100 Years of Excellence

Luxury And Heritage In The Rolls Royce Alpine Centenary Collection

Driving is serious business, especially for oil and gas professionals. When you are part of a global and ever-changing industry, having a car is necessary for transportation and comfort. Rolls Royce Motor Cars prove that driving doesn’t have to be a chore or an uncomfortable experience—but instead can return driving to the enjoyable and luxurious activity it should be. This desire to return comfort and a spirit of adventure to driving is represented by the Rolls Royce Alpine Trail Centenary Collection. This collection is comprised of a limited number of Rolls Royce cars (the “Ghost” model), designed to specifically honor and reflect upon a key event in the history of the company: the 1913 race of the Alpine Trail mountain track in Austria. The Rolls Royce team placed first in the race, won the prestigious Archduke Leopold Cup, and was named “The Best Car in the World.” With this heritage in mind, Rolls Royce wanted to make reference to their successes in the past, and also show that they still retain the title of making the best cars in the world with the Alpine Centenary collection.

The call to make driving enjoyable is evident even before you enter the car. The low-hanging shape of the doorway enables a driver to simply stride into the vehicle, rather than hunch and climb into the seat. Once seated, a driver starts to notice the little luxuries that transform driving in a Rolls Royce from a task to a pleasure. Luxuries, like the soft full-grain leather that ensures comfort or the deep carpets that greet and welcome drivers, surround them when they enter the car. As a journey begins, the push button start awakens the powerful new twin turbo 6.6-litre V12 engine with surprisingly little noise. The perfectly centered accelerator and brake pedals along with the personally adjusted steering wheel bring both personalization and pleasure into the simple act of acceleration or movement.

This pleasure of movement continues even as the driver begins to push up on the speedometer. The engine remains whisper quiet even as you press your foot down on the accelerator. Behind the scenes, air springs that continuously monitor and adapt suspension for changing road conditions ensure a level and comfortable feeling for drivers and passengers alike. This comfort for passengers is even preserved when braking—the Ghost’s “Dynamic Stability Control” system detects when a driver removes a foot quickly from the accelerator, and automatically prepares the brakes to respond with extra force. This type of dynamic system enables the Ghost to stop quickly even at high speeds, and still maintain passenger comfort at all times. An integrated head up display, built directly into the windshield, continually updates, so drivers don’t have to turn their eyes from the road to get essential information, such as current speed or driving directions.

In addition to all of these customized options that are normally available, the Alpine Trail Centenary Collection of Ghost vehicles share some other unique characteristics that are designed to harken back to the original 1913 Ghost. There is the same exterior color of light blue, the same distinctive black grille and wheels that existed on the earlier model. The topography and distance of the Alpine Trail route are inlaid on the car’s dashboard, and the clock displays the stages of the original rally as well as the timings. All of these small details are designed to marry both the heritage of the 1913 race with the elegant styling of the 2013 Ghost model.

This technology and sheer pleasure of driving become even more impressive when one examines the huge number of customization options available when a Rolls Royce is purchased. There is the large number of paint colors that are applied by hand with a special brush made of ox and squirrel hair, where one coat of paint takes three hours to apply. Adjusting abounds not only for leather colors, but even for the color of the stitching or seat piping. Or, perhaps, the most fulfilling is the option to have your own initials embroidered on the seat headrests. All of these touches don’t just make the car a Rolls Royce—it now becomes your Rolls Royce.

All of these qualities evidenced in the Alpine Trail Centenary Collection are important for professionals in the oil and gas industry who not only want to get from point A to point B, but want to manage that travel in the most enjoyable way possible. The Rolls Royce Ghost was declared to be “The Best Car in the World” in 1913—it seems clear that this type of passion for excellence has been maintained for the last 100 years, and is destined to continue into the next century.