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Rolls-Royce celebrates Goodwood with Chicane edition Phantom Coupe

Of all the automakers out there, perhaps none scream "race track" as quietly as Rolls-Royce. But the British luxury automaker has its home near the Goodwood Motor Circuit, and has honored that proximity with its latest special edition.
Called the Chicane, it's based on the Phantom Coupe and is upgraded with a series of tastefully motorsport-inspired details. It's painted in gunmetal grey with a matte black hood and windshield frame, with matching gunmetal wheels - a modern Rolls-Royce first - and a red interior decked out with carbon-fiber trim and a checkered flag motif that's repeated on the exterior coachline.
The special one-off was commissioned by the dealership in Dubai and was created by the Rolls-Royce Bespoke division. Feel free to read more in the press release below.

Lunaz electrifying classic cars with coachbuilt, millimeter precision

One day last year, as David Lorenz waited by the side of the road for repair help with his classic car, he had an idea: Why not update all of that ancient mechanical "character" with a modern electric drivetrain? That would give an owner the beauty of the past, the mechanicals of the present, and the powertrain of the future. Jaguar does it with the E-Type Zero, and Aston Martin's in the game with the reversible EV powertrain swap for the DB6 Volante. And so Lorenz founded the British engineering firm Lunaz Design, named after his daughter Luna and headquartered at the Silverstone Technology Park. The company's first products are almost ready for order, starting with a 1953 Jaguar XK120 and a 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V. Lunaz conversions aren't a matter of pulling an engine and installing a battery pack; Lunaz reengineers classics. Managing Director Jon Hilton oversees a team bringing experience from carmakers such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, McLaren, and Rolls-Royce, with Hilton's resume including six years with Cosworth Engineering followed by eight years in Formula One. To develop the Lunaz offerings, a chosen car is stripped to the metal and weighed so that engineers understand the weight distribution at each corner, then the car is stripped to the chassis and 3D-scanned. This yields information allowing designers to create a powertrain that fits to the millimeter and stays true to the handling dynamics of the original vehicle. During the rebuild, the company says, any imperfections are remedied "using traditional coachbuilding techniques." The Jaguar and the Rolls-Royce get battery packs in two locations, one under the hood and one under the trunk floor. Lunaz says it can fit more battery for its in-house design into each car that way. The Jaguar's 80-kWh battery feeds two electric motors sending 375 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels. The Phantom V uses a 120-kWh battery pack, but its output hasn't been released. While remaining true to the exterior and interior design of each car, Lunaz fits LED lights and modern tires, a modern suspension, better brakes with regenerative braking, power steering, an upgraded propshaft, and a fly-by-wire throttle. Safety and comfort additions include cruise control, traction control, and anti-lock brakes. Inside, the instrument cluster gets battery gauges, there's modern climate control, an infotainment screen with satellite navigation, and a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Rolls-Royce Wraith Luminary Collection gets celestial headliner

Rolls-Royce has announced a new bespoke collection for its Wraith 2-door luxury coupe that is highlighted, literally, by a headliner full of glittering shooting stars. It's called the Wraith Luminary Collection and its production will be limited to just 55 examples. The car is like its own planetarium on wheels, thanks to a starlight headliner concocted by the folks at the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective in Goodwood, West Sussex. It's a handwoven configuration of 1,340 fiber-optic lights mimicking the night sky — and even the occasional shooting star — and it takes 20 hours to configure. Rolls-Royce says eight shooting stars fire at random, mostly over the front seats. Open up the suicide doors and you'll see the celestial theme continued inside the cabin. Tudor oak wood veneer, sourced from forests in the Czech Republic and chosen for its depth of color and grain structure, is back-lit by 176 LED lights that permeates through intricate perforations in the veneer that form another starlight pattern at the touch of a button. "Linked to the controls of the starlight headliner, the cabin's veneer surrounds Wraith's occupants in an ambient glow of light," the luxury marque says. Outside, the Luminary Collection comes pained in Sunburst Grey with rich Saddlery Tan-colored lines hand painted along the bonnet and side body, a color scheme inspired by "the heady shade of the golden hour's sunrays" and referencing the interior leather color scheme. It's also echoed in the center of each wheel. Cockpit seats come trimmed in the same tan leather, while rear seats feature a contrasting Anthracite leather or an available Seashell color for the leather, matched by a two-tone steering wheel. The seats get contrasting piping and stitching tying the colors together. Also new is a hand-woven stainless steel fabric, a new technique for luxury goods borrowed from industrial uses, for the center console and door panniers. Each swath is made up of strands between 0.08 and 0.19 millimeters in diameter and takes three days to produce in a clean-room environment. Finally, the collection features stainless-steel tread plates engraved with the words, "Wraith Luminary Collection — One of Fifty-Five." Prices weren't announced, befitting the brand's aura of exclusivity, but the Wraith starts at a mere $320,000.