THE rich heritage of the world's best-known automotive brand will be in safe hands when BMW produces the first of a new generation of Rolls-Royce models, it was claimed at the Detroit Motor Show. With planning approval for a £60 million factory in West Sussex expected to get the go-ahead this summer, work on the most controversial car in the history of the Rolls-Royce badge is at an advanced stage.

'Our version will have everything you would expect of car with the pedigree of Rolls-Royce. We have been very careful to make sure no detail is overlooked. And I can promise you it will be just as English as its predecessors,' said Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, the Munich company's group marketing vice-president responsible for the project.

'Everything is running according to plan. I admit that we are likely to be operating to a very tight schedule if we're to produce our first car ready for delivery to the customer by January 1, 2003, but this will be done - and to the level of perfection that the customer has every right to expect.'