Latest Rolls special offers worldly view

 A Rolls-Royce whose special paintjob and fixtures take cues from how the Earth looks from Space. As you do.

TWO years ago it was with a Barbie car … now the Abu Dhabi outlet for Rolls-Royce has made headlines again, this time for outfitting another example of the brand’s Wraith coupe to an even more outrageous extreme.

 The latest work from Bespoke Rolls-Royce, a division of the brand that cashes in on the rich reward from creating one-offs of its toffiest wares, is ‘Wraith – Inspired By Earth’, which takes its design cues from the entire Solar System, and our own planet as seen from space.

Extravagant? Yes. Yet really it’s just another typical job for Bespoke, a 100-employee division at the make’s factory in Goodwood, England.

This crowd is well-used to upgrading the company’s already vie-star fare with a range of upgrades including televisions, champagne fridges and even paint mixed with crushed diamonds.

Common demand is for James Bond-style built-in champagne fridges, while other customers have had TVs and climate-controlled humidors (cigar containers) installed. 

Back in January, The Guardian newspaper reported how one Swedish billionaire paid for a one-million-satin stitch rose garden fabric interior. 

Others have the roof of the vehicle studded with a thousand or so LED lights to recreate the night sky – complete with shooting stars.

The costs of Bespoke cars, which can take a team of designers and engineers years to create, easily run into the millions of dollars. Actual prices are never discussed publicly, but the make has admitted one two-seater Rolls-Royce coupe cost “double digit millions”.

The ‘Earth’ car won’t have come cheap. The exterior is finished in Royal Blue, representing the 75 percent of the Earth’s surface that is covered by water. The most striking feature, however, is the bonnet artwork, which depicts a satellite’s-eye view of the Middle Eastern region.

Centred on the United Arab Emirates, the panorama extends across the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, all meticulously air-brushed by hand in a process that took over 100 hours to complete.

The exterior is finished with a hand-painted Emerald Green coachline incorporating the Sun and the eight planets of the solar system. Just to remind, that’s  Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. 

The interior aesthetic focuses on the Earth’s surface and the human and natural life that inhabits it.

The seats are made from Moccasin leather to mimic the sands of the Emirates’ deserts. Navy and Cobalto Blue accents are suggestive of rivers and lakes. Emerald Green piping symbolises nature in all its forms. Arctic White ‘RR’ monograms and stitching hint at clouds and translucent running water, the brand says in a release. 

The rear waterfall features a spectacular scene of atmospheric clouds rendered in minutely detailed embroidery using Photoflash technology.

On the fascia, the Piano Milori veneer is embellished with a satellite image of the Middle East, also to photograph-realistic standard though in fact it is skilfully air-brushed. 

The Bespoke Starlight Headliner is embroidered to illustrate all the planets of solar system, centred on the Sun. Other Bespoke details include treadplates, a clock with metal radial background, and inlays showing the planets in silver, with planet Earth accentuated in gold. 

By comparison, then, the Abu Dhabi showroom’s previous commission was potentially run-of-the-mill. 

The ‘Barbie car’ – designed to look like the kind of Rolls the doll might like to drive – was a two-tone Wraith in pink and white, with a pearlescent white lower body, Pepto-pink upper and matching coachline.

The interior was all white leather and dashboard trim to match the exterior, with pink accents extending from the steering wheel, door panels, and seats. It also had to a starry-sky headliner.