If Bentley is all about seamless low-end torque from V-8 engines (or the odd W-12), then Rolls-Royce is about 'wafting'.
That's the word used to describe the experience of riding in an utterly silent, totally effortless conveyance that sets one above the common man.
Which might, if you think about it, be more suited to electric power than it would first appear.
Rumors had emerged more than a year ago that a small number of all-electric Rolls-Royce Phantoms would be built for the event, and now the company has more or less confirmed the program.
Yesterday, according to Britain's Daily Mail, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said the fabled marque was considering "all options" for alternative-fuel vehicles. He had said late last year that such an experimental Rolls-Royce would be "a good idea."
Parent company BMW is the main automotive sponsor of the 2012 London Olympics, meaning that all its brands will put their greenest vehicles in front of the world's camera crews.
Details aren't likely to be forthcoming immediately, though. Mueller-Oetvoes said Rolls-Royce would be "fully exploring all options" to avoid "any rash decisions."
In other words, wait for the Rolls-Royce PR machine to trickle out details in concert with what will soon be a roar of Olympics publicity.
But if the loudest sound in a Rolls-Royce is the ticking of the clock--in the immortal words of adman David Ogilvy--just imagine how loud that clock might sound in an electric Royce.
Because somehow we don't forsee a digital clock appearing any time soon in a Rolls-Royce.
Some things, thankfully, never change.
