Purple Reign

Rolls-Royce. That’s a point which is barely even worth making, we all know this – a company whose sole aim throughout its history has been to make the best cars in the world has created a brand image that speaks for itself. You can see why BMW wanted a piece of that action, buying out the company in 2003 and building a fresh new factory at Goodwood to continue the legacy in style. Just twenty Rolls-Royces are built each day at Goodwood, a carefully considered figure to balance exclusivity with volume demand. Every Roller in the world is built there, with 35% going to China, 35% to the US, quite a lot to the Gulf states… and every single one is the very best that it can be. To illustrate this fact with a specific example, consider the factory’s torque wrenches: there’s a section of the plant called the ‘marriage centre’, where the drivetrain meets the bodyshell. As the vast engines and gearboxes are mated with axles on the rolling rig prior to being stuffed