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Rolls-Royce Wraith Eagle VIII commemorates 1919 transatlantic flight

Rolls-Royce is building a 50-car limited edition of the Wraith called the Eagle VIII that will debut at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este event at the Lake Como. The vehicle commemorates two pilots that completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight 100 years ago. The story behind the flight is fascinating: Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown flew all the way from St John's in Newfoundland to Clifden, County Galway, Ireland, in a WWI Vickers Vimy bomber. The aircraft's engines were two 20.3-liter Rolls-Royce Eagle VII units, and it appears the engines were the only reliable thing on the flight apart from the crew themselves: the radio and navigation instruments failed right at the beginning of the journey as the wind-driven electrical generator broke, which also meant there was no heating. Because of this, the men had to rely on stars to find Ireland, when dense clouds finally subsided. And it's the clouds and stars that form the centerpieces of the special edition car. The headliner contains 1,183 fibers that light up to form the celestial arrangement at the time of the flight in 1919, with the exact moment when the Vickers plane emerged from the clouds highlighted in red. The decorative wood has silver and copper inlays so it resembles a night-time Earth seen from above. Plaques read "The celestial arrangement at the halfway point 00:17am June 15 1919, 50" 07' Latitude North – 31" Longitude West", and next to the brass speaker grilles, there is a Winston Churchill quote commending the crew, the plane and their unprecedented achievement. "I do not know what we should most admire - their audacity, determination, skill, science, their aeroplane, their Rolls-Royce engines - or their good fortune", it reads. The crash-landing location coordinates are engraved below the dashboard clock. The 1,880-mile ordeal with no heat, occasional snow and a constant barrage of noise from burst exhaust piping took Alcock and Brown 15 hours and 57 minutes, at an average speed of 115 mph. Both aviators were awarded the honor of Knights Commanders of the British Empire by King George V. Alcock later perished after crashing another Vickers plane en route to the Paris Airshow in December 1919. Brown passed away at the age of 62 in 1948. Other detailing on the two-tone Gunmetal and Selby Grey car is also related to the record-breaking Vickers plane, including the black grille vanes that mimic the plane's engine cowling.

Former Princess Diana Rolls-Royce being auctioned for charity [w/video]

While it isn't that uncommon to see cars belonging to celebrities and dignitaries roll across the auction block these days, this car is a little extra special. This particular 1979 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was the car that Prince Charles and Princess Diana arrived at the White House in during a visit in 1985. As some added trivia, this was also the visit where Princess Di cut a rug with none other than John Travolta.
Volo Auto Museum will be auctioning off this piece of American and British history on November 9th - exactly 27 years from Princess Di's White House visit. According to the auction listing, this armored Silver Shadow was the official car of the UK's embassy, and it has been valued at around $2 million by the Berman Museum of History. The auction will have no reserve with some of the proceeds going to the Children with Cancer UK charity that Princess Diana started in 1988.
Scroll down for more information about this car and its auction as well as a video showing Prince Charles and Princess Diana arriving at the White House in the car back in 1985.

Watch the Rolls-Royce Cullinan tackle the sand dunes outside Dubai

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is coming soon. The British automaker has made copious effort trying to keep the coming Cullinan from being considered just a crossover or SUV. The carmaker calls it an All-Terrain High-Sided Bodied Vehicle, and a feature as banal as a tailgate has been billed as a "luxuriously comfortable viewing platform." Yet when Rolls-Royce took a prototype Cullinan for testing in the Dubai dunes, they recorded their Phantom-based SUV ripping up the sand in ways you'd expect from a 30-year-old Chevrolet Blazer. As the Nurburgring became to cars, the dunes outside of Dubai have turned into a testing venue as useful as they are photogenic. Rolls-Royce's trip there follows a list of other luxury SUV makers, including Range Rover, Bentley, and most recently, Lamborghini. What caught our eye in this video is that outside of century-old, black-and-white photos of Charles Stuart Rolls hammering one of his early cars in contests like the 1906 Tourist Trophy, this is the first time we've ever seen Rolls-Royce do anything unabashedly racy off-road. It's as if they plucked Florida Man from the Soggy Bottom Mud Park, gave him the keys to a Cullinan and the challenge, "A case of Pabst says you can't break it." Fast forward to the 1:08 mark to get into the action. Obviously, we don't expect any Cullinan driver — save those Dubai hoons — to thrash a Cullinan like so. But it's nice to know the All-Terrain High-Sided Bodied Vehicle can do it. Related Video: News Source: Rolls-Royce [via YouTube] via Autoevolution Rolls-Royce SUV Future Vehicles Luxury Videos dubai rolls-royce cullinan