rolls-royce unveils black badge wraith black arrow, its last V12 coupe ever

Rolls-royce celebrates the beginning of a new era

An era for Rolls-Royce is coming to end, and the company is celebrating its new chapter with a bang. Its Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow, the company’s last V12 Coupe, has rolled in, and the car design marks Rolls-Royce’s entrance into the electric-automobile arena. With only 12 vehicles produced for its one-off batch, exclusivity is the marquee that Rolls-Royce is holding up.

The collection derives its name from the third iteration of Captain George Eyston’s racecar Thunderbolt. The Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow’s exclusive bespoke finish spotlights gradation between a celebratory hue of silver and black diamond. A glass-infused ‘Crystal’ coating lays over the black diamond paint to enhance the transition between the two shades and achieve a motion-blur effect from front to rear.

The specific technique also gives the coachwork a subtle texture, set beneath a high gloss lacquer, which is polished for more than 12 hours to achieve a glass-like finish. It took the design team 18 months of surface testing and development before the desired extraordinary finish was achieved. Rolls-Royce says that the 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.

images courtesy of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

black badge wraith black arrow contrasts colors

Contrasting the Gradient Paint, Rolls-Royce’s Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow springs with bright yellow accents inside the vehicle, from the steering wheel to the comfortable cushioned seats, a subtle recollection of the yellow circle within Thunderbolt’s black arrow.

The use of bright yellow extends to the base of the motor car’s layered carbon-fibre Spirit of Ecstasy sculpture that sits atop the vehicle’s front hood. To commemorate Rolls-Royce’s last-ever V12 coupé Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow’s fascia exudes intricate and tactile design that skilfully depicts the contemporary V12 engine in Wraith.

The complex design is engraved in a single sheet of black-coated aluminum to reveal the gleaming metal underneath. It visually circles back to Thunderbolt’s polished aluminum body. Black Arrow’s coach doors are lined with black wood in a complex design that consists of more than 320 multi-directional and lasered marquetry pieces that reminisce about the cracked, irregular surface of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Leaving a legacy for a new start

Inside, Black Arrow’s interior is clad with a new material type that Rolls-Royce specifically designed for the 12-piece Collection. The armrests, seat gussets, transmission tunnel, door detail, door panniers, and lower dashboard panel are all finished in Club Leather whose sheen and deeper black coloration provide a subtle contrast to the matte Rolls-Royce natural-grain black leather.

The leather’s natural markings are intentionally emphasized to give the interior more visible lifelines and a closer resemblance to an armchair type of seating usually found in exclusive clubs. Pulses of bright yellow appear along the design elements, and the outer headrest features an arrow embroidery motif, providing rich, tactile detail, and referencing the arrow symbol painted on Thunderbolt’s aluminum body.

Torsten Muller-Otvos, Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, says that Wraith is one of the most significant and influential cars the company has ever made at Goodwood. ‘As the last examples of this landmark motor car getting ready to leave Goodwood, we commemorate Wraith’s status as the last series V12 coupe we will ever make,’ he says. ‘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.’