Day 3 : The Very Surprising Rolls Royce

Traveling from Coventry to Goodwood is a 148 mile trip that’s filled with surprise. First of all the journey takes three and a half hours, which seems twice as long as you think it should compared to driving the same distance back home in the States. Everyone here claims that the British mile is the exact same distance as the US mile. I find that a bit hard to believe given how it feels to drive around here.

The second major surprise on a journey of this length is the way that the landscape changes in style and tone at such a rapid rate considering how close we still are to London.

You start out in an area that has historically been the automotive center of England and as you move south the imagery rolls backwards in time, until you suddenly find yourself driving through a classic and picturesque English countryside. It’s not a completely abrupt change, but it happens much sooner than I would have expected.

In some ways making this journey feels exactly like traveling in parts of upstate New York or the less populated regions of Pennsylvania. Lots of trees, lots of greenery, and tons of rolling hills. As the more industrial buildings vanish, from the highway you can see dozens of farmhouses spread out among fields and villages. It’s the kind of visual imagery that makes you wonder what it was like living here before the internet, television or radio were invented. I wonder if the Brits spend any time pondering the kind of history they have here.

Yet you’re still not all that far away from London and this gets hammered home when you enter Portsmouth, a working port city, where the sea introduces an entirely new vibe. Yachts and powerboats blast to the forefront and you get the sense that living by the coast around here still isn’t easy. Certainly not LA beach easy, that’s for sure.

From there if you head east you’ll eventually make your way to Goodwood, a charming classic country estate that echos with even a slightly different type of history. Less King Arthur, more early 20th century manor. It’s a classic estate sensibility, that lends itself to easily imagining yourself riding a horse, drinking a cup of tea and heading out on a hunt. Yet this is also famed automotive territory.

After all, this is the location of the yearly Goodwood Festival, which is the English version of the Concours D’Elegance at Pebble Beach.

In this respect it’s not all that surprising that today Goodwood is also home to Rolls Royce. What is surprising however is that the quaint and traditional image that one expects Rolls Royce to have in some ways no longer exists. Instead the factory offers an amazing sense of modernity – only it does it in an area that’s steeped in this visual history.

When you arrive and open the door of your car for the first time it’s absolutely striking just how quiet the place feels. Unlike so many other automotive manufacturing centers, the only sounds you hear are birds chirping and the wind blowing in off the ocean. There’s no banging going on, no harsh sounds and no trucks backing up – just peace and quiet. And lots of it.

The second thing that you notice is the remarkably modern feel of the architecture. The factory simply doesn’t look like a factory. Instead it offers a much more futuristic office park vibe that seems more Blade Runner than Ivory and Merchant. Yet when you go inside and realize that yes, they do actually build cars here it’s quite challenging to your senses.

This calm nature only expands when you enter the assembly line area and witness the very slow and deliberate care that each act of the car building process receives. Nothing here happens quickly and everything is very calculated. Each twist of a wrench or turn of a screw takes time. The kind of time that one would expect with a three hundred and fifty thousand dollar automobile would receive. Only it happens in the most modern of factories.

This somewhat contradictory meshing of the past and the present is due in large part to the fact that BMW bought the Roll Royce marque in 1999 and subsequently moved the company from it’s historical Crewe location to the present day Goodwood site with the intention of pulling out a fresh sheet of paper and starting over. Watching a new Phantom roll off the line makes you aware of just how successful this transition and the subsequent rebirth has been. The car is as grand as any I’ve been in yet far more modern than you would think.

While the Phantom is not the kind of automobile that gets me personally excited as a driver, I do think that you have to hand it to BMW for their respect of the marque and their vision for the future. It’s not everyday that a hundred year old company gets to start over with a blank canvas, a new factory, a new work force and a new product – all at the same time. To have successfully navigated all of that is quite an automotive achievement.