Rolls-Royce Motor Cars PressClub · Article.
ROLLS-ROYCE BLACK BADGE WRAITH BLACK ARROW: A MAGNIFICENT END TO A TRANSFORMATIVE ERA
20.03.2023 Press Release
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars today unveils Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow to mark the end of production of one of the most transformative motor cars in the marque’s history. This Bespoke masterpiece, limited to just 12 examples worldwide, is also the last V12 coupé Rolls-Royce will ever make, as it embarks on its bold new electric era.
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Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
This article in other PressClubs
- Rolls-Royce Motor Cars presents Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow Collection
- The final examples of Wraith, the most powerful Rolls-Royce in history
- Collection of 12 cars celebrates Wraith, which transformed perceptions of Rolls-Royce
- The last V12 coupé the marque will ever build ahead of its all-electric future
- Introduces Gradient Paint, one of the most complex surface finishes Rolls-Royce has ever produced
- Design concept inspired by Thunderbolt,which set world land speed records in the 1930s
- Incorporates illuminated Thunderbolt Speedform between front seats
- Record-breaking Bespoke Starlight Headliner, featuring 2,117 fibre-optic ‘stars’
- Each interior door panel made of 320 marquetry pieces to create dramatic, tactile surface
- Debuts new ‘Club Leather’ interior surface treatment
“Wraith is one of the most significant and influential cars we
have ever made at Goodwood. Its extraordinary power, performance and
presence opened the Rolls-Royce brand to an entirely new group of
clients. It created its own following within contemporary culture
and then expanded that further in its alternative Black Badge guise.
As the last examples of this landmark motor car get ready to leave
Goodwood, we commemorate Wraith’s status as the last series V12
coupé we will ever make. Both Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow and its
inspiration, the V12-powered land speed record-holding Thunderbolt
of the thirties, represent the culmination of many long years of
achievement, and the end of their respective eras. This magnificent
final V12 coupé Collection captures both the significance and spirit
of Wraith through the marque’s hallmark and peerless Bespoke
capabilities. A fitting finale for this transformative motor car.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce
Motor Cars
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars today unveils Black Badge
Wraith Black Arrow to mark the end of production of one of the most
transformative motor cars in the marque’s history. This Bespoke
masterpiece, limited to just 12 examples worldwide, is also the last
V12 coupé Rolls-Royce will ever make, as it embarks on its bold new
electric era.
WRAITH: A CULTURAL ICON
Launched in 2013, Wraith is one of the most important
and influential models ever designed and built at Goodwood. More
performance-focused than its predecessors Phantom and Ghost, Wraith
fundamentally altered perceptions of Rolls-Royce and brought new,
younger customer groups to the brand for the first time. Its wider
cultural significance is underlined by countless references to the
Wraith in music, cinema, art and fashion.
THE V12 CONNECTION
Wraith’s dramatic ‘fastback’ silhouette signalled the
motor car’s dynamic intent, which was further amplified in 2016, with
the introduction of Black Badge Wraith: a potent, subversive and even
more powerful expression of this transformative motor car, offering
some of the highest levels of performance ever achieved by a
V12-powered Rolls-Royce.
Yet when considering how best to mark the end of the Wraith era,
Goodwood’s designers and engineers took inspiration for the Black
Badge Wraith Black Arrow Collection from an equally significant V12 in
Rolls-Royce’s long and storied legacy. In 1938, Captain George Eyston
– whose bold, brave endeavours encapsulate the Black Badge spirit -
set a world land speed record of 357.497 mph (575.335 km/h) with
Thunderbolt, a seven-tonne, eight-wheeled leviathan equipped
with two Rolls-Royce V12 'R' Series aero engines. The outbreak of the
Second World War in the following year ended Eyston’s endeavours; all
subsequent records have been set with different engine types and
configurations, enshrining Thunderbolt in perpetuity as the
fastest V12-powered motor car ever built.
Thunderbolt’s record attempts took place on the legendary
Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Against the glare of the brilliant
white surface, and under a blazing desert sun, the reflections from
the car's polished aluminium body made it almost impossible to tell
precisely when it passed the timing equipment. Eyston's simple but
ingenious solution was to paint a large black arrow on the car's
sides, incorporating a yellow central circle motif that could be seen
clearly even at high speed. This is what gives today’s Black Badge
Wraith Black Arrow Collection both its name and unique historical context.
GRADIENT PAINT
Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow’s exclusive Bespoke
finish features a full colour graduation between two tones -
Celebration Silver and Black Diamond. A glass-infused ‘Crystal’ paint
over layer has been applied to the Black Diamond paint to enhance the
transition between the two colours, achieving a striking motion blur
effect from front to rear. This exclusive Bespoke technique also gives
the coachwork a subtle texture inspired by the crusted surface of the
Bonneville Salt Flats, set beneath a high gloss lacquer, which is
polished for more than 12 hours to achieve a glass-like finish.
The realisation of this extraordinary finish required the marque
to undertake 18 months of surface testing and development before the
marque’s Bespoke Collective of engineers, craftspeople and designers
achieved a result befitting to Rolls-Royce standards. The total
investment in time developing the material chemistry, application
technique and surface finishing makes Gradient Paint one of the most
technically complex paints that Rolls-Royce has ever created.
