The Rooster and the Rolls and Other Tales

Text: Ranjit Lal

Images: Makarand Baokar & Ranjit Lal

There you are reclining in the back of a magnificent black 1934 Rolls-Royce 20/25 HP, gliding down Calcutta’s cacophonous Chowringhee at around 7 o’clock in the evening, when suddenly the great car splutters and then, as Rolls-Royce would coyly put it ‘fails to proceed.’

So, now here you are, tomato-faced, pushing this aristocratic behemoth in the middle of honking, shrieking Calcutta traffic, waiting for her to come to life again. She must have done so, and quietly taken us back home, saving us and her the ignominy of being towed.

But this same car more than redeemed herself when she took a rooster (yes, a cock-a-doodle-doo) for a short drive, perched, and possibly snoozing comfortably in the space between the legendary radiator and front bumper with nary a feather ruffled. Or better, squatting there, his gingery-bronze feathers fiery in the passing lights, cockscomb fluttering heraldically as any Royal Standard, as regal as any regent that may have ever stepped into the marque!

The pet cock-a-doodle-doo was found standing phlegmatically in front of the car, waiting to be chauffeured home after the visit to the shops was over. This time he got a ride inside the lovely limousine, instead of outside. But it speaks volumes for the silky silence and smoothness which has made this marque so unique and legendary.

It all started back in 1904 when debonair motor-car dealer, avid aviator, and keen racer, Charles C Rolls, shook hands with quality-obsessed, workaholic ‘mechanic’ Henry Royce in a meeting set up for them in a hotel in Manchester. Henry Royce had just made a two-cylinder vehicle called the Royce 10, and Charles Rolls, who had wanted a dealership for good English-made cars, immediately recognized sterling quality when he saw it.

‘You make the cars, I’ll sell them and we’ll call them the Rolls-Royce,’ Charles Rolls is claimed to have said as they shook on the deal. In December of that year, Rolls agreed to take all the models Royce could make; four of them, ranging from a 10 hp 2-cylinder (costing 40,000 pounds in 2014 terms) to a 30 hp 6-cylinder that would set you back 90,000 pounds in 2014 terms.

 Monikers reflecting the cars’ silence and silkiness followed: Ghost, Phantom, Cloud, Spirit, Shadow…

 Contrary to what could have been expected, Rolls-Royce were not shy of acquiring the best parts and systems even from competitors: for example, the servo-assistance system used for the Phantom’s four-wheel brakes was licensed from Renault and Hispano-Suiza of France.

As was the custom at the time, the body was built by specialist coachbuilders, often to order by the client. Some firms which did the coachbuilding for the Phantom I included Barker, Park Ward, Thrupp and Maberly, Mulliner, Hooper, and Brewster (the last owned by Rolls-Royce) - in the USA. Only the chassis and mechanical parts were made by Rolls-Royce and those for a Phantom I could set you back $210,440 at 2021 prices!

Most of the coachbuilders produced truly magnificent and majestic bodies for Rolls-Royce, even if some clients insisted on outrageous modifications and designs. None perhaps less so than the erstwhile maharajas of India – who became one of Rolls-Royce’s major clients. Not all of them were alas, treated in the manner befitting Royalty (i.e. being fawned over) and there are some scandalous, ‘believe it or not’ stories, often in different versions, swirling around the basic lack of genteel manners and pedigree displayed by some of Rolls-Royce’s dealers towards these exceedingly wealthy, if eccentric clients!

It is said that travelling incognito to London, the Maharaja of Bharatpur was so affronted by the sneering, condescending attitude of the Rolls-Royce salesmen at the showroom he visited, that on his return to India he ordered no less than 50 Rolls-Royces and threatened to convert them into garbage trucks, unless they apologised to him. Rolls-Royce said sorry quickly.

Other maharajas, from Alwar and Hyderabad apparently had to resort to similar tactics and according to one salacious piece of gossip, the offended Maharaja actually did convert six Rolls-Royces into garbage trucks which he passed on to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (and never bought another Rolls-Royce again!). It is said Rolls-Royce hastily bought back the cars, fully refurbished, and resold them. Not necessarily true, but these make for great reading and retelling.

Sadly, it seems that even until quite recently Rolls-Royce hadn’t yet learnt their lesson: On being told that he had just become a millionaire, the actor Michael Caine, strolled into a Rolls-Royce showroom, dressed casually in jeans and plimsolls – and was icily shown the door. He went to the showroom down the road, bought a brand-new Rolls-Royce convertible and drove slowly past the first showroom vigorously showing them the victory sign!

 At the other end of the spectrum was the Maharaja of Gwalior who fell in love with the ‘Pearl of India’; a 1907 40/50 Silver Ghost finished in cream with gold-edged apple green stripes, and the first Rolls-Royce to arrive on our shores. Imported by a shrewd British bania, Frank Norbury, the car was entered in the Bombay-Kolhapur rally and traversed the bumpy, dusty tracks up and down the Western Ghats over nearly 200 km, with no stops, no spares and a locked bonnet. The car won hands down and the Maharaja was dazzled and bought it with rubies.

According to a slightly different version of this story, the Maharaja not only bought the rally-winning Rolls, but ordered another brand-new Silver Ghost, which had ground pearls mixed in its paint job – hence the ‘Pearl of India’ or ‘Pearl of the East’ moniker. It had an ‘outside seat’ to accommodate the maharaja’s man-servant (standing to attention no doubt!). The car sadly has gone missing.

Until the First World War, a significant percentage of all Rolls-Royces made came to India, and between 1908 and 1939 that figure was around 797 cars (out of 22,357 cars made), and which would have possibly included the 1934 20/25 ‘Rooster Rolls’ mentioned earlier!

The erstwhile rulers often competed with each other as to who had more (and the more expensive and extravagant) Rolls-Royces. The Maharaja of Patiala bedecked his Rolls-Royces with jewels and gems so much so that they travelled under armed escort. His cavalcades of 20 jewel-encrusted Rolls-Royces along with their armoured escorts caused a fair amount of traffic disruption – as do lesser deserving political wannabes these days.

Many of these great cars were sold off after the ‘princely purses’ were abolished by then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Some are now in collections scattered all over the country, one of the best being that of the late industrialist Pranlal Bhogilal. The disciples of the late Osho were in the process of buying him one Rolls-Royce for every day of the year, but Osho died before this could be achieved.

Soon after World War I, Rolls-Royce, which had also been making aircraft engines, ran into financial difficulties which finally ended up with it being taken over by BMW (after a huge faux pas by Volkswagen vying for the brand, which got Bentley as consolation prize). BMW put in their massive V12 6750cc 7 Series engine into the resurrected Seventh generation Phantom in 2003, a car which must have made the British wince and shudder. It seemed to have been carved out of a solid block of very heavy, dense metal: huge, stodgy, almost meatloaf-like, with not a curve in sight.

What must have made it worse was that Ratan Tata had gobbled up Jaguar Land Rover and the Chinese had taken over MG Motor, turning out ghoulish SUVs in place of the svelte, spirited open-top two-seaters of the marque. The jewels in the British crown were gone!

I often wonder what Henry Royce would have made of all this!