Wraith Black Arrow pays tribute to the seven-ton Thunderbolt that set a new land speed record of 575km/h in 1938. Image: Rolls-Royce.
Incredibly a decade old this year after bowing at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, Rolls-Royce has taken the wraps off of the swansong version of the Wraith that additionally also bids farewell to the bi-turbo 6.6-litre V12 engine that powers it.
Until now Rolls-Royce’s only coupe as the current generation Phantom won’t have a dedicated two-door model, the Wraith will, however, have a replacement in the form of the all-electric Spectre that premiered in October last year.
Last updated in 2017, which saw it become the Wraith Series II, the applique applied to the farewell model, called the Black Arrow, is a lot more descriptive inside and out.
Externally, the Black Arrow pays tribute to the twin Rolls-Royce V12 aero engine Thunderbolt land speed record car that took its driver, engineer and World War I captain George Eyston to a then new world record of 575km/h at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1938.
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As such, the Black Arrow receives what Rolls-Royce calls a gradient paint option that matches the Black Diamond hue from the Wraith Black Badge, with a Celebration Silver finish. A crystal finish is then applied over the former in order to provide a “motion blur effect from front to rear”.
The entire finish is then placed under a high gloss lacquer and polished for 12 hours in order to sport its eventual appearance. Accordingly, the process is claimed to be the most complex in Rolls-Royce’s history as it took 18 months to be refined.
Yellow accents around the intakes on the bumper and on the V-bar behind the grille completes the exterior, along with a dark grey tint for the diamond-cut alloy wheels and yellow highlighting around the carbon fibre Spirit of Ecstasy grille mascot.
Arguably even more eye-catching is the Wraith Black Arrow’s interior. Beside the yellow leather Rolls-Royce calls “club leather”, the 2 117 fibre optics starlight roofliner has been included, but in a constellations said to have been identical as how the sky looked over Bonneville when Eyston embarked on his record run.
Along with yellow accents and stitching on the dashboard, yellow leather steering wheel, a unique open-pore black wood veneer and polished aluminium, the biggest highlight is the laser etched engine monogram on the passenger’s side that pays tribute to the V12 underneath the Wraith’s bonnet.
The final addition comes in the form of a plaque located on the engine cover itself inscribed with the words “Final Coupé Collection”, and made-out of a single piece of polished metal. A similar monogram of the engine to that found on the dashboard rounds it off.
As for the engine itself, the N74 V12 that once powered the BMW M760Li xDrive has been carried over from the Wraith Black Badge and delivers its unchanged 465kW/870Nm to the rear wheels through an ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic gearbox.
In all, only 12 examples of the Wraith Black Arrow will be made and despite Rolls-Royce not confirming the final price tag, it did reveal that each has already been accounted for.
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