Rolls-Royce has revealed a one-off car called the Phantom Goldfinger, built to celebrate 60 years of the James Bond film.
The car features a wide range of real gold details, including a golf putter in the boot, and features the iconic 'AU 1' number plate.
Which brand of British car has appeared in James Bond films no fewer than 12 times? No, not that one. We’re talking about Rolls-Royce, which has just revealed the Phantom Goldfinger, a one-off special celebrating 60 years of the third 007 movie.
Described by Rolls-Royce as “a one-of-one masterpiece” the car began life as a Phantom Extended (that’s the long wheelbase version, for extra rear passenger legroom, naturally). It was then treated to a unique shade of yellow paint created to perfectly match Auric Goldfinger’s own Phantom III, and a Spirit of Ecstasy bonnet mascot made from solid silver, but with a treatment that appears to reveal gold beneath.
The interior is where things really kick up a gear. Gold is used for the speaker grilles, air vents and organ stop-style climate controls, as well as the tread plates that resemble gold bars. The dashboard features a hand-drawn and laser-etched map of the Furka Pass, the Swiss road used to film the car chase between James Bond and Goldfinger in the 1964 movie, with the road itself finished in gold.
The dashboard features a 007 gun barrel design around the clock, while real gold also features inside the glovebox, where a debossed quote from Goldfinger reads: “This is Gold, Mr Bond. All my life, I have been in love with its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness.”
The unique Rolls-Royce was revealed to journalists, including T3, at Stoke Park, which played host to a game of golf between Bond and Goldfinger, alongside the villain’s own Phantom III.
Continuing the theme of gold ‘hidden’ in the car, there’s a solid, 18-karat gold bar in the shape of a ‘Speedform’, exhibited in the centre console. Picnic tables on the back of the front seats feature a fictional map of Fort Knox, the gold bullion reserve, made from 22-carat gold inlay.
The famous Rolls-Royce ‘starlight’ headliner also appears, but for this one-off car 719 LED lights have been arranged to resemble the stars of the night sky above the Furka Pass on 11 July 1964 – the last day of filming for the car chase scene. They glow with a subtle gold hue, and are surrounded by a further eight ‘shooting stars’.
The Goldfinger theme continues even in the boot, where a gold-platter putter is mounted to the inside of the boot lid and adorned with an ‘AG’ monogram inspired by Goldfinger’s signet ring. The boot also features a replica of the tracking device fixed to Goldfinger’s Phantom III by Bond, only on this car instead of tracking its owner the device projects a ‘007’ logo onto the boot carpet when opened.
Finally, Rolls-Royce says it has secured the famous ‘AU 1’ number plate, as seen on Auric Goldfinger’s Phantom III. The plate will remain with the one-off Phantom, which belongs to what the company describes as a “significant Rolls-Royce client and collector based in England.”
Rolls-Royce hasn’t said how much the Phantom Goldfinger cost its lucky own, but safe to say it’s the sort of money only Auric himself would have access to.
