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Rolls-Royce CEO says demand for luxury cars is recovering

LONDON — The chief executive of Rolls-Royce said demand for his company's luxury cars is rebounding, helped by sales in Asia, and he is optimistic about the outlook for next year after the coronavirus pandemic hit consumer confidence and closed dealerships. Torsten Muller-Otvos said the demand meant Rolls-Royce was the first car company to resume car production in the United Kingdom on May 4. "We see a very fruitful business now coming back from Asia, also Europe is coming back on track, the Americas just delivered an excellent July result and August result," the boss of the BMW-owned Rolls-Royce Motor Cars told Reuters. "I am quite optimistic looking into 2021, particularly on the back of a very strong order bank we have already on our books." Muller-Otvos said his company has no plans to move production out of the United Kingdom because of Brexit. "We are committed to Britain. I would even call us being part of the British industrial crown jewels," he said. "For that reason, Rolls-Royce belongs to Britain."

Rolls-Royce reveals Year of the Dragon-themed customer commissions

Most buyers who order a new Rolls-Royce customize it through the brand's Bespoke department, and four recently requested a car inspired by the Year of the Dragon, which starts on February 10 in China. The company is highlighting the meticulous design changes it made. The batch of four Lunar New Year-themed cars is split into three units of the Phantom Extended and one example of the Cullinan. And, surprisingly, not all of them are headed to the Chinese market; Rolls-Royce says that the orders came from three different continents. Its designers started by creating a dragon logo specifically for the four builds. It's hand-stitched or hand-painted depending on the application. Red has historically been associated with the Year of the Dragon, it represents prosperity and good fortune in Chinese culture, and it defines the look given to three of the four cars (the fourth hasn't been unveiled yet). One of the Phantom Extended models is finished in a two-tone Cherry Red and silver livery with hand-painted Phoenix Red pinstripes and the dragon logo on each fender. The Cullinan is finished in Selby Gray and Cherry Red with white pinstripes and logos, while the second Phantom is black with Phoenix Red pinstripes and no dragon logos.  Painting the dragon logo that appears on the dashboard in three of the four cars is a complex, multi-step process that takes over two weeks. Rolls-Royce notes that the logo is the work of one artist who overlays multiple shades of red in four individual stages to achieve a 3D effect. Look up and you'll see another dragon; it's in the Starlight headliner. It consists of 677 stars that shine to create a dragon's shape and an additional 667 stars spread out across the panel. Designing this headliner took over three months and making it requires over 20 hours. There's no word yet on how much Rolls-Royce charged for each commission, but we're guessing price wasn't a concern.  Related video:

Top Gear caught filming Best of British near Buckingham Palace

YouTuber and car-fan extraordinaire Shmee probably had very little trouble tracking down the Top Gear film crew recently, as the group was putting together an episode that could accurately be described as "excessive." With its flag-waving (literally) Best of British theme, the TG guys gathered a jaw-dropping array of British cars, and parked them all right in front of Buckingham Palace to make extra sure that the point was driven home.
Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were outfitted with a trio of Jaguar F-Types festooned with gigantic Union Jacks, with which to survey the landscape of British motoring glory. In the video below, you'll see that this includes any number of Mini, Aston Martin, Lotus, McLaren, Land Rover, Bentley and Rolls-Royce models (just to name a few), as well as a healthy dose of weird stuff that most people would never guess at being built in the UK. The lawnmowers and military vehicles are especially cool.