Rolls-Royce re-imagines the traditional wheels of considered one of James Bond’s biggest antagonists

‘Divine heaviness’ might be used to explain the DNA and craftsmanship of each Rolls-Royce ever made, but it surely’s very true of each of the automobiles you see right here. Imagined proprietor: one Auric Goldfinger, billionaire industrialist and sworn enemy of James Bond, who plans to detonate a nuclear machine that’ll irradiate the USA’s gold reserve and inflate the worth of his personal. ‘That is gold, Mr Bond. All my life, I’ve been in love with its color, its brilliance, its divine heaviness.’

A lot so, Goldfinger’s two-tone yellow and black 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca de Ville was mentioned to be constructed from the stuff. To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the movie Goldfinger, which starred Sean Connery and Gert Fröbe, Rolls-Royce have customised their extended-wheelbase Phantom VIII with particulars that can delight 007 followers. Just one will get to personal it, although, and it’s truthful to surmise that buyer – who relies within the UK – already has reserves to rival Fort Knox. They should have the Midas contact.

To mark the event, Wallpaper* visited Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire, the place Goldfinger and Bond went mano-a-mano on the green in 1964 and the place Goldfinger’s menacing valet, Oddjob, decapitated a statue together with his bowler hat. What would the membership secretary need to say? ‘Oh, nothing Mr Bond… I personal the membership.’

Here’s what the patron of this distinctive Phantom Goldfinger will personal in return for his or her undisclosed hundreds of thousands: A shade of ‘Auric’ yellow paint that can by no means be repeated, much like that of the 1937 automobile’s; walnut picnic tables for the rear-seat passengers inlaid with very delicate 22-carat gold that shows fictional maps of Fort Knox; forward of the entrance passenger seat, a three-dimensional metal and gold gallery with an isoline map of the Furka Cross – the winding Swiss mountain highway upon which Bond pursues his Phantom-conveyed quarry en path to Goldfinger’s smelting plant; a starlight headliner completely matching the constellation above the Furka Cross on 11 July 1964, the night time through which the sequence was filmed; and a gold putter fitted to the within of the boot lid and engraved with AG in the identical monogram because the villain’s signet ring. Open the glovebox and also you’ll discover the ‘divine heaviness’ quote etched in gold together with Auric’s signature.

The Spirit of Ecstasy on the prow of the Phantom Goldfinger subtly references the movement image’s plot. Within the movie, Goldfinger was smuggling gold from England to Switzerland by way of the physique panels of his automobile, and in a understanding design nod the figurine seems to disclose gold hid with a silver coat.

Because it’s not potential to silver-plate gold, the strong silver Spirit of Ecstasy has been skilfully plated with 18-carat gold to realize the reveal impact. There are tread plates designed to appear like gold bars, that are embossed with Goldfinger in the identical font developed for the movie, gold audio system with the title in the identical font, and a 24-carat gold-plated VIN plaque engraved with a specially-obtained car identification quantity, which ends in 007.

And there’s extra. I significantly love the harlequin umbrellas, saved in heated slots within the doorways, of the identical vibrant design because the golf umbrellas Oddjob caddies round. Constructing the entire automobile out of gold would have been impractically heavy and would have required the costliest crash take a look at in automotive historical past, however there’s a strong 18-carat gold bar within the form of a ‘speedform’ (a stylised illustration of the automobile in miniature) exhibited within the centre console. Why not take it out and casually drop it on the inexperienced to boost the stakes and ‘make issues attention-grabbing’?

One for correct Bond nerds is the tracker which the spy is proven affixing inside Goldfinger’s boot earlier than he departs Stoke Park. Right here, Rolls-Royce has usual the Q gadget so it tasks the 007 gun brand onto the bags compartment’s carpet. ‘Loads of room for some our bodies in there,’ urged Rolls’ CEO Chris Brownridge as he took me on a tour of the automobile. Higher but, one might encourage a lissom dancer to crawl inside and with the 007 projection you would create your very personal Maurice Binder title sequence. This Phantom Goldfinger does, for higher or worse, permit the creativeness to run riot.

Total, the automobile incorporates a number of the most extensively engineered bespoke options utilized to a one-of-one automobile within the firm’s 118-year historical past and has taken three years to create. Brownridge added that he and lead challenge designer, Nick Rhodes, held clandestine conferences with their patron at areas that had been as soon as haunts of creator Ian Fleming – Scott’s in Mayfair, the bar at Duke’s, etcetera – to nail down all of the particulars.

The Phantom III Sedanca de Ville will not be essentially the most well-known automobile seem in Goldfinger. That’s Bond’s MI6-supplied Aston Martin DB5, and Aston Martin have unsurprisingly used the sixtieth anniversary to disclose a particular version of their very own, too. The DB12 Goldfinger Version is offered in the identical Silver Birch because the ‘60s machine and with the addition of 18-carat gold inside accents, however with an version of 60 headed for manufacturing priced at a reported £300,000, it’s not as unique or as shaken and stirringly costly because the Rolls. Like all good secret brokers, Rolls-Royce are staying schtum at these particulars and wouldn’t inform me the sticker worth even underneath ache of exactly pointed laser beams.

EON Productions is the proprietor of the unique Sedanca de Ville proven right here, which continues to be arguably essentially the most well-known display Curler of all time. In whole, 12 Rolls-Royce have appeared in Bond movies over time. The brand new Phantom will bear the identical registration quantity as the unique seen within the movie: AU1. The prized quantity plate is, after all, a reference to the chemical image for gold.

All that’s lacking is a chauffeur to go by the identify ‘Bond’, in order that the proprietor can bellow ‘No Mr Bond, I anticipate you to drive!’ every morning. As webs of sin go, it’s one I wouldn’t thoughts getting into for the lengthy journey to the Alps.

Rolls-RoyceMotorCars.com, @RollsRoyceCars