officially retained to complete the design of the Continental R. They had run the Automotive Design School at the Royal College of Art and headed up their own consultancy, International Automotive Design, based in Worthing, Southern England. Greenley and Heffernan liaised constantly throughout the design process with Graham Hull. The interior was entirely the work of Graham Hull and the small in house styling team at Rolls-Royce. The shape of the car was very different from the somewhat slab sided four-door SZ Rolls-Royce and Bentley of the time and offered a much improved coefficient of drag of . The Continental R also featured roof-cut door frames, a necessity to allow easier access into the car which had a lower roofline than its 4-door saloon contemporaries. A subtle spoiler effect was also a feature of the rear. The finished car is widely acknowledged as a very cleverly and attractively styled vehicle, effectively disguising its huge dimensions (the Continental R is around 4-inch longer than a 2013 long wheelbase Mercedes S Class). The "Continental" designation recalls the Bentley Continental of the post-war period. The "R" was meant to recall the R Type Bentley models from the 1950s as well as the Turbo R of the 1980s and 90s where the "R" refers to "roadholding". The revival of the Bentley marque following the introduction of the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, and then the Continental R, is widely acknowledged to have saved Rolls-Royce Motor cars and formed the groundwork which led to the buyout and parting of the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands in 1998. Bentley was once again capable of standing alone as a marque in its own right when it was purchased by Volkswagen. Launch A completed pre-production Continental R (developed under the codename "Nepal") was secretly taken to Switzerland for a surprise launch of the model at the 1991 Geneva Motor Show (It had been expected the car would be launched in 1992). It was driven from behind a wall on the Rolls-Royce stand. Handel's Zadok the Priest music was chosen for the launch of the new model which was originally written for King George II's coronation in 1727. The Sultan of Brunei, impressed by the new model, purchased the show car at the event for a price of over GB£2 million. The new Mercedes-Benz W140 also launched at the show, was completely upstaged by the launch of the unexpected, vermilion red, new