls Royce that should more of a driver's car than the Phantom, a true chauffeur-driven chariot if ever there was one. Like Bentley has its Continental line for the up and coming super rich who care about driving dynamics more than lineage and pedigree, so too will the RR4 reach out to those who don't care about monolithic grilles (it's still got one as you can see through the covering) and 2-inch thick carpeting. We do notice, however, that the RR4 appears to be sporting rear suicide doors, which is a nice touch that links the smaller car with its big bro'. A range of engines have been rumored that include all manner of V12s and V8s, as well as a diesel.
Inside Line has... well, the inside line on the oft-rumored Baby Roller, which is due to go on sale sometime in 2010. The new model won't share an engine with a current BMW product, but it's assumed that the new 7-series will serve as the platform for what's being referred to as the RR4.
The recent round of spy shots of the "small" Rolls-Royce indicates that testing is well underway and it's been confirmed that the company will build the new model at its Goodwood facility. There's no definitive date for the debut, but Rolls-Royce execs expect the RR4 to push the automaker's sales well over the 1,010 vehicles it sold last year.
The newer, smaller Rolls-Royce, which will still be quite large as cars go, has been spotted running around in warmer climes quite a ways south of its previous sighting in the arctic tundra. Expected to roll into 5-star showrooms before the end of 2010, you will need about £175,000 to get it from the dealer's heated garage into yours. If the spy shots are any indication, just because you're spending... ahem, less... doesn't mean it won't look like a Roller. The signature long-bonnet-to-bowing-boot is readily apparent.
The platform will be shared with the next generation 7-Series, but will have a unique wheelbase, roof and hood height, and track. Inside, sharing will supposedly be restricted to things invisible to the driver. Engines will also be unique to Rolls-Royce, though developed from BMW engines such as the 407-hp twin-turbo V8 from the X6. And with Rolls in a brand new position in terms of volume, cachet and straight-up cash, the company is exploring something that would have been unthinkable not too long ago: a diesel. All that young money snapping up Phantoms means, in the words of a mole at Rolls, "the old-money buyers who might have been put off by the idea of a diesel engine are becoming a much less important part of our customer base."
To call Rolls-Royce a small automaker would be an understatement as big as their cars are. Its model line-up, recently expanded to include the Drophead Coupe, consists solely of two derivatives of the Phantom. For the first time in the company's history, production in 2007 capped the 1,000 mark. So when Rolls-Royce confirms a new model, it's a big deal.
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