1961 Rolls Royce Sedanca De Ville Phantom V Automatic 4-door Sedan on 2040-cars

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Home of Rolls-Royce Collection makes debut at the Quail

Rolls-Royce is marking 10 years of production at its Goodwood, England home, with the aptly named Home of Rolls-Royce Collection. The first instance of the Collection, a brilliantly appointed Phantom, has come to The Quail to make its world debut.
The goal of the Home of Rolls-Royce Collection seems to be to really showcase the kind of pristine, detailed work that the artisans back in Goodood are capable off, while creating a car that almost instantly achieves heirloom status. The Phantom seen here displays a truly impressive wood paneled cabin, where a technique called marquetry has been used to inlay some 170 sections of 11 different types of wood into a "celebration" motif.
You'll find a compass theme throughout the car as well - inside and out - which the company tells us is meant to highlight the sales of Goodwood-built Rollers on five continents across the world. Compass designs can be found on the armrests and center console, with each piece of embroidery taking more than 100,000 stitches to create. Not to be outdone in terms of time lavished, the compass motif painted on the exterior of the car takes one squirrel-hair-brush-wielding craftsman six hours to perfectly apply.

Rolls-Royce wrapped a Ghost in gold for Antonio Brown's Super Bowl use

Well, don't I feel like a jerk. While in San Diego earlier this week for the Honda Civic Coupe launch, I stumbled across a Rolls-Royce Phantom that had been wrapped in a chrome/polished gold finish. It was atrocious, so I took a picture, posted it on Facebook, and captioned it by suggesting that Charles Rolls and Henry Royce were turning in their graves. Now, the company those two men lent their names to have wrapped a Ghost in a very similar style for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown to drive around San Francisco during Super Bowl 50. It's not clear why Brown is in San Francisco, since his team never made it past the AFC Divisional Playoff. But his love of Rolls-Royce motorcars is no secret. Brown made headlines in the sporting world in July of 2015 for his Phantom. Sporting a matte-black finish with a wide yellow stripe down the middle – just like the Steelers' helmets – the car also wore whitewall tires and bore Brown's signature in a gloss decal. This wrapped Ghost is about as tasteful. Its semi-gloss gold finish is broken up by the silver hood, while Brown's catchphrase, "Business Is Boomin" is displayed along the doors. The front fenders feature Brown's initials and his number. At least there aren't whitewall tires. You can check out the one-off Ghost in the gallery above. Or you could do the sensible thing and forget this thing ever existed. Related Video:

U.S. issues new tariff threat, this time against British-built cars

WASHINGTON — Britain is the United States' closest ally but their long friendship may be sorely tested as the two countries try to forge a new trade agreement after Britain's exit from the European Union. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday in London that he was optimistic that a bilateral deal with Britain could be reached as soon as this year. But Mnuchin gave up no ground after a second meeting with his UK counterpart, Sajid Javid. Javid has insisted that Britain will proceed with a unilateral digital services tax, despite a U.S. threat to levy retaliatory tariffs on British-made autos. Mnuchin told reporters after Saturday's meeting that such taxes would discriminate against big U.S. tech companies like Alphabet Inc's Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. The UK Treasury declined to comment on the private meeting. The divide highlights the challenges ahead as the Trump administration seeks a new bilateral agreement with Britain, part of a broader push to rebalance relations with nearly all its major trading partners. The stakes are high — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pegged the trade deal with United States as a way to ease the pain of breaking with Europe, Britain's largest trade partner. U.S. President Donald Trump, has promised a "massive" trade deal to support Brexit, the product of a populist movement similar to his "America First" agenda. The goodwill and special relationship the two countries have enjoyed for decades may not count for much, experts say. "Trump is not going to be doing Johnson any favors," said Amanda Sloat, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington. "He's not going to give him a trade deal without major concessions." Even before the digital tax issue arose, the Trump administration threatened to tax foreign car imports, which could hit British-made Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini, and Honda Civic hatchback cars. Stiff U.S. trade demands include increased access for U.S. farm goods, concessions that will be difficult for Britain's entrenched natural food culture to swallow. The United States also wants Britain to change the way its National Health Service prices drugs and allow in more U.S. pharmaceuticals, which could prove politically unpopular for Johnson's government. Washington's demand that London block Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for national security reasons could also cloud talks.