The Rolls-Royce 100 EX and the 101 EX, with 'EX' standing for ''experimental'' models, are two related
concept car
A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...
s developed by
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited is a British luxury automobile maker which has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of BMW AG since 2003 – as the exclusive manufacturer of ''Rolls-Royce''-branded motor cars. The company's administrative ...
and first shown at the
Geneva International Auto Show in 2004 and 2006 respectively.
100EX: main features
*9.0 litre
V16 engine
A V16 engine is a sixteen-cylinder piston engine where two banks of eight cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V16 engines are less common than engines with fewer cylinders, such as V8 and V12 engines. Each ban ...
*6-speed
automatic transmission
An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving c ...
*Dimensions:
**Height
**Width
**Length
The 100 EX concept was produced, and presented in 2004, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the meeting of businessman
Charles Rolls
Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with ...
and engineer Sir
Henry Royce
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, (27 March 1863 – 22 April 1933) was an English engineer famous for his designs of car and aeroplane engines with a reputation for reliability and longevity. With Charles Rolls (1877–1910) and Claude ...
in 1904.
Rolls-Royce 101EX
In 2006, the 101EX, a
grand tourer
A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either ...
coupe
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
that directly followed the 100EX concept of a possible new line-topping two-door Rolls-Royce, was presented at the
2006 Geneva International Auto Show.
The 101EX shares its aluminium space frame chassis technology with the 2003
Phantom
Phantom may refer to:
* Spirit (animating force), the vital principle or animating force within all living things
** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living
Aircraft
* Boeing Phantom Ray, a stealthy un ...
, albeit in a shortened version. The car is shorter than the
Phantom
Phantom may refer to:
* Spirit (animating force), the vital principle or animating force within all living things
** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living
Aircraft
* Boeing Phantom Ray, a stealthy un ...
saloon, with a lower roofline and shallower glass area. Power comes from the BMW 6.75L V12 engine.
The updated body styling of the 101EX would eventually serve as the basis for the
Phantom Drophead Coupé and
Phantom Coupé. The latter car was featured in the film ''
Johnny English Reborn
''Johnny English Reborn'' is a 2011 spy action comedy film directed by Oliver Parker and written by Hamish McColl from a story by William Davies. A sequel to ''Johnny English'' (2003) and the second instalment in the ''Johnny English'' serie ...
'', and for the film
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles on the sitcoms '' Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and ''Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and the film series ''Johnny English'' (2003–201 ...
persuaded BMW to fit one of the three or four
V16s originally developed for the 2003 Phantom saloon into the movie coupé, to which
BMW agreed.
[
]
See also
* Cadillac Sixteen
The Cadillac Sixteen is a concept car first developed and presented by Cadillac in 2003.
The vehicle is equipped with a Cadillac proprietary-developed aluminum 32-valve V16 engine displacing 13.6 liters (829 cu. in; 13,584 cc), which was exclus ...
* Rolls-Royce Corniche
The Rolls-Royce Corniche is a two-door, front-engine, rear wheel drive luxury car produced by Rolls-Royce Motors as a hardtop coupé (from 1971 to 1980) and as a convertible (from 1971 to 1995).
The Corniche was a development of the Mulliner ...
References
100EX
Concept cars
Cars introduced in 2004
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Luxury vehicles
Coupés
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