Today, if you want a custom luxury car, you might choose from a catalogue of colours. A century ago, one Indian maharaja had a different idea.
Instead of selecting a paint shade, he reportedly mailed Rolls-Royce one of his wife’s pink slippers.
The request was simple: make the car this colour.
The story is associated with Jam Sahib Ranjitsinhji, the ruler of Nawanagar, present-day Jamnagar in Gujarat. While he is remembered today as one of cricket’s greatest pioneers, he was also known for his love of luxury automobiles.
And like many Indian princes of the era, he wasn’t interested in owning an ordinary Rolls-Royce.
According to motoring historian Murad Ali Baig, the Maharaja wanted a new Rolls-Royce Phantom II painted in a very specific shade of
pink.
The problem was that the colour couldn’t easily be described.
So he reportedly sent Rolls-Royce a pink slipper belonging to his wife and instructed the company to match it exactly.
For most customers, such a request would have sounded ridiculous.
For Rolls-Royce, it was just another day dealing with Indian royalty.
During the early twentieth century, India’s princes were among the company’s most important customers. Rolls-Royce became famous for accommodating requests that ranged from the extravagant to the bizarre.
The company built hunting cars fitted with gun racks and searchlights. It designed special “purdah cars” that allowed royal women to travel unseen. Some vehicles were customised for ceremonial processions, while others were modified for rough terrain and tiger hunts.
Against that backdrop, matching a car to a slipper was hardly the strangest assignment.
The finished Phantom II reportedly arrived in precisely the shade the Maharaja wanted, turning a simple footwear item into one of the most unusual colour samples in automotive history.
A century later, the story survives because it perfectly captures the relationship between Rolls-Royce and India’s princely rulers.
The company built some of the world’s finest cars.
The maharajas ensured that no two of them were ever quite the same.
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