Where to house your aperitifs or digestifs

By Gary S. Vasilash

We can’t put it any better than this, which comes from the House of Rolls-Royce about its latest addition to the Rolls-Royce Connoisseur’s Collection, the Rolls-Royce Cellarette:

The polished aluminium chassis, enveloped by embossed Rolls-Royce Havana leather complete with an Obsidian Ayous Open Pore veneer serving tray with Spirit of Ecstasy inlay, makes the Cellarette the perfect accessory for any Rolls-Royce owner with a passion for convivial hosting.

Said Cellarette can be fitted in the back of one’s Rolls, however the company notes that “it truly comes into its own as a centrepiece at an al fresco dining experience, or as an accompaniment at an intimate gathering.”

Cellarette?

It is something that carries bottles of whisky and holds cigars.

Of course it does.

From the “What Do You Do When You Have Time on Your Hands?” Department

By Gary S. Vasilash

Back in 1911 a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, which back then was an “Experimental Speed Car,” made a run from London to Edinburgh. For reasons not entirely clear, it made the drive in top gear. It had an average speed of 19.59 mph. Of course, the Great North Road was, well, probably not so great.

So 110 years later, the very same car that set the mark, now vehicle that is worth so much that one could probably buy several Rolls with the proceeds of a sale, took the same run earlier this run. To the extent that it could, the vehicle, registered as R-1075, took the same route. (The Great North Road wasn’t all that and more in the last century and now it is less.)

Again, it was locked in top gear.

This time, there was actually a fleet of Silver Ghosts wafting their way north: nine other cars of the same vintage took part, as did a brand-new, state-of-the-art, hand-built Ghost.

Andrew Ball, who heads Corporate Relations for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said of the feat, “It’s difficult to think of many machines that can still perform exactly as they did 110 years ago; this extraordinary car is a remarkable tribute to our predecessors who designed, engineered and built it.”

True.

But why does this matter?

Because sometimes you just need a little R&R in the limo

It generally occurs in a movie when the passenger of the limo raises the screen with the driver and the driver suddenly pushes a button that causes the passenger doors to lock with an audible “thunk” and from the air vents comes billowing clouds of knockout gas. . . .

Rolls-Royce has developed what it calls the “Phantom Privacy Suite” for its Phantom Extended motor car (a.k.a., “limo”).

According to the company there is an electrochromatic glass screen that is either clear or opaque, depending on the passenger’s desire. In addition, there is a “frequency-specific compound [that] inhibits the transmission of conversations in the rear cabin to the front.”

This is a must for “Rolls-Royce Phantom clients—powerbrokers, titans of business and entrepreneurs.”

Should communication with the driver be necessary, there is a built-in intercom system. Should the driver need to speak with the passenger, “they are able to ‘call’ occupants in the Privacy Suite, who can choose to answer or reject the communication.” (Clearly the sort of feature that sometimes one wishes for in an Uber.)

In addition there is a slot that the rear passenger controls through which documents can be passed to forward and back.

Seems like the sort of thing that a knockout gas capsule might be dropped. . . .

Maybe we’re reading too many thrillers.

There is sometimes a question of authenticity when it comes to where a vehicle is built. As in the source is considered to be better.

Once it was the case that people in the U.S. wanted a Honda Civic built in Suzuka or a Lexus RX from Kyushu.

Doesn’t it seem that Volvos ought to be built in Sweden rather than China or. . .South Carolina?

So it comes as more than a bit of surprise to learn that Rolls-Royce produced 2,946 vehicles from 1921 to 1931 in a manufacturing facility in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Springfield. About 100 miles due west of where the Boston Tea Party was held. (Imagine.)

The hand-building operation was shuttered as a result of the Depression.

Today Rolls-Royce models are only produced at the company’s facility in Goodwood, England.

As they should be.–gsv