The Monterey Car Week kicks off tomorrow and manufacturers are getting ready to put on their show faces and blow us away with their latest creations. BMW will bring an interesting contingent made up of both classic cars and new ones, including the new BMW Z4 and the regional debut of the 8 Series in front of a live audience. Rolls-Royce also has a North American debut prepared as it will be showing the Cullinan SUV to a live audience for the first time in the Americas.
In addition to the Cullinan, the Rolls-Royce of SUVs, the brand will present a splendid selection of individual creations at events throughout the week and deliver two very high profile commissions to their owners, live at events throughout the week. On Friday, Mr. Müller-Ötvös will present a very special Rolls-Royce Phantom to renowned collector Michael Fux. This is the tenth special Bespoke creation presented to Mr. Fux at Pebble Beach for his collection of more than 140 unique motor cars.
The Phantom joins Mr. Fux’s collection of motor cars that he uses to help raise funds for his charity, The Michael Fux Foundation, to provide support for children and their families at the Miami Children’s Hospital. This year’s Pebble Beach will be the place where Rolls-Royce Bespoke will show visitors the capabilities on hand through the Black Badge treatment. The point is to show that a Black Badge Rolls-Royce need not only be black in color as four different Collections will move through the Black Badge color spectrum: The Umbra Collection; The Adamas Collection; The Paradiso Collection and The Nebula Collection.
Black Badge Umbra, is ‘the extreme embodiment of the eponymous darker side of Rolls-Royce’. It will debut this week at the Rolls-Royce Villa at Pebble Beach. The Umbra Collection comprises Dawn, Ghost and Wraith, and features Matte Black exterior finish, fully darkened chrome including a darkened Spirit of Ecstasy and 21 inch carbon alloy wheels. The Anthracite interior is starkly offset with Mugello Red and Black highlights. All three commissions feature a technical fiber fascia and interior accents as well as custom Black Badge Bespoke Starlight Headliners and Bespoke ‘Pebble Beach 2018’ tread plates.
Inspired by the ‘untamable’ and ‘invincible’ nature of a diamond, the Adamas Black Badge Dawn celebrates the darker side of Rolls-Royce in an extremely limited collection of only 30 Dawn Black Badge cars. Dawn Black Badge Adamas is clothed in a two-tone color scheme of hypnotic Aphrodite Red over Black. These are the first two-tone Black Badge cars. These colors, as though touched by darkness, have a deep color transition, providing a mesmerizing iridescent effect.
The Spirit of Ecstasy, previously cast in steel, silver and gold, is for the first time in history formed in machined carbon fiber. 88 Bespoke laboratory-grown diamonds form the Black Badge infinity symbol set beneath the Bespoke analogue clock. As a final touch, when one enters or alights from the atmospheric cabin of Adamas, illuminated tread plates read ‘Black Badge Dawn Adamas – One of Thirty’, reminding the occupant of the rarity of this Collection.
The Paradiso Collection of one Dawn, one Ghost and one Wraith features a newly-developed solid exterior paint called Quail Blue, inspired by the location of ‘Quail, A Motorsports Gathering’. These cars are also reminiscent of the exploits of those adventurers who partook in the 1913 Alpenfahrt driving such classic Rolls-Royces as the James Radley 1913 Silver Ghost with its solid blue paintwork. The exterior is offset by a Mandarin coach line, twin bonnet pinstripes and pinstripes on the wheel-centers.
The interiors of the three cars vary in design. Ghost, which is more focused on the rear passenger’s comfort, reflects this visually with a more intimate and cool Black and Charles Blue leather color-way offset by Charles Blue and Mandarin stitching and a Black and Charles Blue two-tone steering wheel. Wraith and Dawn add more Mandarin into the interior color palette, increasing the visual heat and driver’s intent of the cockpit.
The centerpiece of the Black Badge cabin is the aerospace-grade aluminum-threaded carbon fiber composite surfacing – material often seen on the surfaces of stealth aircraft. This futuristic material has been reinterpreted at Goodwood to become the world’s most innovative new super-luxury material. Polished to a high sheen, this surface reflects the twinkling lights of the beautifully created Starlight Headliner wrought in Ghost and Wraith and the stars firmament once the Mandarin hood of Dawn is folded away.
Nebula is a suite of Black Badge Ghost, Wraith and Dawn motor cars which draw influence from spacecraft and aerospace technology. The exterior is enveloped in Iced Selby Grey, a flat grey hue, reminiscent of the ultra matte aesthetic of the heat shields of great, technical, spacecraft. Inside, the interior color-way features Selby Grey and Black leather, offset against high contrast Sunset accents in the format of a two tone steering wheel, piping and stitching. This is offset against a technical fiber fascia, a sought-after aesthetic found in many Black Badge motor cars.
The Rolls-Royce clock embodies the Nebula theme in miniature. A depiction of a portion of the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere in March are back-lit on the clock’s face, encircled in the accent ‘Sunset’ color, providing the impression of viewing the stars through the window of a spacecraft. A repeated hexagonal motif has been embroidered into the rear of each motor car, reflective of the honeycomb structure used in some of the most ambitious and technologically advanced aerospace developments, from space telescope mirrors to space station windows. Speaker covers most commonly bestow a jewelry-like impression on the interior of a Rolls-Royce, however in this iteration, they have adopted a blackened aesthetic, to further the technical feel once more.
