Rolls-Royce Honors the Phantom Centenary
Over the top — that’s the legacy of the Rolls-Royce Phantom, a car so decadent, so timeless, so elegant that it’s endured for 100 years as the pinnacle of automotive finery. The Phantom is the car driven by Old Hollywood, Elvis Presley, Elton John, and Pharrell. Karl Lagerfeld owned at least three Phantoms.
Phantom’s history is filled with enchanting stories about the company founder Henry Royce’s whims and pursuit of aesthetic beauty from central London to his vacation homes in West Wittering and Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer, where he made oil landscape paintings in his leisure time. Rolls-Royce displayed all eight generations of Phantoms at Pebble Beach in August as party of its yearlong celebration. And this October, Rolls-Royce introduced its Centenary Private Collection, a passionate ode to Phantom’s 100-year run and to the craft of making unique motor cars that stand the test of time.
“Take the best that exists and make it better.”
The Centenary is a painstaking creation that took 40,000 hours of collective labor among Rolls-Royce craftsmen. The result is a fleet of 25 identical cars priced at a cool $3 million per car. The special edition Centenary was first revealed to media and collectors at the Goodwood Estate in the United Kingdom. Rolls-Royce executives told us that opulent expressionism aside, these owners consider this car an important acquisition in the brand’s history.
Goodwood is now part of the brand’s legacy as the current global headquarters of Rolls-Royce and home to Charles Richmond, the eleventh Duke of Richmond and Gordon. The royal estate dates back to 1697 and the first Duke of Richmond, son of King Charles II. The 11,000 acre property was historically used for aviation, motorsports, and in modern days the Duke hosts public Goodwood Revival, the Festival of Speed, and the newly opened Goodwood Art Foundation. A stunning sculpture exhibition by Rachel Whitehead curated by Ann Gallagher was on view during our tour. We wandered off into the English countryside to experience Susan Philipsz’s magical sound installation among the trees and Veronica Ryan’s bronze magnolia sculptures placed in a forest clearing.
Rolls-Royce came to the Goodwood Estate in 2003, several years after the BMW Group acquired the British brand. It had been over a decade since I last visited the Rolls-Royce factory, designed by architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, a wonder of modern manufacturing that is bright, airy, and clean. Its roof is covered by a roof of live hardy sedum plants. Over the years, Rolls-Royce has continued to expand its facilities for bespoke services enabling special projects like the Centenary.
Our factory tour was led by Luke Strudwick, who leads Sustainability and Corporate Communication for Rolls-Royce. Here, we observed skilled craftspeople using modern processes to hand assemble, outfit, and detail a steady but deliberately small run of Rolls-Royce vehicles, made up of the Phantom, Ghost and Cullinan models. Each vehicle is distinct to its owner, and a tiny flag on the monitor at each build station indicated the region where the car will eventually end up. It was mesmerizing to watch one specialist install fiber optic lights across more than 800 poked holes on a swatch of leather that would end up as an illuminated constellation personalized to the customer’s liking. The starlight headliner is one of the most original Rolls-Royce bespoke features. Sky is the actual limit for those that are all in automotive extravagance on any of these vehicles. The base level price for the Ghost sedan is $332,000 and with infinite possibilities for bespoke customization, prices soar, too.
While Rolls-Royce’s bespoke services are core to its business, for its Centenary collection car the brand focused on a signature that reflects its in-house knowledge. The Centenary was dreamed up by the designers and craftspeople who toil over the paint, woodworking, and installation at Goodwood. In many ways the car is a canvas for how Rolls-Royce perceives its legacy in this moment. Rolls-Royce commissioned its artisans to make 147 sketches, many of which were used for references throughout the car.
The model used for Centenary is the Phantom VIII extended wheelbase version. Under the hood, the Centenary’s 6.75-liter V12 engine is encased in a bright white and 24-karat gold cover. The body of the car is cast in black and crisp white paint cut with shards of glass for extra sparkle. The eye is drawn to the signature Rolls-Royce hood ornament, based on a past 1925 casting, the Spirit of Ecstasy, culled from 18-karat gold and layered with 24-karat gold for extra durability.
The sheer amount of interior detail on the Centenary is dizzying, inspired by the 1926 “Phantom of Love” and its handwoven Aubusson tapestry on the rear seats. At the factory we spoke to craftmanship specialists who shared details about their handiwork on the Centenary. Brienny Dudley, a skilled tailor who studied textile design at the Arts University in Bournemouth, showed us spools of sand and seashell-colored thread designed for safety and durability. She demonstrated the rigorous process of recreating a hand-sewn tapestry from a sketch to be installed on the rear seat backs. Her three-person team recreated Centenary’s signature tapestry on printed bamboo twill fabric. The tapestry references Rolls-Royce lore in detail, including yellow bees that represent the 250,000 honeybees that live on the estate. The embroidery process took several years to develop from start to finish and spans over 160,000 stitches. The seats are composed of two additional layers of printed graphics that subtly pay homage to famous Rolls-Royce collectors through related imagery. Rolls-Royce prefers to leave some of it design references a bit mysterious.
Up in the front, just below the windshield, the eye is drawn to 50 3D-printed aluminum fins that have letters etched from historic Rolls-Royce press clippings. Up above, is the custom starlight headliner that projects an image of a mulberry tree once used in a classic portrait of the founder over 440,000 stitches. The driver and passenger seat patterns are etched with images inspired by codenames for past project cars including Roger the Rabbit used on for the 2003 Phantom and a seagull that references the original 1923 Phantom prototype
Absolutely no one needs a Rolls-Royce and it’s difficult to envision where and how these rare Centenary cars will venture out into the world. We speculated that some will be paraded out in the open and others will slip inside private collections that span the far corners of the globe. What’s compelling about the enduring Rolls-Royce brand is the care, intention, and investment into the craft of bespoke car manufacturing, pushing possibilities forward, while preserving a history of making glamourous cars a reality. As the Sir Henry Royce said, "Take the best that exists and make it better.”
Photography courtesy of Rolls-Royce.
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