Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car manufacturer founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Sir Frederick Henry Royce in March 1906. Royce made his first car, a two-cylinder Royce 10, in his Manchester factory in 1904 and met Rolls, proprietor of an early motor car dealership, in May of that year. The Royce 10 impressed Rolls, and in the following December he agreed to take all the cars Royce could make. There would be four models, a 10-horsepower, two-cylinder model priced at £395, a 15-horsepower three-cylinder at £500, a 20-horsepower four-cylinder at £650, and a 30- horsepower six-cylinder model, all badged as Rolls-Royces and sold exclusively by Rolls. The first car, a Rolls-Royce 10 hp, appeared at the December 1904 Paris Salon.

Rolls-Royce Limited formed in March 1906, by which time they needed new production premises. The Derby Council offered cheap electricity so they acquired a 12.7-acre site on the city’s southern edge. Royce designed a new factory, and production began there in early 1908.

In 1906 Royce developed an improved six-cylinder model with more than 30 horsepower. Initially designated the 40/50, this car made the company’s early reputation. After the 1925 introduction of the Phantom model, the 40/50 became the Silver Ghost. After producing 6,000, the company opened in 1921 a second factory in Springfield, Massachusetts in the USA, where they built 1,701 more “Springfield” Ghosts. This factory closed in 1931.

In 1931 Rolls-Royce acquired the much smaller Bentley rival after it failed to survive the Great Depression. From soon after World War II until 2002 standard Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars were mostly identical except for minor details.

The Rolls-Royce 20/25 in production from 1929 to 1936 succeeded the 20 hp. The in-line six-cylinder, overhead-valve engine used a single Rolls-Royce carburetor and both coil and magneto ignition. Engine and four-speed gearbox were a single unit with synchronized third and fourth gears. The famous Rolls-Royce radiator had vertical, adjustable louvers thermostatically controlled to regulate engine cooling.

The Phantom II, last of Rolls-Royce’s 40/50 hp models, replaced the Phantom in 1929 with an improved six-cylinder, 7,668-cubic centimeter engine in an all-new chassis. Rolls Royce made only the chassis and mechanical parts. A coachbuilder chosen by the buyer made and fitted the body. The Phantom III, the last large pre-war Rolls-Royce, was the only twelve-cylinder model until the 1998 Silver Seraph.

The Silver Wraith, the first post-war model, was in production from 1946 to 1959. The engine had overhead inlet valves and side exhaust valves and a capacity of 4,257 increased in 1951 to 4,566, and in 1954 to 4,887 cubic centimeters. The braking system had hydraulic front and mechanical rear brakes with a mechanical servo built under license. Equipped at first with only a four-speed manual gearbox, the transmission added a General Motors automatic option in 1952.

The Silver Cloud produced from 1955 to 1966 was the core model of the range during that time. The six-cylinder, 4,900-cubic centimeter, 155-horsepower engine had twin carburetors; standard transmission was a four-speed automatic. Suspension was by independent coils up front and semi-elliptic springs in the rear. Power steering and air conditioning became options in 1956. In 1959, an eight-cylinder, 6,200-cubic centimeter engine improved acceleration and torque, power steering became standard, and electric windows became optional. In 1963, engine compression ratio increased to 9:1, and increased power and decreased weight boosted performance somewhat. The transmission was a General Motors Hydramatic under license.

The Phantom V, a large, ultra-exclusive four-door made from 1959 to 1968, had an eight-cylinder, 6,230-cubic centimeter, 90-degree engine with twin carburetors , a four-speed automatic transmission, and power steering. The 1968–1990 Phantom VI, based on the Phantom V, featured coil springs in front, leaf springs in rear, and big drum brakes on all four wheels. A 1979 upgrade increased engine capacity to 6,750 cubic centimeters and substituted a three-speed automatic transmission with a torque converter.

The Silver Shadow introduced many new features: disc rather than drum brakes, independent rear suspension rather than the previous, outdated live axle design, and high-pressure hydraulics with dual-circuit braking and self-levelling suspension that achieved a high degree of ride comfort. Rolls Royce produced more than 30,000 Silver Shadows from 1965 to 1980, the largest production volume for any model.

The Silver Spirit continued the Silver Shadow basic design of the eight-cylinder, 6,7500-cubic centimeter engine, three-speed automatic transmission, and self-leveling suspension, this time by a hydraulic system and gas-charged shock absorbers. Silver Spirit production of 19,602 cars lasted from 1980 to 1998.

The BMW subsidiary Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, the current corporate incarnation, has no direct relationship to Rolls-Royce vehicles produced up to 2003. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, established in 1998, now operates as the exclusive manufacturer of Rolls-Royce motor cars since 2003. Bentley Motors Limited, a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, is the direct successor to Rolls Royce Limited and the other predecessor entities that produced Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars between the foundation of each company and 2003, when the BMW-controlled entity started producing cars under the Rolls-Royce brand.

The Phantom four-door sedan, launched at the 2003 North American International Auto Show, is the first model from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited. The car has a twelve-cylinder, 6,750-cubic centimeter engine from BMW, but most components are unique to the car.