Ultra-exclusive Rolls-Royce Phantom is more artwork than car

Rolls-Royce has taken to Pebble Beach to show off the latest limited edition from its Bespoke coachbuilding division: a highly exclusive reworking of the Phantom, inspired by the marque’s Spirit of Ecstacy mascot.

Named the Phantom Scintilla and limited to just 10 examples, it’s the company’s first ‘production’ car to feature a ceramic bonnet emblem - a reference to The Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek marble statue that almost inspired the Spirit of Ecstasy.

According to Rolls-Royce, sculptor Charles Sykes felt the statue was “too domineering” to represent its cars. Sykes instead took inspiration from Eleanor Thornton, secretary (and mistress) of the second Lord Montagu.

The Scintilla is painted Andalusian White and Thracian Blue, bespoke shades that take inspiration from the seas around the island of Samothrace, while its shoulder line and wheels get hand-painted stripes in darker Spirit Blue.

Meanwhile, the starlight headliner has a flowing pattern referencing the Spirit of Ecstasy’s gown, and the dashboard panel is decorated with seven interwoven aluminium ribbons.

The glovebox is engraved with the brief of Claude Johnson, Rolls-Royce’s founding managing director: “Speed with silence, the absence of vibration, the mysterious harnessing of great energy, and a beautiful living organism of superb grace.”

Rolls-Royce will build just 10 examples, all of which have sold for a price well clear of the 'standard' Phantom's £417,200, but it serves just as much as a showcase for the scope of the company's Bespoke programme and as a learning tool for its next projects.

Celina Mettang, in charge of colour and trim design at Rolls-Royce Bespoke, told Autocar that the company’s limited-run Private Collection commissions are important as both a team-building exercise and because they encourage flexibility. 

“I think that's the most important point as a creative," she said. "Once you get stuck into something repeatedly, it makes it easier, but it doesn't really challenge your mind and your creative perspective. That's what we really appreciate about how we work at Rolls-Royce Bespoke design: that we try to keep very flexible and agile when it comes to creativity."

Katrin Lehmann, Bespoke colour and materials designer, added that projects like the Scintilla “blur the lines between them and us as well; it's not just 'this is the designer and this is the craftsperson'."

The pair acknowledged, though, that the concept behind commissions like the Scintilla can be a challenge to convey. Lehmann said that was especially true here, because it's “quite an abstract theme”.

Mettang added: “It's challenging to explain something abstract to someone. We know this from art: everyone sees something else when they look at the art piece and everyone can interpret it in a different way.

"Bringing abstract and tangible aspects together was one of the greatest challenges in this project."

Part of the aim of the Private Collections is to “blur the boundaries of 'is it a car or is it an art piece?'”, explained Lehmann.

Numbers can help in this endeavour, the pair explained, pointing to the 19 layers of lacquer on the Scintilla’s rear picnic tables and the 869,500 stitches in the wave motif that’s sewn onto the dashboard.

Mettang said: “Having close to a million stitches is something that really expresses how complex the execution is. The 19 layers on the picnic table just shows how intriguing, complex and unique these art pieces are."

Asked what they’ve learned from this project that can be applied to future commissions, the pair were tight-lipped on clues but did suggest that any future Private Collection cars will be extremely different in their conception.

“Even if we were to replicate this project one for one,” said Mettang, “we could interpret the exact same story in a completely different way."