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Rolls-Royce posts 25% jump in sales thanks to Cullinan demand

Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce said on Tuesday it recorded a 25% jump in sales in 2019, underpinned by solid demand for its first-ever SUV, Cullinan, just a year after the launch. The 116-year-old British company said it sold a record 5,152 cars in 2019, compared with 4,107 units in the prior year. "Worldwide demand last year for our Cullinan SUV has driven this success and is expected to stabilize in 2020," Chief Executive Officer Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said in a statement. The Cullinan was unveiled in 2018. The BMW-owned brand's strong numbers serve as a breather at a time when the global automobile industry is still grappling with various challenges amid a broader economic slowdown that dented sales of many automakers. North America continued to be the biggest contributor with about a third of Rolls-Royce's total sales, followed by China and Europe. Related Video:

Rolls-Royce Wraith Luminary Collection gets celestial headliner

Rolls-Royce has announced a new bespoke collection for its Wraith 2-door luxury coupe that is highlighted, literally, by a headliner full of glittering shooting stars. It's called the Wraith Luminary Collection and its production will be limited to just 55 examples. The car is like its own planetarium on wheels, thanks to a starlight headliner concocted by the folks at the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective in Goodwood, West Sussex. It's a handwoven configuration of 1,340 fiber-optic lights mimicking the night sky — and even the occasional shooting star — and it takes 20 hours to configure. Rolls-Royce says eight shooting stars fire at random, mostly over the front seats. Open up the suicide doors and you'll see the celestial theme continued inside the cabin. Tudor oak wood veneer, sourced from forests in the Czech Republic and chosen for its depth of color and grain structure, is back-lit by 176 LED lights that permeates through intricate perforations in the veneer that form another starlight pattern at the touch of a button. "Linked to the controls of the starlight headliner, the cabin's veneer surrounds Wraith's occupants in an ambient glow of light," the luxury marque says. Outside, the Luminary Collection comes pained in Sunburst Grey with rich Saddlery Tan-colored lines hand painted along the bonnet and side body, a color scheme inspired by "the heady shade of the golden hour's sunrays" and referencing the interior leather color scheme. It's also echoed in the center of each wheel. Cockpit seats come trimmed in the same tan leather, while rear seats feature a contrasting Anthracite leather or an available Seashell color for the leather, matched by a two-tone steering wheel. The seats get contrasting piping and stitching tying the colors together. Also new is a hand-woven stainless steel fabric, a new technique for luxury goods borrowed from industrial uses, for the center console and door panniers. Each swath is made up of strands between 0.08 and 0.19 millimeters in diameter and takes three days to produce in a clean-room environment. Finally, the collection features stainless-steel tread plates engraved with the words, "Wraith Luminary Collection — One of Fifty-Five." Prices weren't announced, befitting the brand's aura of exclusivity, but the Wraith starts at a mere $320,000.

Senna director working on biopic about Rolls-Royce founders

Asif Kapadia, the director of the amazing motorsports documentary Senna, has signed on to helm Silver Ghost, a film about the earliest days of Rolls-Royce. Martin Scorsese is among the movie's producers, and Lord Richard Attenborough was involved with the project before his death. Silver Ghost would tell the story of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce at the beginning of the 20th century. Automotive pioneer Lord John Douglas-Scott Montagu and his wife would also have roles. It seems that the film will involve the story of how Montagu's mistress, Eleanor Velasco Thornton, inspired the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament. "What struck me when I read Silver Ghost was how this true story weaves together the lives of five remarkable people that changed the destiny of the Western world and I am delighted to be working together with the legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese and Anthony Haas to bring it to the screen," Kapadia said in the announcement. "Most of the filming is due to take place in England and the intention is for production to begin later this year," project spokesperson Brigitte Hill told Autoblog. She wouldn't unveil anything about the cast at this stage, understandably. We first heard about Silver Ghost in 2012 when Scorsese and Attenborough were working on it. They reportedly had a script from Goldeneye screenwriter Jeffrey Caine and playwright Sharman Macdonald. Silver Ghost is among several automotive biopics that could arrive in cinemas. A Ferruccio Lamborghini film might start shooting this summer, and Robert De Niro has a Ferrari movie in the works. Leonardo Di Caprio also already has the big-screen rights to a future book about the Volkswagen diesel scandal. That's a huge crop of car movies, and we couldn't be more excited about it. Related Video: X ASIF KAPADIA TO DIRECT FEATURE LENGTH DRAMA SILVER GHOST PRODUCED BY MARTIN SCORSESE & ANTHONY HAAS 29/01/16 from Beaulieu Print this page Add this release to Your Downloads Asif Kapadia is to direct the Martin Scorsese/Anthony Haas produced feature film drama SILVER GHOST. The project will be a co-production between Scorsese's Sikelia Productions and Zuma Productions.