Rolls-Royce Phantom celebrates 100 years with $5 million special edition

The Rolls-Royce Phantomhas just cracked a century and, with the Centenary Private Collection limited edition, it’s not going to be shy about celebrating the milestone.

Developed by the company’s Bespoke division, the limited-edition model has a two-tone exterior paint job with a black top and white bottom finished with Super Champagne Crystal, which is a layer of clear coat that has iridescent champagne-coloured particles of crushed glass.

The look is said to recall the golden years of Hollywood, as well as the Phantoms from the 1930s.

Atop the grille is a Spirit of Ecstasy figure patterned on the one fitted to the first Phantom, cast in 18-carat solid gold and plated with 24-carat gold. The limited edition rides on unique disc wheels, each etched with 25 lines.

For the interior, Rolls-Royce has applied the same over-the-top ethos. The front seats feature laser-etched motifs from the nameplate’s history, including a rabbit, a nod to the 2003 Phantom’s ‘Roger Rabbit’ codename, and a seagull, the codename for the first ever Phantom prototype.

Laser etching, 3D multi-directional marquetry, 3D ink layering, and ribbons of fine gold leaf are used in the door cards’ wood panels, most of which depict places and things close to Sir Henry Rolls’ heart. There is, however, one panel dedicated to the 7000km journey across Australia undertaken by the first BMW-developed Phantom.

At the top of the dashboard is the ‘Anthology Gallery’, a series of 50 3D printed aluminium fins, each of which consisting of a series of sculpted letters that can be read in either direction to form press quotes about various Phantom models.

The rear seat is adorned with a printed and embroidered fabric that took 12 months to develop, includes over 160,000 stitches, and features 45 panels depicting the Phantom’s history and abstract details about owners of each generation of the car.

Looking up, the Starlight Headliner uses a further 440,000 stitches to tell more stories about the Phantom’s history.

Despite the heavily redecorated exterior and interior, the Centenary Private Collection has an unchanged drivetrain from regular Phantom variants, with a 420kW/900Nm 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 driving the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic.

Just 25 Centenary Private Collections will be built, and according to Autocar the starting price is £2.5 million (A$5.1 million).

If the Centenary Private Collection has piqued your interest, we’re sorry to inform you that all 25 cars have already been sold.

Rolls-Royce, naturally, isn’t saying who bought them, but the company notes that over its generations the Phantom has been bought by a diverse range of people, including Queen Elizabeth II, 50 Cent, Liberace, Marlene Dietrich, Elvis Presley, and Andy Warhol.

The Phantom nameplate made its debut 1925, and it continued through six generations until 1980, with production only pausing during World War II.

After BMW gained full control of the Rolls-Royce automotive brand in 2003, it revived the Phantom name for the first Rolls-Royce developed under its watch. The current eighth-generation Phantom was launched in 2017.

MORE: Explore the Rolls-Royce Phantom showroom