Q 01/05

After the Silver Ghost's 15,000-mile trial of 1907, an RAC strip-down found repairs costing roughly how much?

A) About £2

B) About £20

C) About £200

D) About £2,000

Answer · why

A) About £2

About £2 was the bill, precisely £2 2s 7d, where any rival of the day would have needed a full overhaul. The firm's managing director had run the car ...

Q 02/05

The RB211's carbon-fibre Hyfil fan blades failed a 1970 test when what was fired into them at high speed?

A) A block of solid ice

B) A steel bolt

C) A chicken carcass

D) A high-pressure water jet

Answer · why

C) A chicken carcass

A chicken carcass shattered the Hyfil fan in the bird-ingestion test, forcing a switch to heavier titanium blades. The cost overruns that followed pus...

Q 03/05

In 2023 the UK Space Agency funded Rolls-Royce to design a small nuclear power plant for use where?

A) On Mars

B) On the Moon

C) In Antarctica

D) On the seabed

Answer · why

B) On the Moon

On the Moon, a fortnight of daylight gives way to a fortnight of darkness, so solar panels alone won't do; a nuclear plant could keep a base running c...

Q 04/05

What do the RR monograms on a modern Rolls-Royce Phantom's wheel hubs do as the wheels turn?

A) Light up

B) Spin in reverse

C) Retract inward

D) Stay upright

Answer · why

D) Stay upright

Stay upright is what they do: each hub badge sits on its own bearing, so the monogram reads the right way up even at speed. The coachlines down the fl...

Q 05/05

Which Thunderbirds character chauffeurs Lady Penelope in FAB 1, her pink six-wheeled Rolls-Royce?

A) Brains

B) Kyrano

C) Parker

D) Scott Tracy

Answer · why

C) Parker

Parker, her butler, drives a car whose two pairs of front wheels are purely for looks, designer Derek Meddings admitted; Rolls-Royce approved the desi...