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Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Waterspeed Collection is a real land yacht

There aren't very many better places to show the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé Waterspeed Collection than at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Not only is this aquatic-themed land yacht parked on the Concept Car Lawn appropriately very near the Pacific Ocean, it's being seen by some of the most wealthy car enthusiasts in the world on one afternoon.
The car actually debuted in May in Europe, but Rolls-Royce decided to show it again to West Coast customers. This luxury droptop is dedicated to former British waterspeed record-holder Sir Malcolm Campbell, hence the name. Campbell used a boat powered by a Rolls-Royce R engine to reach 126.33 miles per hour in 1937 on a lake in Italy and break the old milestone. Later, he took the same craft to 129.5 mph to further establish his dominance.
The Phantom Waterspeed takes inspiration from these accomplishments with a two-tone look that mixes shining Maggiore Blue exterior paint and a brushed steel tonneau cover to replace the normal teak. The blue color scheme even extends to the engine and interior trim in combination with contrasting Windchill Grey leather. Rolls isn't building many of these marine-inspired leviathans; check one out on the lawn at Pebble Beach in our gallery.

The latest Rolls-Royce concept is a hybrid dump truck

Is a standard Rolls-Royce not big and imposing enough for you? Perhaps the company's latest concept can get you to pass the Grey Poupon. Behold, the Rolls-Royce MTU hybrid haul truck. The Cullinan might come with 22-inch rims, but when equipped with its R63 Michelin XDRs, each wheel and tire combo of the ultimate Roller will stand over 13 feet tall. With a driver's seat a full story off the ground, it's so lofty you won't even see the plebes that you crush in their feeble Coachbuild Dawns as indifferently as Loxodonta africana steamrolls a line of ants. Serve as your own life-size Spirit of Ecstasy as you look down at the puny Parthenon radiators of run-of-the-mill Phantoms from atop your soaring grille, located a full flight of stairs above the lowly earth. All jokes aside, the Rolls-Royce truck mainly serves to promote its new MTU V12 2000-series industrial 12-cylinder engines. Rolls-Royce doesn't even produce the haul trucks; typically, they provide the engines for installation into rigid dumpers built by Liebherr, Hitachi, or Selex. The new hybrid mill produces 1,560 horsepower, meant to replace the V16 4000-series 16-cylinder engines making 2,500 horsepower. However, Rolls-Royce says performance will be the same while dropping carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent in new installations, or 22 percent with retrofits. Like a Prius, the engine uses a battery pack to store regenerative energy captured as the trucks descend into quarries, then expends that juice to climb back up. It also requires no additional space for an exhaust gas treatment system or diesel urea additives, which are apparently concerns in a mining truck. In addition, Rolls-Royce is in the process of engineering its industrial engines to run on sustainable fuels such as hydrogen brewed from renewable energy (not the way we do it in the U.S.). The company hopes to have hydrogen fuel engines ready by 2023 in stationary applications. It's all part of the company's goals for a — say it with us — carbon-neutral future. The concept truck was conceived for MINExpo 2021, a mining convention taking place September 26-29 in Las Vegas. Hopefully they'll put it into production and offer a constellation headliner in the cab.

Rolls-Royce electric airplane smashes record, hits 387.4 mph

Just two months after its maiden flight, Rolls-Royce's "Spirit of Innovation" has hit a top speed of 387.4 mph, tentatively smashing the speed record for electric airplanes, Gizmodo has reported. It also claimed the top speed of 345.4 MPH over a 3 kilometer (1.86 mile) course and lowest time to a 3,000 meter (9,843 feet) altitude (202 seconds). The records have yet to be certified, but if the 345.5 mph speed stands, it would beat the current record of 213 mph — held by a Siemens-powered Extra 330LE — by an impressive 132 mph.  Rolls-Royce (the aviation, not the car company), conducted the tests on November 16 as part of its ACCEL (accelerating electrification of flight) project. To have the records certified, it's submitting the trials to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), the body in charge of world aviation records. If confirmed, the speeds would be pretty impressive considering that the plane only made its maiden flight in September — suggesting that with more time, it could go even faster. 51690212450_7e8bcb3ad8_k View 12 Photos The Spirit of Innovation is an old-school "tail-dragger" airplane (steering at the rear) with the canopy pushed way back, and looks as fast as it goes. It's powered by a 400 kW (535 HP), 750 volt motor. Rolls-Royce said it uses the "most power-dense propulsion battery pack ever assembled in aerospace," with 6,480 cells.  As Engadget detailed in an explainer, electric airplanes aren't practical since current batteries are 50 times less energy dense than jet fuel. However, they do hold some promise for very short trips, like a 30 minute jaunt between Vancouver and Victoria in Canada. And unlike non-turbocharged ICE engines, electric motors retain full power as an airplane climbs, making them ideal for time-to-altitude record attempts — as the Spirit of Innovation has just shown.  Green Rolls-Royce