BBC News Online: oldBusiness

Silver Seraph rolls into limelight

The Silver Seraph, costing around £150,000 ($240,000), is the first Rolls-Royce to be equipped with a BMW engine.

Rolls-Royce has been up for sale since November, and its next owner is also likely to be German.

Details of the Silver Seraph were meant to be secret until the last moment, but leaked details have appeared in specialist motoring magazines.

It is the first Rolls-Royce to be made on a moving production line. The interior is still handmade.

The decision to use BMW engines has heightened speculation that the Munich-based car-maker is favourite to buy Rolls Royce when its parent company Vickers sells it off in the next few weeks.

Vickers wants to focus on its armoured vehicles and propulsion technology businesses.

The company hopes to raise at least £400m from the sale.

Other interested parties include Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler-Benz and Fiat.

A consortium of Rolls-Royce owners, the Rolls-Royce Acquisition Committee, is also interested in taking over the company.

The basic price of a current Rolls Royce model in Britain is £111,000 pounds ($180,000).

Rolls-Royce sales reached 1,918 cars in 1997, 10% more than the previous year.

In this section

Kosovo plane crash leaves 24 dead
Schedule and results (From Sport)
Pre-Budget business boost (From UK Politics)
Coup in Pakistan: Special report
Party guide: Malaysia's opposition alliance
Analysis: A fearsome force
Sri Lanka: The ethnic divide