The Rolls-Royce Camargue

The Camargue was the first Rolls- Royce car manufactured after the World War that was not built in their own manufacturing unit at Durbey. The first two-seater car was made in the year 1975. The car was named after the name of the famous breed of horses found in the southern French province of Camargue.

The body of the car was designed by the famous automotive designer Paolo Martin and was built in London. When first launched, the Camargue a renowned car in the Rolls-Royce series was highly priced at US$147,000, or £83,000. Not only this, the production cost of this car was also the maximum when compared to other such cars built in the world. As a result, only a limited number of cars were manufactured and sold all over the world. Its primary markets were the primary including the Asian, European, American, Canadian, and Australian markets. Also, this car was mostly owned by kings, superstars, people from royal families, and diplomats.

This car has a split-level automatic air-conditioning system, which provides the temperature control to the driver at both the upper and lower levels.

Just like the Silver Shadow car, the engine of the Camargue is also very powerful at 6.5 V8 engine. The car uses an automatic 3-speed hydromatic transmission system known as the Turbo-Hydrometric system prepared by General Motors.

This car

- Has a Large wheelbase, the approximate size of which is 120 inches o 3048 mm

- Is the first Rolls-Royce vehicle designed according to the metric dimension set

- Has a slanted grille slanting at an inclined angle of 7 degrees

- Is the first vehicle that come fitted with a climate control system which is fully automatic in nature. This split-level system was developed in 8 years.

- Has a pushrod V8 engine having the capacity of 6.75-litre.

Out of the total number of Camargue that were manufactured, some 65 vehicles used SU Carburettos while the other 471 used Solex units. The vehicles manufactured after 1977 came fitted with the power rack also used in Silver Shadow II. The vehicle also used a pinion steering rack. Similarly, the cars manufactured in 1979 came fitted with the independent suspension of the rear vehicle, also used in the Silver Spirit cars.

The car has a running gear box and is built on the floorpan technology. Its body is totally made up of aluminium. The car came equipped with a new dashboard using standard Silver Shadow instruments. The dashboard had square plates black in color, which was similar to the cockpit of an aircraft. The window glasses of the car were also curved.

The cars were only produced till the year 1986 till which a total of 530 Camargues were built. The production also included a Bentley Camargue produced on order. The Camargue which is the first postwar Rolls-Royce is owned by many loyalists who would not like to exchange it for any other car.