Goodwood is the Rolls-Royce sanctuary. That is where the luxury carmaker builds all the models in the lineup. That is where every inch of the materials on board and the structure of the car are thoroughly analyzed before they find their way to production. The models are entirely made by hand.
Located some eight miles away from the Technology and Logistics Center that Rolls-Royce opened in 2016, the Goodwood factory builds the Ghost since 2009, the seventh-generation Phantom since 2017, the Cullinan SUV since 2018, and the brand's first EV, the Spectre, since 2023.
Over 1,700 employees make sure that every car that drives through the gate of the factory perfectly matches its high standards of quality. A single issue comes up, and the team takes everything right from the beginning to make sure that the fault does not show up again.
A video uploaded to YouTube shows several stages of the manufacturing process, taking viewers through the paint room, where experts make sure that the paint they used is the perfect match for the color requested by the customer.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom is built around an aluminum space frame chassis derived from the automaker's modular Architecture of Luxury platform. It is supposed to arrive at the dealership with 226.9 inches (5,762 millimeters) of luxury and elegance or 235.5 inches (5,982 millimeters) if we're dealing with the long-wheelbase version.
The exquisite cabin is designed to offer a high level of customization. That is where exotic materials such as carbon fiber, mother of pearl, and gold plating find room, while seats are wrapped in luxurious fabrics like Nappa leather.
Fabric cutting is a process that employs precision cutting with the help of lasers, followed by inspection for quality assurance, and then by manual stitching with the help of lasers, followed by manual stitching.
The Phantom also features the Starlight Headliner, which is achieved with delicate optical fiber installed at varying depths and at different angles, lighting up in multiple directions and at different intensities, making the headliner look like a starlit sky.
The Starlight Headliner debuted in 2007, with the Phantom being fitted with 800 lights. Today, it includes an impressive 1,340 lights.
To make holes for the lights and create a celestial star pattern on the roof, workers use a stencil. The next stage is installing the fiber optic lights in each hole. On the other side of the leather, the tips of the lights are trimmed with the help of pliers.
When this phase is completed, the body of the vehicle is mounted on a rotating fixture, and the assembly process commences. The dashboard and all other interior components, such as the seats, but also the exterior ones, wheels, front grille, and lights included, every single assembly is done by hand.
The Phantom, just like all models in the Rolls-Royce lineup, is equipped with self-levying air springs and electronically controlled dampers both at the front and rear. The luxury carmaker put the almighty 6.75-liter V12 engine under the hood of the sedan. It is a variant of BMW's N75, uniquely designed for the Phantom.
Mated to a ZF-sourced 8HP eight-speed automatic transmission, it sends 563 horsepower (571 metric horsepower) and 664 pound-feet (900 Newton meters) of torque to the rear wheels. That is how the luxury sedan accelerates from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 kph) in 5.3 seconds on its way to a top speed of 155 mph (250 kph).
Google News