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Rolls-Royce has unveiled a new limited-edition of its Wraith coupé. The "Luminary" is mechanically identical to the standard Wraith, but as if the base model wasn't special enough, the company has let its "Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective", a small in-company group of engineers, designers and craftspeople loose on the car's appearance.
The "Collective" has added a number of exclusive and fun little visual touches, the most obvious being the new paint. The colour "Sunburst Grey" is inspired by, according to Rolls-Royce "the heady shade of the golden hour's sunrays" and describes it as a "flat grey that enlivens when awoken by the sun, rich copper tones, emitting a deep emotive warmth". A hand-painted sunburst-motif coachline runs along the length of the car and the channel lines on the bonnet and pinstripes on the wheel centres are finished in "Saddlery Tan" which carries-through from the colour of the interior leather.
It's inside the car, however, where the Wraith Luminary makes its statements. There's wood, of course - Tudor Oak sourced from the forests of the Czech Republic, chosen for the depths of its colour and density of grain structure. The wood is lit-up too by 176 LEDs forming a cosmological-style pattern which lights up with the touch of a button. There's more cosmology too. Rolls-Royce has used fibre-optic headliners for some time now, producing a pattern reminiscent of a starry night. The "Collective" has gone one step further, now incorporating eight shooting-star patterns to fire at random, much to the delight of anyone lying flat in the car.
The front seats are trimmed in Saddlery Tan leather though the back seats can be specified either in Anthracite (black) or Seashell (white) with the steering wheel taking on a two-tone combination of the Saddlery Tan and the rear leather.
Amidst all this leather and illuminated wood, there's an unusual stainless-steel fabric trimming the central transmission tunnel and door panniers. This isn't just a swatch of shiny cloth however. It's a highly technical fibre which, apparently takes three days to produce in a "clean room" environment. The upshot of using it is that with the Luminary's emphasis on light - the sunburst-motifs, the sparkling wood and the twinkling headliner - the material supposedly refracts that light, giving the interior a brighter, more airy ambience.
Just 55 examples of the Wraith Luminary will be produced, a fact reflected in the car's stainless-steel treadplates which bear the inscription "Wraith Luminary collection - one of fifty five".