Posted on 12/30/2007 8:33:19 AM PST by blam
Super-rich make marque on Rolls Royce
By Bojan Pancevski in Vienna
Last Updated: 2:48am GMT 30/12/2007
The Rolls-Royce may have been the epitome of luxurious motoring for more than 100 years, but for a new breed of super-rich oligarchs and Middle-Eastern royalty, it seems a standard version of the world's most famous car is no longer enough.
Nice wheels: the Crown Prince of Brunei's wedding car
Having snapped up country estates and football clubs, the nouveau riche now want what is set to become the must-have status symbol of 2008, a customised Rolls-Royce.
Demanding extra-high roofs to accommodate tall hats and elongated floors to make room for prostrate servants, those with more money than taste have beaten a path to the door of Mutec near Stuttgart in Germany, the only company formally licensed by the British manufacturer to tinker with its classic designs.
"Our clients are mostly royal households, governments, successful businessmen and, frankly, people who have acquired a lot of money very quickly," said Ian Grayson, the sales manager of Mutec.
Hip-hop stars and rappers have also been getting in on the act, although Mutec declined a request to create a solid gold model on grounds of poor taste. A demand from a Russian banker for a shocking pink paint job met similar disapproval.
Clients are willing to pay up to €1 million - about £735,000 - for such modifications as an extra 3½ft of plush-carpeted floorspace and rear-facing seats in a Phantom model, to make space for their staff. "A royal customer from the Middle East came to us as their tradition did not allow for their servants to sit at the same height as them, so they have to lie on the floor while tending to their masters," said Mr Grayson.
"They were concerned about the comfort of the servants, so wanted us to create extra floorspace in the back."
Rolls-Royce gave its seal of approval only last year to Mutec, which has a strict non-disclosure contract forbidding client identification. In years gone by, however, there have been a number of eye-catching modifications to "Rollers" by others.
The Beatle John Lennon famously had a sound system, television, refrigerator and phone fitted in his Phantom, and the rear seat could be converted into a double bed.
He also had the car painted with psychedelic patterns, causing such outrage in conservative 1960s London that one elderly woman reportedly attacked it with her umbrella, shouting: "You swine! How dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce?"
The model used at the 2004 wedding of the Crown Prince of Brunei, Al-Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah, was modified to resemble a horse?drawn carriage with solid gold decorations.
His family is reputed to own 500 Rolls-Royces - the world's biggest private collection. Meanwhile Nelly, the American rapper, had the interior of his Rolls-Royce redesigned in mink fur.
Mutec has accepted about 100 orders since being given the Rolls-Royce seal of approval, mostly from Russia, the Middle East and the Far East.
It plans to open an invitation-only showroom in Germany for prospective clients, showing work it has completed and projects in progress.
Commissions have included fitting a footbath so that an owner could prepare for prayer in the mosque, while a Russian billionaire wanted a longer footwell to accommodate his girlfriend's 44in legs.
The company is also licensed to fit armour plating, bulletproof glass and oxygen supplies in case of poison gas attacks.
The disappointed Russian banker who wanted the shocking pink version was seeking a birthday gift for his wife, while the rapper who wanted his Rolls covered in solid gold was American. "We had to decline. He can well do that, but with Lincoln or Bentley," Mr Grayson said.
"It is frustrating to decline lucrative orders like that, but we have to take into consideration that the roots of Rolls-Royce as the flagship brand for luxury motor cars go back a long way."
This just proves the old saying that money can’t buy class... Or good taste.
Mark
Something about that license plate makes me think of the Clintons ...
Isn’t that the car Keith Moon ran over his driver in?
Are those “spinners” on the Prince of Brunei’s Rolls?
To think WE paid for that trash.
AND to make matters worse, they are determined to kill us all.
This crap lies at the feet of the environazi’s and the politicians that cater to them.
Truer words were never spoken. A Rolls-Royce represents classic elegance, not a glorified pimp-mobile.
THIS is a car.
I owned a 1957 Jaguar Mk VII sedan for a while during my college days. It was sold new in Toronto as a battleship gray (probably not what Jaguar described it as) 4 dr. 4 sp/OD sedan. It had a solid body that I painted two tone brown and it was often mistaken for a Rolls, especially by the ladies. I didn’t take time to correct them.
bump
True
The Crown Prince of Brunei's wedding car cake.
Crown Prince - like your ride, yo.
Rolling like a pimp! Funny
all the more reason to become energy independent (and to stop buying cd’s and concert tickets).
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