The Rolls-Royce ‘Silver Ghost’ was the motor car that established Rolls-Royce’s reputation as ‘The Best Car in the World’. In celebration of this defining heritage, Rolls-Royce has created a limited collection of just 35 Bespoke Ghosts, named the ‘Silver Ghost Collection’. Today, the marque releases a film showing this elegant contemporary iteration of Ghost, in motion.
Matthew Butt, Product Manager – Ghost, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, commented, “Careful consideration has been paid to the Collection’s defining features. References extolling the past are skilfully hand-crafted into Ghost’s interior and exterior, creating a contemporary homage which speaks as much of today’s great brand as the original Silver Ghost does of its day. This is a truly remarkable Collection.”
In celebration of this defining heritage, Rolls-Royce has created a limited collection of just 35 Bespoke Ghosts, named the ‘Silver Ghost Collection’, previously highlighted to have:
Solid sterling-silver Spirit of Ecstasy
British Assay office Hallmark AX201, the registration plate of the original ‘Silver Ghost’ marked on the base of SoE
Metal Fineness marks and the Assay Office town mark as Sponsor’s Mark to authenticate its heritage.
A black-gold-plated SoE base collar, copper inserts
Cassiopeia Silver exterior finish,
Bespoke hand-painted coachline with 100% silver infused in paint
Black painted grille veins
The solid sterling-silver Spirit of Ecstasy, the muse that has guided motor cars created by the marque since 1911, hints at the pioneering heritage of this motor car’s forebear. A specially created Hallmark of AX201, the registration plate of the original ‘Silver Ghost’, is marked on the base of each muse and a black-gold-plated collar enshrouds the base, itself bearing the unique identity of this collection. An insert is crafted from hammered copper, in tribute to the copper extensively used in the engine bay of the original ‘Silver Ghost’. The copper, shaped, beaten and textured is also engraved with the newly designed AX201 Hallmark.
From shooting stars to illuminated wood, the Wraith Luminary Collection encapsulates the extraordinary talent of the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective. Just 55 motor cars exist, inspired by, and created for those who lead where others follow.
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Bespoke Designer, Matthew Danton, commented, “Wraith Luminary epitomizes contemporary craftsmanship. It is innovation. It is design and technology combined. Every aspect of the motor car has been taken to the next level and enhanced in some way; each feature has been magnified. Wraith Luminary is the Ultimate hand-crafted gran turismo.”
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has enjoyed a strong start to 2018, with the marque seeing a significant boost to global sales.
Global sales increase by 13 per cent.
Demand for all Rolls-Royce models remains strong in most regions.
More than 50 new manufacturing jobs created.
Record intake for Apprenticeship Programme.
Continuing investment in the Home of Rolls-Royce.
Worldwide sales were up 13 per cent compared with the same period in 2017, with demand for all Rolls-Royce models holding firm in Europe, the US and other key regions. There are encouraging signs of recovery in the Chinese market; like all luxury brands, however, the marque faces continued economic headwinds in the Middle East.
Deliveries of the company’s pinnacle product, the eighth-generation Phantom, began in January, with the new Cullinan super-luxury SUV causing a global media and public sensation on its launch in May. The first customer deliveries for Cullinan are due early next year; order books for both models are exceptionally strong.
Global demand for Wraith, Ghost and Dawn also remains keen, driven in part by their Black Badge variants, which are bringing the Rolls‑Royce brand to new audiences.
Bespoke is the jewel in the Rolls-Royce crown, with almost all cars commissioned from the Home of Rolls-Royce now incorporating individual elements designed and created to the owner’s precise specification. The first six months of 2018 saw some truly exceptional examples of Bespoke artistry and craftsmanship, including ‘Wraith Luminary’, Dawn ‘Inspired by Music’ and the Wraith and Dawn Adamas Collection, together with a number of exceptional customer commissions.
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has created more than 50 new permanent jobs, primarily in skilled manufacturing roles. The Goodwood plant now employs over 1800 people, with the cosmopolitan workforce comprising almost 50 different nationalities. The company is also demonstrating its long-term commitment to future talent, with a record intake on its industry-leading Apprenticeship Programme. In August, 23 new recruits will join the scheme, adding to almost 50 men and women currently training and studying in departments across the business.
