Rolls-Royce lays it on thick with 'magnum opus'

Built to celebrate its 100-year anniversary, the 25 cars of the Phantom Centenary Private Collection defy belief

By PH Staff / Thursday, 23 October 2025 / Loading comments

Pride of Britain, envy of the world. That’s what Rolls-Royce used to print on its brochures, back in the good old days when it called Crewe home. Many things have changed since then, including its location and subsidiary status - but much about it remains the same, too. Outwardly, the old ethos is intact: no matter the quality of its rivals or fluctuations in buyer demand, Rolls-Royce is adamant that it builds the best luxury cars in the world. And it will go to great lengths to convince people - people, it should be said, accustomed to enjoying the best of everything regardless of cost - of its singular status in the world.

It is in this light that we are encouraged to marvel at the new Phantom Centenary Private Collection, a 25-example run of cars which the manufacturer describes as the ‘magnum opus’ for the people who worked on it. It is partial to such grandiose statements, of course, yet it does seem like, with the benefit of a three-year development process, that Rolls-Royce has pulled out all the stops to pay tribute to the 100-year anniversary of the Phantom; fitting for an evocative model designation that BMW effectively resuscitated when it launched the VII in 2003.

In the last two decades, it has unquestionably stamped its own legacy on the brand, though, as you might expect, the Centenary Private Collection is very much about reaching back to recreate historic moments from the Phantom’s backstory. “This project uses new techniques to blend metal, wood, paint, fabric, leather, and embroidery into a single, stunning composition,” reckons Head of Bespoke, Phil Fabre de la Grange. “The surfaces read like a book revealing 100 years of Phantom’s history, rich with symbolic references for clients to admire and decipher over many years to come.”

Indeed, like a wheeled Ulysses, the CPC is so stuffed with specially conceived Easter eggs, and so lavishly indulged with cutting-edge techniques— couturier-designed textiles, sketch-like embroidery, laser-etched leather, groundbreaking woodcraft— that there’s a limit to how much detail you can absorb on a single viewing. The car, while based on a Phantom Extended and mechanically identical to its familiar 6.75-litre V12 configuration, is fully intended to overwhelm you with its 3D marquetry and gilding and ink layering.

Some choice cuts then. The two-tone exterior is intended to recall Hollywood’s golden era, hence the shimmer achieved via particles of crushed glass in the clear coat. A revised Spirit of Ecstasy is based on the first figurine ever used and cast in solid 18-carat gold (for strength) and then plated in 24-carat gold (for finish). The rear seats feature a hand-woven, Phantom-storytelling tapestry so intricate that it required a 12-month partnership with a fashion atelier to complete — the sort that wouldn’t normally be seen dead beyond haute couture.

This spans 45 panels and incorporates 160,000 stitches, yet that is seemingly nothing compared to the 440,000 stitches required to embroider the Starlight Headliner, depicting, among other things, a Mulberry tree that Henry Royce sat beneath while conferring with colleagues. Then there are the door panels, which bring to life the Phantom’s most formative journeys via stained Blackwood and squares of gold leaf just 0.1 micrometres thick. We could go on and on, from the artwork on the front seats that includes a reference to ‘Roger Rabbit’, the VII’s codename, to the Anthology Gallery that features 50 3D-printed, vertically brushed aluminium ‘fins’ interlaced like the pages of a book. Suffice it to say, each example is designed to be wildly, extravagantly over the top; fitting for a rumoured £2.5m. Every one of them sold. Envious?