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Who’s buying Rollers?

Rolls Royce Wraith 800
Rolls Royce Wraith

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7 July 2014

Rolls Royce, wraith, coupe
A Rolls Royce Wraith – soon to be owned by Rowan Atkinson.

I can exclusively share the rumour that the actor Rowan Atkinson, AKA Mr Bean and Blackadder, might order a Rolls Royce Wraith soon. At least, he was looking around the Goodwood HQ when I visited recently, and he famously loves his cars.

I can also exclusively share the rumour, supported by what I saw, that Rolls Royce will comfortably beat its 2013 sales total of 3,630 cars.

The factory is at ‘full chat’, as my wonderfully informed tour guide David put it – with a double shift for the Ghost/Wraith, and even a Saturday morning shift.

There is a four month waiting list for a plain vanilla Wraith, the rakish addition to the Rolls Royce offering launched late last year, and the factory currently produces 22 cars a day.

Clearly, the numbers are compelling, and we reckon the company will turn out bumper results in July.

Who’s buying Rollers?

There is a big difference between the Phantom, which is a serious, chauffeur-driven affair, always with a bespoke element, and the Ghost and  Wraith, which are appealing to a younger, ritzier crowd more likely to drive themselves.

The Wraith in particular is appealing to the self-made wealthy and is surely aspirational to most of us even if it’s miles away from BIK calculations and VED bills.

But let’s put all practicality aside for a minute. If money were no object, what are the sorts of options you can order on a Rolls Royce?

This is where it gets seriously amazing. For instance, there is a shade of paint called Desert Gold. The Goodwood paint wizards add 19grams of real gold dust to each litre of paint. The result is seriously golden and the option is going to add about £30k to the bill. Luvvly.

Obviously we’re talking more Bahrain than Basildon here, not forgetting Beijing. Right now there is a roaring trade in equine marketry, because it is the Year of the Horse in China.

The wood shop boys and girls at Goodwood, who I met, laser cut a hundreds of delicate pieces of different veneers, and then assemble them like a jigsaw puzzle atop a laminate of pear wood and aluminium, itself involving as many as sixteen layers.

Two weeks of curing and forming and bonding later, and with half a dozen costs of lacquer, out pops an incredible work of automotive art that will presumably outlast the car by centuries.

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