The company is also investing in the Home of Rolls-Royce, with a new gated parking area providing 500 new spaces under construction, on land adjacent to the plant. The site also includes a dedicated car park for the neighbouring March CE Primary School, with a new road crossing, provided by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in the absence of local authority funding.
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said, “This is a very encouraging half-year result; it is a testament to our incredibly skilled and dedicated team at Goodwood, and underlines the trust and loyalty of our customers worldwide. Across all models, customers can see how our innovation and engineering excellence are continually redefining super-luxury motoring. They can also be assured of our long-term vision and commitment to sustainable growth through investments in our people and the Home of Rolls-Royce.”
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars celebrated the largest gathering of Rolls-Royces in the world this past weekend at the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club Annual Rally & Concours d’Elegance. The spectacular setting of Burghley House, one of England’s finest Elizabethan Houses, in Stamford, Lincolnshire, provided the perfect backdrop for over 1000 heritage and contemporary Rolls-Royces.
Dawn ‘Inspired by Music’ was taken for a spin in Rolls-Royce’s anechoic chamber, at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex (full details at the bottom)
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars honoured the occasion with a significant display of Goodwood-built Phantom, Ghost, Wraith and Dawn motor cars. The collection included Wraith Black Badge and several highly Bespoke models. The motor cars were also hosted by a team from the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, including craftsmen and women, graduates and apprentices.
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations, Heritage and Philanthropy, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said, “We are delighted to support our colleagues at the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club and to present our contemporary Rolls-Royce motor cars at this spectacular event. The Club is a vital custodian of our marque’s remarkable history, and the Annual Rally and Concours d’Elegance provides unique access to some of the most important and rare motor cars in automotive history.”
An increasing number of enthusiasts are choosing to acquire a Rolls-Royce to complement their heritage collections, either commissioning a new motor car or purchasing through the company’s Provenance Programme. This is reflected by the ‘Goodwood Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Register’, which is now one of the fastest-growing sections of the Club.
The Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club Annual Rally and Concours d’Elegance took place from Friday 22 June – Sunday 24 June. The Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club caters for anyone with an interest in the motor car products of Rolls-Royce. From just 11 people at the inaugural meeting in 1957, membership is now approaching 10,000, making it the largest club of its kind in the world.
Membership is open to owners and non-owners alike and members are drawn from all walks of life and from most countries of the world. Details can be found at www.rrec.org.uk.
Three years after the beginning of a gruelling testing programme that has seen it conquer every corner of the globe from freezing snowfields to searing deserts, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan will undertake The Final Challenge to prove itself Effortless Everywhere in the public eye. In an unprecedented partnership, Rolls-Royce and National Geographic will work together to publish daily film and photograph updates as Cullinan undertakes trials in Northern Europe, the Middle East and the United States for a final time ahead of its world debut later this year.
The Rolls-Royce Cullinan will embody all the values and capabilities that drove Rolls-Royce’s two founding fathers, the Honourable Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce, to secure the marque’s reputation early last century, as they took top honours in rigorous public adventures such as the Scottish Reliability Trials, the London to Edinburgh event and the Alpine Trials.
The Final Challenge will begin in the Highlands of Scotland on Wednesday 4 April and will be broadcast on social media by National Geographic and Rolls-Royce as it continues its adventure through the Alpine snowfields of Austria, the arid deserts of the Middle East and finally across the toughest terrain in the United States. These will include multiple off-road challenges and miles of rough terrain.
The Rolls-Royce Cullinan and crew will be accompanied on The Final Challenge by acclaimed explorer and photographer Cory Richards, (above) National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year in 2012. The National Geographic team will document the journey with daily updates broadcast from the spectacular, far-flung locations he and the crew encounter.
“I promised the public three years ago that I would involve them in the development and testing of the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, and I continue to keep that promise by making The Final Challenge, a public trial,” comments Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce. “Today’s public and customers will see Rolls-Royce in a wholly new light as Cullinan demonstrates just how capable a Rolls-Royce can be. And in a few short months, our customers will be able to experience this capability for themselves as they get behind the wheel of this truly compelling Rolls-Royce that isEffortless, Everywhere.”
An explorer and visual storyteller, Cory Richards was named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012.
