Rolls-Royce cars have appeared in a dozen James Bond adventures, but there’s only one that really matters, and it’s Auric Goldfinger’s classic yellow Phantom. To celebrate 60 years since the release of Goldfinger, Rolls Royce has produced a special Phantom that’s full of fun movie references. Auric’s car was a 1937 Phantom III Sedanca de Ville whose distinctive yellow paint has been replicated on the new long-wheelbase Phantom Extended. Like the old-timer, the modern Goldfinger car contrasts that yellow paint with a black roof and hood and even mimics the look of the pre-war model’s black and silver wheels and hubcaps. The iconic grille retains its regular chrome finish but the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot is plated in 18-carat gold.
It’s the crazy interior details, that really make this one-off build stand out. Details like the illuminated
18-carat gold bar shaped as a Phantom speedform and housed in a secret
compartment on the console. Or the gold finish inside the front and rear
console storage boxes and glovebox, the last of those bearing a Goldinger quote
from the movie about how he’s always been “in love with its colour, its
brilliance, its divine heaviness.” The door sill plates are meant to look like
gold bars, there’s a gold golf club in the boot, a reference to the one
Goldfinger uses in a game with Bond early in the movie, and even the plate for
the VIN – which ends in 007 – is made from 24-carat gold.
Other neat easter eggs include the
fictional map of Fort Knox on the picnic tables marked out in 22-carat gold
inlay, the hand-drawn map on the dashboard showing the topography of the Furka
Pass, and a starlight headliner replicating the position of the stars as they
were on the last day of filming on the pass in July 1964.
Rolls Royce has even managed to secure
AU1, the registration plate worn by the movie’s Phantom, and as anyone who can
still remember their school chemistry will know, a reference to the chemical
symbol for gold. No price has been given for the project but the brand says the
one-off build has already been delivered to a “significant” marque collector in
the UK.