Yahoo Autos The Latest Rolls-Royce Commission Is a Statuesque Beauty
With this year marking the brand’s 120th anniversary in 2024, Rolls-Royce is looking to celebrate its seemingly unending success at the top of the luxury market. What better way to do that than to unveil a new limited-run vehicle during one of the most moneyed events on the automotive calendar: on Friday, The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering will serve as the delivery site of the first-ever Rolls-Royce Phantom Scintilla Private Collection — an expression of what an ultimate modern Rolls-Royce should be.
According to Rolls-Royce, the brand’s managing director Claude Johnson commissioned sculptor and illustrator Charles Sykes to design an emblem for the brand back in 1910. Johnson was particularly enthralled with a Greek sculpture called “The Winged Victory of Samothrace," which dates to 190 BCE. The figure depicts an angelic deity on its descent from the heavens, and was on display at the Louvre in Paris at the time. Sykes, however, didn’t think the statue fit the personality of the Silver Ghosts of that period, opting instead to pen a more elegant shape. The resulting design (you guessed it) was the Spirit of Ecstasy, which has been the brand’s mascot ever since.
In celebration of Johnson’s inspiration, the brand has created a new limited-build series of cars known as the Phantom Scintilla Private Collection. Only an extremely limited number of units are slated for production, each drawing direct influence from that statue.
That inspiration starts at the very front of the car, where the Private Collection models feature a reworked Spirit of Ecstasy, complete with a unique ceramic finish that mirrors marble. (The badge really does look sculptural, and rather expensive as well.) The bodywork also features a bespoke two-tone paint job, with an Andalusian White upper and a Thracian Blue below; Rolls-Royce says the pattern is inspired by the island of Samothrace itself. The brand’s master painters have also hand-laid Spirit Blue pinstripes on the flanks and wheels, which works nicely with the metallic body.
The interior is where this limited-edition model truly shines. The seats are finished in a twill fabric, forgoing the brand’s traditional leather trappings. The door panels and other surfaces are absolute works of art, comprising 36 individual sections of embroidery. Each door panel features some 633,000 stitches, with Blue Grey, Arctic White, Spirit Blue, Powder Blue, and Pastel Yellow threads. Rolls-Royce calls this effect "painting with thread," and it took more than two years to develop.
The center stack also features a unique art piece known as Celestial Pulse, which also features the same ceramic finish as the exterior emblem. The car even gets a bespoke take on the Starlight Headliner, which ties in visual cues from the Spirit of Ecstasy’s gown. Overall, each interior requires more than 40 hours to complete.
Rolls-Royce has no plans to share any of the pricing information related to these specific models. That’s not the biggest surprise, considering that all 10 units for the U.S. market have already been spoken for at this time. Of course they'll be happy to make you a similar commission of your own... if you’re rich enough.
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