From a high school drop-out at 14 to summiting Everest without oxygen, his life has followed an irregular arc. His camera has taken him from the controlled and complex studio to the wild and remote corners of the world – from the unclimbed peaks of Antarctica and the Himalayas of Nepal to the forgotten war zones of Angola, Uganda, and Pakistan—all in an attempt to capture not only the soul of exploration but also the paradoxes and surprising similarities inherent in our human family.
Richards is a passionate climber as well as social documentarian and has carved a niche as one of the world’s leading photographers, pursuing the genres from adventure, to geo-political and social impact, to portraiture.
His images have appeared in National Geographic magazine, Outside, and the New York Times, and his film work has won awards at nearly every major adventure film festival, including the grand prize at the Banff Mountain Film Festival.
As a social influencer, his social platforms have garnered billions of impressions world-wide and in August 2017, an abridged biography of his life story was published as the cover story in Outside Magazine.
In a bold expression of dynamic luxury, Rolls-Royce has unveiled the Wraith Luminary Collection. Inspired by those who lead where others follow, the Wraith Luminary Collection will light the way for the luxury trailblazer, quite literally…
In response to an ongoing global demand for Rolls-Royce Collection Cars, the marque has created a Limited Collection of just 55 of these spectacular Wraiths. These motor cars join the highly exclusive ranks of collectible Bespoke masterpieces, envisioned by the Rolls-Royce Bespoke design team and collected by Patrons of true luxury all over the world. Watch the video below…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6IYDZOUdfc
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, commented, “Wraith Luminary is a stunning Collection Car. It speaks directly of our contemporary Rolls-Royce brand – progressive and trailblazing; the pinnacle in hand-crafted luxury. This is a motor car that celebrates visionaries who achieve eminence in their respective fields. Indeed, this collection is for the world’s luminaries.”
The heady shade of the golden hour’s sunrays inspire this newly developed exterior paint, Sunburst Grey. One is met by a flat grey that enlivens when awoken by the sun, rich copper tones, emitting a deep emotive warmth. Further intrigue is added by a hand-painted Sunburst Motif coachline, hand-painted Wake Channel Lines on Wraith’s bonnet and pinstripes applied to the wheel centres, each in Saddlery Tan, bearing reference to the colourway of the interior leather.
Energy courses through this highly charged edition of Wraith. On opening the coach doors, one is met by a statement of modern luxury, as light flows from the front into the rear passenger compartment. The Collection’s defining feature, Tudor Oak wood, sourced from the forests of the Czech Republic, selected for its depth of colour and the density of the grain structure, is for the first time, illuminated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V77POAQTzpM
The light of 176 LEDs or Celestial Starlight Headliner, permeates through an intricately perforated design in the unique Tudor Oak veneer, allowing a mesmerizing pattern, reminiscent of the trailing light of a shooting star, to luminesce at the touch of a button. Linked to the controls of the starlight headliner, the cabin’s veneer surrounds Wraith’s occupants in an ambient glow of light.
Speaking of shooting stars, the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective, a talented group of engineers, designers and craftspeople located at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex, have brought further theatre to the cabin of Luminary in the form of brilliant shooting stars. The prized Rolls-Royce starlight headliner, a handwoven configuration of 1340 fibre optic lights which act as a glittering night sky, takes a bold new step as it incorporates shooting stars into the constellation; a playful display of light that creates wonderment and awe for the car’s passengers.
Taking nearly 20 hours to configure, eight shooting stars fire at random, predominantly over the front seats, in recognition of Wraith’s owner-driver appeal. Wraith Luminary’s cockpit is trimmed in Saddlery Tan, though the rear seats contrast in Anthracite leather, thus highlighting the prominence of the driver’s position. Contrast piping and stitching masterfully marry the front aesthetic to the rear. Alternatively, a more dramatic contrast can be selected by specifying Seashell coloured leather in the rear, both of which will be perfectly coalesced by the inclusion of a two-tone steering wheel.
The Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective continually seeks inspiration from external trends and influences. In a progressive step, the application of hand-woven stainless steel fabric, a highly contemporary and innovative new technique in luxury craft, is appointed to the central transmission tunnel and door panniers, contrasting the Tudor Oak wood and Saddlery Tan leather.