CONTRAST PALETTE
Contrast to the Gradient Paint is provided by Bright
Yellow bumper inserts and Bespoke wheel pinstripes, subtly recalling
the yellow circle within Thunderbolt’s black arrow. In another
Rolls-Royce first, Black Arrow’s V-struts, located behind the radiator
grille and in front of the engine, are also finished in Bright Yellow,
subtly drawing the eye to the V12 engine behind the Black Badge dark
chrome grille surround. This use of Bright Yellow extends to the base
of the motor car’s layered carbon fibre Spirit of Ecstasy, which
incorporates a Bright Yellow ring detail and an engraving of the
Collection name.
V12 LEGACY FASCIA
To commemorate Rolls-Royce’s last-ever V12 coupé, the
marque’s Bespoke Collective of designers, craftspeople and engineers
collaborated to create a unique artwork for Black Badge Wraith Black
Arrow's fascia. The intricate, tactile design skilfully depicts the
contemporary V12 engine in Wraith. In keeping with the Black Badge
family’s noir ambience, the highly complex design - itself
the product of two months of development - is engraved in a single
sheet of black-coated aluminium to reveal the gleaming metal beneath,
providing a bold visual link to Thunderbolt’s polished
aluminium body.
BESPOKE VENEER
Black Arrow’s coach doors are lined with open-pore
Black Wood, in a complex design comprising over 320 multi-directional
and lasered marquetry pieces that mimics the cracked, irregular
surface of the Bonneville Salt Flats. This extraordinary feature also
extends onto the rear ‘Waterfall’ panel, which separates the two rear seats.
CONSOLE SPEEDFORM
Thunderbolt underwent a series of design iterations during
its lifetime. Its final shape, in which it captured the records
commemorated in Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow, is preserved forever
in the illuminated, polished aluminium Speedform encapsulated behind
glass on the front console.
NEW ‘CLUB’ LEATHER
Inside, Black Arrow’s interior is provisioned with a
new material type developed specifically for the Collection. The
armrests, seat gussets, transmission tunnel, door detail, door
panniers and lower dashboard panel are all finished in ‘Club Leather’
– its intentional greater sheen and even deeper black colouration
provide a subtle contrast to the matte Rolls-Royce natural-grain black
leather. The leather’s natural markings are intentionally emphasised
to give the interior more visible ‘life lines’, and a closer
resemblance to what was described at the time as “the club-armchair
type of driving seat which George [Eyston] prefers above all others”.
In keeping with the Black Badge series’ use of daring pulses of
colour, Bright Yellow is employed for the front seat leather. Atop the
seat, the outer headrest features an arrow embroidery motif, providing
rich, tactile detail and referencing the arrow symbol painted on
Thunderbolt’s aluminium body to enable the electric timing
equipment to ‘see’ and capture the car at full speed.
TRACK GUIDE
When the steering wheel is set in a straight-ahead
position, a dark marking at the twelve o’clock position aligns with a
similar pattern in the seats. This references the black lines Eyston’s
team painted on the white Salt Flats to help him maintain direction -
his sole point of reference at speeds of over 350 mph. In recognition
of the significance of this marking, this track guide flows in a
deliberately asymmetric line from the steering wheel to the driver’s
and rear passengers’ seats.
RECORD CONSTELLATION
Given Thunderbolt’s record-breaking status,
it is only fitting that Black Arrow incorporates a record of its own.
Casting a dramatic night’s-sky ambience over the interior suite, Black
Badge Wraith Black Arrow’s Bespoke Starlight Headliner incorporates
2,117 fibre-optic ‘stars’ - the greatest number ever seen in a
Rolls-Royce motor car. All individually arranged by hand, the ‘stars’
depict the Milky Way as seen from vast open spaces, and the
constellations precisely as they would have appeared over the Salt
Flats in Utah on 16 September 1938, the date of Eyston’s final,
immutable record.
BLACK ARROW CLOCK
Inspired by the analogue instruments of the 1930s,
the fascia clock bezel references the raw, technical aesthetic of
Thunderbolt's interior, enhanced by black hand-tips that
mimic the originalcar’s side-arrows; the surround is inscribed with
the legend ‘Bonneville’ and Thunderbolt’s everlasting record speed for
a V12-engined car of 357.497 mph. A further ‘arrow’ detail appears on
the motor car’s Bespoke treadplates.
ENGINE BADGE
An exclusive Bespoke plaque is mounted on the engine
cover to signify this as the last V12 ever to be fitted to a
Rolls-Royce coupé. Machined from a single piece of polished metal, the
plaque is inscribed with the V12 monogram in Bright Yellow, and the
legend ‘Final Coupé Collection’ in Black.
All 12 motor cars in the Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow
Collection have been allocated to clients around the world.
CO2 EMISSIONS & CONSUMPTION.
NEDCcorr (combined) CO2 emission: 367 g/km; Fuel consumption: 17.5 mpg / 16.1 l/100km. WLTP (combined) CO2 emission: 370-365 g/km; Fuel consumption: 17.2-17.4 mpg / 16.4-16.2 l/100km.