By Jorn Madslien BBC News Online business reporter

As the automaker and aircraft engineers who share the Rolls-Royce name celebrate the marque's centenary, BBC News Online considers the motor car's fortunes.

Mr Gott: "We have tried to live up to the engineering ideals of Royce"

Tony Gott has a thing or two in common with the creators of the legendary Rolls-Royce motor car.

Like the nineteenth century gentleman The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls, Mr Gott seems perfectly comfortable with rubbing shoulders with the very wealthy.

Like the engineering pioneer Frederick Henry Royce he is passionate about engineering.

And like both Rolls and Royce, Mr Gott has started from scratch with the sole aim of building the world's best motor car.

Turbulent century

For Rolls and Royce, it all began at a meeting at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on 4 May 1904.

The two men - one an early day car importer, the other a hobby car builder - shared an enthusiasm for motoring that was clearly going to get them places.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars playing the heritage card

On that day, the idea for an icon was conceived, and soon the two men were actively driving the motoring revolution forward, while at the same time getting deeply involved in the world of aviation.

A decade later when war broke out, the market for expensive motors vanished overnight. Rolls-Royce remained active, however, by producing aircraft engines, as well as armoured cars for the military.

Between the wars, Rolls-Royce acquired the troubled racing car maker Bentley, and the company then remained in business as a firm of two divisions - aero and automotive - until 1971 when it was split into two separate companies.

Badge only

Mr Gott's adventure started rather differently.

Having spent the best parts of the 1980s and 1990s working for the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Company in Crewe, he was appointed chief executive following a takeover by the German car group Volkswagen in the autumn of 2002.

Mr Gott is sitting pretty in the new Rolls-Royce company

However, the sale of the company did not include the right to use the Rolls-Royce brand - apparently to the great surprise of VW.

That was owned by Rolls-Royce plc - the aircraft engine manufacturer which confusingly shares its name with the car maker - and had been licensed to Vickers for use on cars produced at the Crewe factory ever since the car and aircraft engine divisions went their separate ways.

Following Volkswagen's takeover of the car maker, Roll-Royce plc promptly passed on the badge to its partner in an aero-engine joint venture, German car maker BMW.

The deal significantly raised the profile of BMW chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder.

Rolls-Royce reborn

Over the next couple of years, a session of "musical executives" was acted out, with Mr Pischetsrieder leaving BMW to take over the top job at Volkswagen, while Mr Gott left Bentley Motors and joined BMW's Rolls-Royce Motor Cars as chief executive.

Bentley is still servicing Rollers made at its Crewe factory

Mr Gott's first job was to oversee the final stages of the building of a spanking new factory at Goodwood in West Sussex - and then to launch the new Rolls-Royce.

When the �240,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom was unveiled last January, many in the world of luxury cars were impressed.

And when he unveiled the company's centenary experimental car, the 100EX convertible, at the Geneva Motor Show in March, many in the audience were positively ecstatic.

"What they've done at Goodwood is absolutely tremendous," Bentley board member in charge of sales and marketing, Adrian Hallmark, told BBC News Online.

"It's a remarkable greenfield development."

Heritage

But the praise from Bentley is not without a somewhat acidic hint at a lack of true heritage possessed by the Phantom.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom was created from scratch

After all, during the previous 64 years Rolls-Royce cars were produced at the current Bentley factory in Crewe, having moved there from Manchester via Derby.

"The only continuity between [the Goodwood factory] and the previous years is Tony Gott," said Mr Hallmark.

"All that BMW bought was a licence to use the name."

Bentley even continues to service Rolls-Royce cars made in Crewe during the last few decades.

"My own feeling on this is that Rolls-Royce's heritage is here," a factory worker in Crewe told BBC News Online.

"Nobody else can make a Rolls-Royce."

Engineering ideals

Mr Gott - who obviously disagrees - remains gentlemanly aloof when faced with such talk, insisting that Rolls-Royce Motor Cars' fresh start away from the ageing Crewe factory was a help, not a hindrance.

The centenary show car caused quite a stir when it was launched

By starting afresh, Rolls-Royce has managed to create a "modern fusion of the best craftsmanship, the best technology and the best infrastructure" without being bogged down by old practices, he said.

"We have, arguably, the strongest brand, wherever you go in the world ," he told BBC News Online.

"Then we have a fine product."

Even with its lofty list price of �240,000 - plus extras for any bespoke additions - the car has proved popular among the world's super rich.

"We have tried to live up to the engineering ideals of Royce," said Mr Gott, clearly convinced that this appeals to its discerning clients.

Last year, 300 cars were sold, and this year the car maker is on track to reach its 1,000 per year production target, a company spokesman insisted.

Moreover, the car "will be profitable within its lifecycle" of 10-12 years, Mr Gott insisted.