Incorporating strands which are 0.08mm – 0.19mm in diameter, this technical fibre is woven in a pattern oriented at precisely 45 degrees, to complement the lines of the interior and provide a uniform appearance throughout the passenger compartment when viewed from either side. Taking three days to produce in a ‘clean room’ environment, the fabric is manipulated to cloak the centre console, modified from use in an industrial environment to create a finish befitting the interior of a Rolls-Royce motor car, refracting the light of the unique illuminated paneling in the doors.
As a final touch, the car’s tread plates bear the provenance of this unique collection. ‘WRAITH LUMINARY COLLECTION – ONE OF FIFTY-FIVE’ is engraved in hand-polished stainless steel.
Since its incarnation, Wraith has long attracted the patronage of visionaries – drawn to the intoxicating promise of near unlimited power and it’s hauntingly rakish fast-back design, a true gentleman’s gran tourismo fabricated par excellence. The remarkable success of Wraith in attracting a new generation of drivers to the marque is reflected in this distinctive motor car’s masterfully incorporated, innovative expressions of pure luxury. Rolls-Royce is Bespoke.
Three years ago in the pages of The Financial Times, Rolls-Royce announced to the world that it would create an all-new, high-bodied car that would redefine luxury travel by making it Effortless, Everywhere. Since that day the world has waited, anticipating the arrival of this mould-breaking new Rolls-Royce.
Today, the wait is almost over as Rolls-Royce confirms that its new motor car will be called Cullinan.
“The name Cullinan has been hiding in plain sight since we revealed it as the project name some years ago,” comments Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce. “It is the most fitting name for our extraordinary new product. Cullinan is a motor car of such clarity of purpose, such flawless quality and preciousness, and such presence that it recalibrates the scale and possibility of true luxury. Just like the Cullinan Diamond, the largest flawless diamond ever found, it emerges when it is perfect and exists above all others.”
The story of how this new Rolls-Royce came to be named Cullinan is itself one of the pursuit of perfection. Like the diamond, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan has undertaken a fascinating journey. From the searing deserts of Africa and the Middle East to the freezing snows of the Arctic Circle; from the grassy glens of the Scottish Highlands to the towering canyons of North America, the designers, engineers, craftspeople and artisans of the House of Rolls-Royce have shaped, tested and polished this unique motor car to eliminate any flaw and make it Effortless, Everywhere.
“We were inspired by the epic processes, over many millennia, which went into the creation of the Cullinan Diamond. The name embodies the many facets of our new motor car’s promise. It speaks of endurance and absolute solidity in the face of the greatest pressures; it tells of rarity and preciousness and it alludes to the pioneering, adventurous spirit of The Hon. Charles Rolls and the engineering innovation of Sir Henry Royce; and, of course, it speaks of absolute luxury, wherever you venture in the world” continued Müller-Ötvös.
Cullinan is the second Rolls-Royce to sit atop the company’s recently announced all-new proprietary aluminium spaceframe ‘Architecture of Luxury’. Unique and unequalled in its brilliance, every facet of the Rolls-Royce Cullinan scintillates.
Müller-Ötvös concludes: “Quite simply, the name Cullinan is perfect and brilliant.”
What is the “Cullinan”?
The Cullinan Diamond (below) was extracted from a mine deep in South Africa’s Magaliesberg Mountains in 1905, and at 3,106 carats, remains the largest diamond ever discovered. Cleaved into nine stones, cut and polished, the two largest portions of the Cullinan reside in the British Imperial Crown and Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross.
The alleged story of how the Cullinan diamond travelled to take up its place in the British Crown Jewels is as interesting as the diamond itself. The Transvaal government of the day purchased it for £150,000. A prize surely fit for a King, their plan was to present it to King Edward VII on his 66th birthday, in the hope that such a gift would help heal the wounds of the recently ended Boer War.
Its journey to England would prove to be the diamond’s next big adventure. Given its size and value, it was bound to attract much unwanted attention. So detectives were sent from London to provide a visible and secure escort for the diamond on board a passenger steamboat bound for Britain. The treasure was ceremoniously placed in the ship’s Captain’s safe and guarded throughout its entire journey.
Or so it appeared…. Legend has it that that was all a sleight of hand. That the police and the safe were just an elaborate ruse. The diamond in that ship’s safe, protected by those police officers, was said to be a resin replica, whilst the real Cullinan was simply sent to London by registered post to the Foreign Office to be presented to the King. (Brilliant! – CW)
