Bob Nielsen wrote:
On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 22:26:16 GMT, Walter Maxwell wrote:

However, what happened to the Rolls-Royce? Did the Queen boot it out? As I
recall it from my pre-teen days, it was definitely a Brit. And how
did it manage
to land in Deutchland? Or did Neville Chamberlin manipulate this one too?


Still made in Britain, but owned by BMW, who also make the recent
incarnation of Minis.

The original MGs were built right here in Abingdon-on-Thames, and the
big factory where the Minis are made is just up the road in Oxford. Lots
of local people either are or have worked in the car industry... and
some of them are also hams.

Even when R-R Motors was an independent company, it used part of the big
Oxford factory. That much larger company eventually bought R-R, but in
turn has done deals in which first Honda and then BMW provided
transfusions of new technology in return for a large share of the
company itself. However, the company still makes its own cars under the
name Austin Rover.

R-R Motors has always been a separate operation, with very different
ways of doing things. For example, all the stories you've heard about
countless coats of paint, each one hand-applied and hand-rubbed, are
true. The comforting thing is that down at the other end of the factory,
cars for the rest of us are being stamped out with modern high-tech,
high-bake paint jobs that will wear far better.


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek