Meet Rolls-Royce’s $1.5 Million Phantom Centenary

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Rolls-Royce‘s most iconic model, the majestic Phantom limousine, the storied marque had to create something extra special. Meet the Phantom Centenary Private Collection. The culmination of three painstaking years of development and over 40,000 hours of work, this striking black-and-white automotive tribute is touted as the most complex, most technically ambitious Phantom Private Collection model ever.

Matching the rarity of the milestone, Rolls-Royce will build only 25 examples, each priced at $1.5 million. Yet in a move that’s out of character for the automaker that prides itself on offering seemingly unlimited levels of customization, each car will be identical—there’s no option for personalization. And as you might expect, every Centenary has already been presold.

During Robb Report‘s preview of the extremely limited-edition model in Goodwood, England, Phil Fabre de la Grange, head of the Bespoke division at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, tells us that “the car is a story book of 100 years of Phantom’s history.”

Based on the latest Phantom VIII extended-wheelbase variant, the sedan features an interior that’s a montage of key events, people, locations, and classic examples featured in Phantom’s legacy. This includes everything from a map of roads driven by company co-founder Sir Henry Royce at his winter retreat in the South of France, depicted in strands of 24-karat gold, to Rolls-Royce’s original showroom in London’s Conduit Street that’s portrayed as part of a rear-seat tapestry embroidered with over 160,000 stitches.

And like a good Easter-egg hunt, the interior is filled with cleverly hidden, surprise-and-delight scenes, such as the motif on the front seats depicting Roger the Rabbit—the secret code name for the seventh-generation Phantom before its launch in 2003. Then there’s the winged Phantom on the front seat, which references a seagull that was the sobriquet for the 1923 Phantom I prototype. In addition to birds, you’ll also find a cute bee. This represents the 250,000 honeybees housed in hives at the Rolls-Royce apiary on the grounds of the Goodwood headquarters.

“The whole car is literally a work of art,” says Celina Mettang, lead color and material designer with Rolls-Royce Bespoke, who is our guide for the day. “Many [facets] are secrets, like the background to the embroidered teddy bear, which we’ll only reveal to owners when they take delivery.”

Want to know the secret? We’re sure the bear references one of the best-known Phantom owners, designer Karl Lagerfeld, who had a passion for stuffed teddy bears. Phantoms too; he owned three at one time, including a Drophead Coupe. Alas, Mettang declines to confirm.

Arguably the headlining feature of the Phantom Centenary is that tapestry-like rear seat. The Bespoke design team spent five months working with a historian to research and uncover key elements from the Phantom’s past. They then created 147 hand-drawn sketches, of which 77 were used to create 45 panels that make up the embroidered seat.

The panels on each of the Phantom’s four doors, formed from stained Blackwood veneer, are claimed to be the most intricate pieces of woodwork ever created for a Rolls-Royce. Each one was crafted using ground-breaking new techniques in 3-D ink layering, 3-D marquetry, and laser etching.

The rear-door panels, for example, depict the Mediterranean coastline around Le Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer, where Sir Henry had a winter home. The front passenger door depicts Royce’s beloved summer home in West Wittering, on England’s south coast. Then there’s the driver’s door panel, which honors a 4,500-mile journey that the owner of the first Goodwood Phantom made across Australia. Each of the sections of road are formed from a 24-karat gold strip, cut and inlaid into the wood.

The centerpiece of the Phantom’s dashboard is the Anthology Gallery, which takes pride of place ahead of the front passenger. It comprises a total of 50 3-D-printed, vertically brushed aluminum fins that resemble pages of a book. Each fin features quotations cherry-picked from a century of glowing Phantom press reviews. Look upwards and the famous Starlight Headliner references the famous mulberry tree under which Sir Henry hosted summer meetings at his West Wittering home. The embroidered panel involves a staggering 440,000 stitches.

Mettang explains that the exterior of the Phantom was kept intentionally understated so as not to distract from the interior. That said, the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament, formed from a casting taken from the original 1925 Phantom I, is made of solid 18-karat gold, with a top layer of 24-karat gold for durability. Hopefully, a security guard comes with it.

As for that black-and-white color scheme, it was apparently chosen to reflect the golden age of Hollywood, when Phantom was a symbol of the era of glamour, and movies were shot in black and white. But this being a Phantom, no ordinary paint was used; the clear coat was infused with iridescent particles of crushed glass to give a shimmering finish called Super Champagne Crystal.

You’ll find the final flourish when you lift the Phantom’s seemingly mile-long hood. There, on top of the whisper-quiet 6.75-liter V-12, is a specially designed engine cover finished in Arctic White and detailed with shiny 24-karat gold. Pity only the chauffeur will likely ever get to see it.

Click here for more photos of the Rolls-Royce Phantom Centenary Private Collection.