Monterey Car Week 2024: Rolls-Royce Showcases Phantom Scintilla

In 2024, Rolls-Royce celebrates its 120th anniversary, and the ultimate way to express that joy is by paying homage to its timeless muse in a unique Private Collection, named Phantom Scintilla. Based on the Phantom Extended, this collection celebrates the ethereal beauty, grace and legacy of the Spirit of Ecstasy.

Limited to just ten examples worldwide, Rolls-Royce Phantom Scintilla’s design evokes the wonder of the Spirit of Ecstasy’s fleeting presence: its interior features were inspired by the apparent movement of her robes, as the motor car glides by.

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Phantom Scintilla derives its name from the Latin word for ‘spark’ – a bright flash witnessed only for an instant. In 1910, Rolls-Royce Managing Director Claude Johnson commissioned sculptor and illustrator Charles Sykes to create a Rolls-Royce mascot. Johnson already had an inspiration in mind: on a trip to Paris, he had visited the Louvre and been greatly impressed by the Greek marble statue of a deity descending from the heavens – The Winged Victory of Samothrace, which dates from 190 BCE.

Sykes, however, felt the statue was too domineering to be a suitable subject. Having often travelled in Silver Ghosts, he believed a more delicate, ethereal figure would better express the marque’s grace, silence and subtle power. It is now generally accepted that he took his inspiration for what would become the Spirit of Ecstasy from Eleanor Thornton, Lord Montagu’s secretary and paramour. 

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For the Phantom Scintilla, the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine has been given a ceramic finish that alludes to the texture of Parian marble, while retaining its familiar femininity and ethereality – a Rolls-Royce icon that finally unites the visions of both Johnson and Sykes.

Phantom Scintilla’s exterior is presented in a two-tone bespoke finish. The upper body is in Andalusian White, with the lower body in Thracian Blue, inspired by the colours of the sea around the island of Samothrace.

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The interior is filled with design elements, textures and a continuous graphic inspired by the Spirit of Ecstasy. The embroidered motif on the doors – the most complex door design ever seen on a Rolls-Royce – is made of 633,000 stitches combining Blue Grey, Arctic White, Spirit Blue, Powder Blue and Pastel Yellow thread, complemented by illuminated perforations. 

The seats are upholstered in a twill fabric with a subtle reflective sheen, providing an additional complexity to the material interplay within the interior. 236,500 stitches applied in Blue Grey, Arctic White and Spirit Blue thread continue the complex graphic spanning across the four doors.

The centrepiece of Phantom Scintilla is a Bespoke artwork in the Gallery which runs the full width of the front fascia. Entitled Celestial Pulse, the work consists of seven ribbons, each individually milled from solid aluminium, before being adorned with the same finely-grained ceramic finish as the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine. The edges are polished to a mirror shine so that they catch the light, creating a sense of movement and fluidity.

Phantom Scintilla’s Bespoke Starlight Headliner features an animation inspired by the Spirit of Ecstasy’s flowing gown. 1,500 fibre-optic ‘stars’, all placed and fitted by hand in a unique pattern, illuminate in sequence, adding to the sense of motion. The design is completed with a further 4,450 perforations deliberately made larger than usual to reveal glimpses of a metallic silver fabric beneath, creating a subtle interplay of light.

The sense of movement continues on the rear picnic tables, with a delicate graphic capturing the Spirit of Ecstasy’s fluidity of motion. The motif is applied with the masking technique on top of the glossy iridescent surface, then hand-sanded and coated with a matte finish, creating the illusion of two subtle, shifting colours. The full wood set is rendered in Arctic White and finished with a lacquer mixed with iridescent metallic particles. To achieve the effect, craftspeople apply up to 19 coats of lacquer – a process that takes more than 190 hours per motor car.