When you’re Rolls-Royce setting out to celebrate a century of automotive supremacy, 100 years since the flagship Phantom started ferrying around kings and captains of industry, you can leave subtlety for the middle classes. There’s nothing subtle about the Phantom, Rolls-Royce’s flagship sedan. It’s the automotive equivalent of the Palace of Versailles, or the crown jewels. If, in the old days, you might’ve showed up with a legion or two of soldiers marching with you, then today you’re probably showing up in the back seat of a Phantom. It performs the same function: projecting power.
So, yes, there are anniversaries and then there are Rolls-Royce anniversaries. When the fabled British purveyor of the world’s best luxury cars decided to mark 100 years of the Phantom, it didn’t commission a commemorative mug or a coffee table book. Instead, Rolls-Royce commissioned itself and its team of artisans from the in-house Bespoke Collective to create a Phantom worthy of the occasion.
The result? The Phantom Centenary Private Collection. It’s not one Phantom, but a limited run of 25. They’re the product of over three years and 40,000 hours of work. Each example will reportedly be priced at over $4 million Canadian.
“This uncompromising work of art uses the meticulously engineered Phantom VIII as the canvas to tell the story of Phantom’s remarkable life and the people who shaped it – from the visionaries within Rolls-Royce to the owners who helped create its legend,” said Chris Brownridge, chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
“For a century,” he continued, “the Phantom nameplate has expressed the pinnacle of Rolls-Royce’s abilities. To honour that legacy, this extraordinarily ambitious Private Collection introduces new techniques and is the result of over 40,000 hours of work, culminating in a motor car which reaffirms Phantom’s status as a symbol of ambition, artistic possibility, and historical gravitas.”
So, is it a car? Well yes, but it’s also a moving museum. It’s also Rolls-Royce flexing its muscle to remind everyone it’s (still) the best in the bespoke car business. And it’s also a sort of rolling doctoral thesis on the nature of luxury.
But, of course, you want to know about some of the absolutely obsessive and mind-blowing details that went into the Phantom Centenary. Here are just some of the 100 unique features and easter eggs that make this a worthy anniversary gift to the world’s best car, according to the people who made it:
The Spirit of Ecstasy
The bonnet is graced with a unique rendition of the Spirit of Ecstasy. Designers sourced the first Spirit of Ecstasy ever fitted to a Phantom and used it as a reference to recreate the figurine in solid gold at modern scale. It is cast in solid 18-carat gold for strength and plated in 24-carat gold for a flawless, long-lasting finish. The base of the Spirit of Ecstasy is finished with hand-poured white vitreous enamel, and the collection’s name is cast in solid gold.
The Disc Wheels
The disc wheels are presented in a unique design, engraved with 25 lines. This figure honours the 25 motor cars within the collection; the four wheels together present 100 lines to celebrate the centenary year.
The Paint
The two-tone exterior, combining Super Champagne Crystal over Arctic White and Super Champagne Crystal over Black, is designed to evoke the timeless elegance of a black-and-white film star, recalling the golden age of Hollywood, when Phantom became a symbol of the era’s glamour. The long-sided application of the two-tone paint is a nod to the flowing silhouette of 1930s Phantoms.
The Rear Seats
The fabric development took over 12 months. The artwork was high-resolution printed in collaboration with a fashion atelier, marking the atelier’s first commission beyond the world of haute couture. A map of central London is depicted on the seat cushions. The location of the Rolls Royce premises on 14-15 Conduit Street is marked with a digital rendition of Sir Henry Royce’s signature. Seven embroideries, abstractly representing a significant owner from each generation of Phantom – stories to be deciphered by the clients. (The design team spent five months working with a historian to research and uncover these client stories before they were captured in embroidery.) Embroideries on the rear seats comprise 160,000 stitches.
The Front Seats
The leather on the front seats features laser-etched artwork – another Rolls-Royce first. Designers spent six months perfecting the etching technique, experimenting with the different intensity of the laser application to achieve the right colour balance. (The rabbit motif on the front seats stands for ‘Roger Rabbit’, the codename for the relaunch of Rolls-Royce in 2003.)
The Gallery
It’s a space that runs the full width of the motor car’s fascia, specifically designed to display a Bespoke artwork. Here it features the first-ever illuminated composition with 50 3D-printed, vertically brushed aluminium ‘fins’, interlaced like pages of a book. Each ‘fin’ is composed of sculpted letters that can be read from both sides, forming quotes about Phantom published over the past 100 years.
The Door Panels
Each door panel features etching, 2D marquetry, 3D marquetry, 3D ink layering, and 24-carat gold leafing. Details, such as maps, landscapes, flowers and trees, are etched onto the wood at three different depths using a laser. 3D ink layering allows for adding depth, as this material has a different tactile quality and reflectivity compared to veneer. This technology is used to add fine details, just 0.13 mm in height – such as boats in the sea, the villa on the coast, and location names on maps. The gold leafing technique was applied to depict roads on the maps — each one a gold thread in Phantom’s story. To achieve this, squares of 24-carat gold leaf, typically just 0.1 micrometres (or 100 nanometres) thick, are hand-laid then sealed with a protective coating. The full door set takes around four weeks to craft.
The Engine
The 6.75-litre V12 engine is celebrated with a specially designed cover, finished in Arctic White and detailed with 24-carat gold, honouring the effortless power that has helped define Phantom’s modern legend and success.
And, of course, there are many more fine details than we have space to share here — like the fact that the Piano Black veneer is infused with gold dust — so head to Rolls-Royce to see everything. It’ll be 100 years until the next Phantom Centenary, so don’t miss this one.
