Rolls-Royce unwraps a Phantom worthy of a Bond villain

The Bespoke division of Rolls-Royce has spent three years preparing a unique Phantom saloon for a specific customer. The long-wheelbase car celebrates 60 years since the premiere of Goldfinger, the third movie in the James Bond saga, and shares the name with it.

As you may remember, the secret agent fought against Auric Goldfinger, a gold smuggler who aspired to diminish the U.S. gold reserve to the point when his own gold hoard price would soar. To achieve that, he melted gold jewelry pieces into trims for his Phantom III Sedanca de Ville.

The homage saloon comes finished in the same combination of gold and black colors and has plenty of small nods to the movie that inspired it. For one, the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament looks as if it were pure gold concealed with a thin peeling layer of silver. The reality is backwards: Rolls-Royce Bespoke made it from silver and coated it with 18-catar gold to create this nifty visual effect.

The precious metal is just as ubiquitous in the cabin. There is even a Phantom-shaped gold bullion hidden in a secret compartment in the center console. In the movie, Bond played a match of golf against Goldfinger for this bullion. If you open the trunk, you will find a gilded golf club there.

The dashboard – or “Gallery”, as Bespoke calls it – bears the topographic outlines of the Furka Mountain Pass in the Swiss Alps, the location where Agent 007 pursued a fleeing Goldfinger. The headliner is decorated with a “starry sky” LED ornament typical of modern Rolls-Royce cars, but with a twist. The “stars” are arranged in a precise recreation of the night sky on the day of filming, constellation positions and all.

Opening the glove compartment reveals a famous Goldfinger quote in which the villain professes his love to gold. A picnic table set coming with the car is decorated with the layout of the fictional Fort Knox Military Base, where the gold reserve was stored in the movie.

Rounding off this lavish ode to the world’s most iconic precious metal is a gilded VIN plate ending in 007.