Rolls-Royce Camargue

At launch, the Camargue was the Rolls-Royce flagship and the most expensive production car in the world. At its official U.S. launch, the Camargue had already been on sale in the UK for over a year. The New York Times noted that the U.S. price at this stage was approximately $5,000 higher than the UK price.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}} In the 1970s, many European models retailed for significantly less in the U.S. than they did in Europe in order to compete with prices set aggressively by Detroit's Big Three and Japanese importers.{{cite magazine|magazine=Autocar | number = 4147 | volume =144 | editor-first=Peter|editor-last= Garnier |title =News: Biggest ever price rise?|page=27| date = 1 May 1976}} The manufacturer rejected this approach with the Camargue, referencing the high cost of safety and pollution engineering needed to adapt the few cars (approximately 30 per year) it expected to send to North America in 1976.

At its 1975 press debut, Rolls-Royce highlighted automatic split-level climate control system, the first of its kind.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}} According to Rolls-Royce, the system's development took eight years.{{cite magazine| first = J.R. | last = Daniels | title = New Rolls-Royce: The Delta becomes Camargue | volume = 142|magazine=Autocar | number = 4089 | pages =48–49 |date = 8 March 1975}} The recommended price of a new Camargue at launch on the UK market in March 1975 was £29,250, including sales taxes. Rapid currency depreciation would greatly raise the price of the Camargue in the late 1970s, both in the UK and North America.

The Camargue shared its platform with the Rolls-Royce Corniche and Silver Shadow and was powered by the same {{convert|6.75|L|cuin|adj=on}} V8 engine as the Silver Shadow, although the Camargue engine was slightly more powerful. The transmission was also carried over – a General Motors Turbo-Hydramatic 3-speed automatic. The first 65 Camargues produced used SU carburettors, while the remaining carburetted cars used Solex units. US delivered cars used Bosch Jetronic fuel injection during the 1980s which it shared with the Corniche and Silver Spirit/Spur. 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 suspension of the Silver Spirit.

With a {{convert|3048|mm|in|0|abbr=on}} wheelbase, the Camargue was the first Rolls-Royce automobile to be designed to metric dimensions,{{citation needed|date=April 2014}} and was the first Rolls-Royce to feature an inclined rather than perfectly vertical grille; the Camargue's grille was slanted at an angle of seven degrees.

The car was sold in very limited numbers in European, American, Canadian, Australian and Asian markets. Several of the cars have since been modified into convertibles by after-market customizers.

The Camargue received a varied reception, having ranked as one of the "10 Worst Cars"'as chosen in 2010 by readers of The Globe and Mail;{{cite web

| title = In Pictures: 10 worst cars chosen by our readers

| newspaper = The Globe and Mail

| first=Peter

| last=Cheney

| date=22 February 2010

| url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/car-life/cheney/10-worst-cars-chosen-by-our-readers/article1477474/singlepage/}} having ranked 38 in the 2005 book Crap Cars by Richard Porter (the author saying the car "looked utterly terrible)"{{cite book

| title = Crap Cars, Richard Porter, p.32

| date = October 2005

| publisher = Bloomsbury USA, 2005

| isbn = 9781582346380

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iUx9O03BNUYC&q=rolls+royce+camargue%2F&pg=PA32}} and having ranked 92 in a 2008 poll of the 100 ugliest cars of all time by readers of The Daily Telegraph.{{cite web

| title = The 100 ugliest cars

| work = The Daily Telegraph |date=25 Aug 2008

| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/2754139/The-100-ugliest-cars-100-81.html?image=8/}} Autoblog said the Camargue had been ranked "conspicuously low on the list," adding the Camargue "really was horrid, no matter how well it sold."{{cite web

| title = Tie a pork chop around its neck - Telegraph counts down 100 ugliest cars

| publisher = Autoblog.com

| date=30 August 2008

| url = http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/30/tie-a-pork-chop-around-its-neck-telegraph-counts-down-100-ugli//}}

In response, noted automotive journalist James May said the Camargue "is not ugly, either. It has presence, like that pug-faced but well-dressed bloke down the pub."{{cite web|title=James May's greatest hits: the ugliest cars of all time |work=The Telegraph | first = James | last = May | date = 26 May 2011 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/columnists/jamesmay/8538881/James-Mays-greatest-hits-the-ugliest-cars-of-all-time.html/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209064642/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/columnists/jamesmay/8538881/James-Mays-greatest-hits-the-ugliest-cars-of-all-time.html |archive-date=9 February 2012 }}

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category}}

• [http://www.rrab.com/rcama.htm Rolls-Royce Camargue]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060527042519/http://www.globalcar.com/datasheet/RollsRoyce/1975Rolls-RoyceCamargue.htm Technical data]

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{{Rolls-Royce vehicles}}

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Camargue

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Category:Rear-wheel-drive vehicles

Category:1980s cars

Category:Cars introduced in 1975

Category:Cars discontinued in 1986