Rolls-Royce Camargue
Encyclopedia
Coupé
A coupé or coupe is a closed car body style , the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time...
introduced by Rolls-Royce Motors
Rolls-Royce Motors
Rolls-Royce Motors was created from the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce car business from Rolls-Royce Limited in 1973. The original Rolls-Royce Limited had been nationalised in 1971 due to the financial collapse of the company, caused in part by the development of the RB211 jet engine...
in March 1975. The Camargue's body, built in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
by their coachbuilding division Mulliner Park Ward
Mulliner Park Ward
Mulliner Park Ward was a bespoke coachbuilder in Hythe Road, Willesden, London UK.Mulliner now is the personal commissioning department for Bentley....
, was designed by automotive designer Paolo Martin
Paolo Martin
Paolo Martin is a car designer, presently working for Pininfarina. He has styled:* Fiat 130 Coupe* Rolls-Royce Camargue * Peugeot 104* Ferrari Modulo show car -External links:*...
at Pininfarina
Pininfarina
Pininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy.Founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina, Pininfarina has been employed by a wide variety of high-end automobile manufacturers,...
— the Camargue was Rolls-Royce's first post-war production model not to be designed in-house.
When it was launched, the Camargue, which was the flagship of the Rolls-Royce lineup, was the most expensive production car in the world, eventually selling in North America for approximately US$147,000 ($588,000 in 2008 dollars). By the time of its official U.S. launch, the Carmargue had already been on sale in the UK for over a year. The New York Times made much of the fact that the U.S. price at this stage was approximately $15,000 higher than the UK price. In the 1970s, many European models retailed for significantly less in the U.S. than they did in Europe in order to compete with prices set aggressively by Detroit's Big Three and Japanese importers. The manufacturer rejected this approach with the Carmargue, referencing the high cost of safety and pollution engineering needed to adapt the few cars (approximately 30 per year) it expected to send to North America in 1976.
The recommended price of a new Camargue price at launch on the UK market in March 1975 was £29,250, including sales taxes. Rapid currency depreciation would greatly raise the price of the Camargue in the late 1970s, both the UK and in North America.
The car was sold in very limited numbers in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n markets. It was named after the southern French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Camargue
Camargue
The Camargue is the region located south of Arles, France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône River delta. The eastern arm is called the Grand Rhône; the western one is the Petit Rhône....
region.
When presenting their new car to the press in 1975, Rolls-Royce placed emphasis on the sophistication of the completely automatic split-level climate control system, the first of its kind in the world. It was developed, it was stated, during the eight years preceding the car's introduction, and according to Rolls-Royce, "superior to anything else in the field."
The Camargue shares a platform with the Rolls-Royce Corniche and Silver Shadow
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow
The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is a luxury car that was produced in Great Britain in various forms from 1965 to 1980. It was the first Rolls-Royce to use a monocoque chassis, a response to concerns that the company was falling behind in automotive innovation....
. It is powered by the same 6.75 L V8 engine as the Silver Shadow, though the Camargue is slightly more powerful. The transmission was also carried over — a General Motors Turbo-Hydramatic
Turbo-Hydramatic
Turbo-Hydramatic is the registered tradename of a family of automatic transmissions developed and produced by General Motors. These transmissions mate a three-element torque converter to a Simpson planetary geartrain, providing three forward speeds plus reverse.The Turbo-Hydramatic series was...
3-speed automatic
Automatic transmission
An automatic transmission is one type of motor vehicle transmission that can automatically change gear ratios as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually...
. The first 65 Camargues produced used SU carburettors, while the remaining 471 used Solex
Solex
Solex was a French manufacturer of carburetors and the powered bicycle VéloSoleX.The Solex company was founded by Marcel Mennesson and Maurice Goudard to manufacture vehicle radiators...
units. The Camargue was fitted with the Silver Shadow II's power rack and pinion steering rack in February 1977. In 1979, it received the rear independent suspension
Independent suspension
Independent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle, live axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked – movement on one side affects...
of the Silver Spirit
Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit
For the cruise ship see MS Silver SpiritThe Silver Spirit is a British saloon automobile made by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, in England. It was launched in 1980.The Silver Spur was a long-wheelbase version of the Silver Spirit, produced at the same time....
.
The car, which is large for a coupé, sits on a 3048 mm (120 in) wheelbase. It was the first Rolls-Royce automobile to be designed to metric
Metric system
The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
dimensions, and was the first Rolls-Royce to feature a slanted grille
Grille
A grille or grill is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out.-Spelling:In the United States, "grille" is used to differentiate the automotive...
; the Camargue's grille slants at an inclined angle of seven degrees.
Production of the Rolls-Royce Camargue ended in 1986. During the car's 11-year production run, 530 Rolls-Royce Camargues were built, as well as one specially-ordered Bentley Camargue.