The
Rolls-Royce Camargue is a two-door
coupéA 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 MotorsRolls-Royce Motors was created from the demerger 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 is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
by their coachbuilding division
Mulliner Park WardMulliner Park Ward was a coachbuilder based in London UK. The company produced Rolls-Royce Motor cars including the Rolls-Royce Phantom and the Rolls-Royce Corniche...
, was designed by automotive designer
Paolo MartinPaolo 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
PininfarinaPininfarina 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, selling in North America for approximately US$147,000 ($588,000 in 2008 dollars).
The
Rolls-Royce Camargue is a two-door
coupéA 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 MotorsRolls-Royce Motors was created from the demerger 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 is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
by their coachbuilding division
Mulliner Park WardMulliner Park Ward was a coachbuilder based in London UK. The company produced Rolls-Royce Motor cars including the Rolls-Royce Phantom and the Rolls-Royce Corniche...
, was designed by automotive designer
Paolo MartinPaolo 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
PininfarinaPininfarina 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, selling in North America for approximately US$147,000 ($588,000 in 2008 dollars). The recommended price of a new Camargue price at launch on the UK market in March 1975 was £29,250 including sales taxes. For the same price, a UK resident could buy five Jaguar XJ6s or 26 Minis. Rapid currency depreciation would raise the price of the Camargue in the late 1970s.
The car was sold in very limited numbers in
EuropeEurope 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 water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an,
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n and
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
n markets. It was named after the southern
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
CamargueThe Camargue is located south of Arles, France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the River Rhône delta. The eastern arm is called the Grand Rhône; the western one is the Petit Rhône. Administratively it lies within the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, the appropriately named...
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 ShadowThe Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is a luxury car produced in Great Britain in various forms from 1965 to 1980. The car was the manufacturer's response to claims that it was falling behind the times, and had lost contact with modern developments...
. 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-HydramaticTurbo-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
automaticAn automatic transmission is an automobile gearbox that can change gear ratios automatically as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually...
. The first 65 Camargues produced used
SUSU carburettors were a brand of carburettor usually of the sidedraught type but downdraught variants were used on some pre-war cars. They were widely used in British and Swedish automobiles for much of the twentieth century...
carburettors, while the remaining 471 used
SolexSolex 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 suspensionIndependent 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 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
metricThe metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement, first adopted by France in 1791, that is the common system of measuring units used by most of the world. It exists in several variations, with different choices of fundamental units, though the choice of base units does not...
dimensions, and was the first Rolls-Royce to feature a slanted
grilleA 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.-In powered vehicles:In automotive engineering, a grille covers an opening in the...
; 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.
External links