Rolls-Royce Wraith – The rebirth of a classic

[slideshow_deploy id=’2731′]

“I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.”  ? F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

When I first met Alex Innes, it was inside the front window of Harrods, where the Wraith, Rolls-Royce’s latest model, was shining in all the glory of its modern incarnation. There, amid a hive of excitement and flashbulbs, he kindly introduced me to the world of bespoke car design, and ignited a passion I had previously been unaware of – the genesis of a classic.  “We have quite a flat structure that exists within Rolls-Royce – we are a very small team with a very old and precious brand that needs to be handled with care”

The Wraith was five years in development, the most intensive part from a design perspective being the first 18 months. Historically, each new project at Rolls-Royce has begun with four to five themes, meaning different designers, at the very early stages. This differs dramatically to a brand like BMW in which a flagship model will have up to 20 themes at the outset. What is happening at this stage is that the bandwidth is being filtered.

There is quite a large bandwidth to begin with in terms of different creative direction, that exists as mostly sketches. He showed me his freehand pencil and marker sketch of a bar finished in Photoshop “you just cannot get this level of sensitivity any other way. The first big step change is when we go from 2-D to 3-D, when you get into virtual, the themes are refined down again.”

Clay modeling is all to do with surfaces, which is when they bring the model to life for the first time. “It’s an interesting point because surfaces are the form language of design – that’s how everything is produced so anything we work with is surface manipulation, surface sculpting, and definition – that is our representation of design.”

Indeed the making of a Rolls Royce used to be a very different process altogether with different Coach Houses, today’s equivalent of designers, creating their own and very distinct bodywork. Phantom II was probably the most prolific era of coach building which was from the 20s until about the mid-30s. The golden age of coach building was dominated by designers like Gurney Nutting and HJ Mulliner who defined the Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Drophead and Sedanca Coupe. Based on a chassis with a relatively short 144-inch wheelbase, the Phantom II Continental had stiffer five-leaf springs, and a 12/41 axle replaced the standard 11/41 unit, which permitted greater cruising speeds.

The legendary Captain Sir Malcolm Campbell, of Bluebird speed record car fame, swore by the Phantom II Continental and pronounced simply “a better car does not exist the world over”. Just 1,680 Phantom IIs were manufactured between 1929 and 1935, and of these, only 281 were Phantom II Continentals. True to coachbuilding tradition, multiple subtle variations in shape of the waist line, rear end, fenders, trunk and other minor details were available. Ultimately Nutting only produced 12 examples of the Drophead Coupe, of which four were fitted with a Sedanca Coupe bodywork.

They are considered possibly the best-looking cars of the period due to their magnificent overall proportions that command respect.  These legendary coach houses were an affirmation of British design pedigree, and in the modern sense of the word they were design houses. Each one had a very distinctive style and was preferred by different customers, “you had that opportunity to tailor each car in quite a visual sense by adorning it with different derivatives of body work”.

Today, vehicle invest is very sizeable even for the smallest of changes. There is simply not a business model that can support the financial outlay required, it would be like developing a new car each time. With prohibitive costs and stringent regulations, vehicle architecture is now in the era of monocoque chassis: in which the chassis is structurally integral to the body. The Phantom does hark back to that old coach-built era in that it is an aluminum chassis with a steel body, however it is still all very intertwined.

* * *

There is however one aspect the process of transition between virtual and real that is still very much down to the individual craftsman: the clay model. When I first saw one I instantly thought of the China’s Terracotta Warriors from the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty – commissioned for posterity. Heart breakingly, once the model is complete and the design is handed over to the engineers these fabulous works of art are recycled. “Once the virtual modeling has been complete, all the CAD modeling is done and we have three designs that are of a suitable standard – they are converted into a full size clay model of that theme to represent that designers vision. These are incredible things to behold.”

Crucially they are in wet clay, and the manipulation of these surfaces is all done by hand. It’s all skilled artisans who are sculpting the surface and the different contours of the vehicle. A team of five to six modellers work on a clay model for several weeks, if not months. Hundreds of hours are invested into that model. It is preserved in the sense that it is digitally scanned, and then when the surfaces are produced they are more accurate.  “Even in this age with all the virtual aids we have – there is no substitute for seeing something in real size. It suddenly becomes a very tangible and very real car and not just an idea,” he says. The clay model is, in a sense, the last act of the design movement  before the dialogue shifts to engineers who take over control of the momentum – up until that point it is very much a design driven activity and then it shifts.

“Of the two to three physical clay models made there will be a decision to go with one of them – this is generally the point where we pass it over. This whole process that involves the exterior is mirrored by a similar process for the interior.” A lot of the discussions around the car takes places within the design team, yet the vision is really at the discretion of our design director, Giles Taylor. Once the final three models are made the discussion widens to include the whole board and that of BMW.  Not wanting to change things that are sacrosanct to Rolls-Royce as a brand, there is clearly a deep respect for its history.

“There were certain criteria for that had to be adhered to during the making of the Wraith. There is this sense of command that you get from an elevated position, getting up and into a Rolls Royce, that extends to the authoritative design. With the Wraith we were looking to make this more dynamic.” Wraith is positioned to be the most powerful and dynamic Rolls-Royce in the company’s history. According to CEO Thorsten Müller-Ötvös, “This exceptional car will build on the finest principles of the company’s forefathers – the world’s best engineering, the employment of cutting edge technology and peerless craftsmanship.”

Reviving one of the most famous Rolls-Royce names first used in 1938 “Wraith alludes to an almost imperceptible but not powerful force, something rare, agile and potent, a spirit that will not be tethered to the earth,” added Müller-Ötvös. Demonstrating just how committed the company is to upholding this quintessentially British brand. The ultimate inspiration is, of course, the Honorable Charles Rolls, one of the company’s founding forefathers. His insatiable appetite for adventure encompassed all the innovation and engineering that allowed him to push beyond the limits of what was considered possible.

Lauded by King George V as “the greatest hero of the day” he became the first person to cross the English Channel and return non-stop in a flying machine. Whilst safeguarding the brand’s formality, the objective was to emulate this spirit and create something a little more avant garde that challenged people’s perceptions of what a Rolls Royce should be. In a way this is most elusive aspect of this industry – second guessing what the market might want but does not yet know they want, and creating something to supply that future demand.

Perhaps all this client focused bespoke work allows the company to get the most valuable insight into consumer needs, consumers that are part of an exclusive but growing number of hyper wealthy increasing 3-5 per cent a year. In my opinion, the greatest asset they have at Rolls-Royce is not their latest model but the people who work for them creating these incredible machines.

Alex Innes every inch the Gatsby man – young, fabulous and clearly very erudite. “Whenever you feel like criticising any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” – F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

by Nico Kos Earle

About The Author

Glass Online arts writer

Related Posts