Rolls-Royce doubling Bespoke team to create more custom cars [w/video]

ROLLS-ROYCE EXPANDS BESPOKE OPERATION DUE TO GROWING DEMAND

10.08.2011

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is expanding its Bespoke operation due to growing customer demand for bespoke items, a trademark service by the British manufacturer of super-luxury motor cars.

The Bespoke operation, based at the Home of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars at Goodwood in West Sussex, will see a surge of team members, including designers, engineers and project management staff, doubling the headcount by the end of 2011. It will bring the number of Bespoke experts throughout the business to over 50.

This year, Rolls-Royce has seen a significant increase in customer demand for personalised bespoke features, transforming the brand's super-luxury cars into unique hand-crafted masterpieces which are as individual as their owner's fingerprints. In order to satisfy demand, the business is recruiting additional Bespoke designers as well as engineers in manufacturing and project management functions. Operational support functions will also expand in various areas including product marketing and sales.

Bespoke operations are not limited to design and development of automotive parts. Bespoke allows Rolls-Royce customers the luxury of commissioning motor cars to suit their personal lifestyles. Examples are as versatile and unique as picnic sets that are colour-matched to a car's interior, carefully selected luxurious interior materials or the creation of seamless storage for an owner's favourite belongings.

"The ability to bespoke one's vehicle has always been at the heart of Rolls-Royce so it is very encouraging to see that after more than one hundred years at the very pinnacle of the automotive world, our Bespoke services are still very much in demand from customers all over the world today", explained Member of the Board and Director, Sales and Marketing, Jolyon Nash.

To see an example of an exceptional Bespoke car, please visit our website www.21stCenturyLegends.com and be inspired by the story of "The Man Who Became a Paint".

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Mercedes-Benz and Lego Team Up To Create Amazing Scale Unimog U400 You Can Buy and Build

June 1, 2011 at 2:03pm by Alexander Stoklosa

Everyone’s favorite flat-front, ugly/beautiful German off-road workhorse, the Mercedes-Benz Unimog, is now even more awesome and attainable than ever—at 1:12th scale and constructed from Lego bricks. The Unimog U400 is a variant of the contemporary Unimog, a model line that dates back to 1951; to commemorate its 60th birthday, Lego and Mercedes teamed up to create a build-it-yourself version. The resulting Lego Unimog is awesome, and the combination of its 2048 individual pieces and scale makes it the largest Lego Technic model ever offered for sale by the toymaker.

Lego Technic models—the complex cousins to the basic Lego sets—feature moving parts and mechanized actions, and the Technic Unimog takes these core tenets to new heights. Not only are details such as the engine and hub gearboxes painstakingly recreated with tiny moving pistons and operable gear-reduction systems, but the small rig is electrically driven and sports a fully pneumatic gripper arm mounted aft of a pneumatic “dump” bed.

The young (and young at heart) can guide the pneumatic gripper arm through nearly 360 degrees of rotation, alter its reach, and grab things (candy, your spouse’s hair, the dog’s tail) using an external controller. The crane and winch can be reconfigured into an operable snowplow attachment for tiny shoveling jobs. The Lego Unimog also sports four-wheel drive, coil-spring articulating solid axles, and a power front-mounted winch. The kit goes on sale in August and will be available from both Lego and Mercedes-Benz for £190, or about $275 at current exchange rates. The tips of our fingers hurt in an oh-so-good way just from the thought of getting our mitts on this fantastically complex kit.

Tags: LEGO, Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz Unimog |

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Callaway Supercharges Chevy Pickups and SUVs to Create SportTrucks

April 22, 2011 at 1:06pm by David Gluckman

Callaway, known for building hotted-up Camaros and Corvettes, has assembled a package to be applied to Chevy’s trucks and sport-utes. Callaway will build a SportTruck from any Silverado 1500, Silverado 2500HD, Avalanche, Tahoe, or Suburban with a gas engine. The package is the same for each, and tops the engine with an Eaton TVS supercharger not unlike the ones GM uses on the Corvette ZR1 and Cadillac CTS-V. Regardless of engine—5.3-liter, 6.0-liter, 6.2-liter—the cost is $15,995 to upgrade any two- or four-wheel-drive pickup or SUV.

The package comes in strength-defined names based on how much power results from the supercharging. Trucks with the 5.3-liter V-8 are called SC450, as the engine’s output is raised to 450 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque, up from the stock 315 hp and 335 or so lb-ft (the output for all of these engines varies from model to model). The 6.0 is christened SC490, with output of  490 hp and 496 lb-ft, up from around 350 and 380. The top-dog SC540 supercharges the 6.2-liter V-8 to 540 hp and 522 lb-ft from stock levels of 403 and 417. The supercharger is accompanied underhood by an intercooler, higher-flow injectors, carbon-fiber injector covers, and a Callaway high-flow intake. A low-restriction Callaway exhaust also is fitted.

Along with the engine upgrades, Callaway dresses up the exterior with subtle badging and adds embroidered headrests and floor mats inside. Additional options include wheel-and-tire packages, upgraded brakes (chef recommends), suspension upgrades, and a sport interior package. Callaway includes a three-year/36,000-mile limited warranty that can be extended to five years/100,000 miles. The trucks and SUVs can be ordered at participating Chevy dealers and are modified at one of Callaway’s U.S. facilities.

Tags: Callaway, Callaway SportTruck, Chevrolet, Chevrolet Avalanche, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Silverado HD, Chevrolet Suburban, Chevrolet Tahoe |

View the original article here

Callaway Supercharges Chevy Pickups and SUVs to Create SportTrucks

April 22, 2011 at 1:06pm by David Gluckman

Callaway, known for building hotted-up Camaros and Corvettes, has assembled a package to be applied to Chevy’s trucks and sport-utes. Callaway will build a SportTruck from any Silverado 1500, Silverado 2500HD, Avalanche, Tahoe, or Suburban with a gas engine. The package is the same for each, and tops the engine with an Eaton TVS supercharger not unlike the ones GM uses on the Corvette ZR1 and Cadillac CTS-V. Regardless of engine—5.3-liter, 6.0-liter, 6.2-liter—the cost is $15,995 to upgrade any two- or four-wheel-drive pickup or SUV.

The package comes in strength-defined names based on how much power results from the supercharging. Trucks with the 5.3-liter V-8 are called SC450, as the engine’s output is raised to 450 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque, up from the stock 315 hp and 335 or so lb-ft (the output for all of these engines varies from model to model). The 6.0 is christened SC490, with output of  490 hp and 496 lb-ft, up from around 350 and 380. The top-dog SC540 supercharges the 6.2-liter V-8 to 540 hp and 522 lb-ft from stock levels of 403 and 417. The supercharger is accompanied underhood by an intercooler, higher-flow injectors, carbon-fiber injector covers, and a Callaway high-flow intake. A low-restriction Callaway exhaust also is fitted.

Along with the engine upgrades, Callaway dresses up the exterior with subtle badging and adds embroidered headrests and floor mats inside. Additional options include wheel-and-tire packages, upgraded brakes (chef recommends), suspension upgrades, and a sport interior package. Callaway includes a three-year/36,000-mile limited warranty that can be extended to five years/100,000 miles. The trucks and SUVs can be ordered at participating Chevy dealers and are modified at one of Callaway’s U.S. facilities.

Tags: Callaway, Callaway SportTruck, Chevrolet, Chevrolet Avalanche, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Silverado HD, Chevrolet Suburban, Chevrolet Tahoe |

View the original article here