Currently reading: Special Rolls-Royce Phantom marks 60 years of Bond Goldfinger

Bespoke Phantom VIII fitted with special features and Bond easter eggs including gold putter and Fort Knox map

Rolls-Royce has brought James Bond nemesis Goldfinger’s Phantom III into the modern era with a special one-off to celebrate 60 years since the iconic film hit cinemas.

Created for a UK-based client – and avid Bond fan – as part of a three-and-a-half-year project, the one-of-one and fully driveable Phantom Goldfinger gives today’s Phantom VIII a 1937 makeover with “some of the most extensively engineered and hand-crafted features ever produced”, Rolls-Royce said.

Aside from the famous two-tone paint, all of the special features are found inside, from an 18-carat solid gold bar (cut in the shape of a Phantom Speedform) in the centre console to a gold golf putter fitted to the boot lid - a reference to Bond's first encounter with Auric Goldfinger at Stoke Park in the film. 

More touches can be found throughout, such as a pull-out picnic table with a map of Fort Knox engraved in 22-carat gold inlay, and the Starlight Headliner matching the constellation that would have been visible above the Furka Pass during filming in 1964.

Elsewhere, at the request of the client, the 007 logo is projected into the boot whenever the lid is open. The car also features two red, blue, green and yellow harlequin-patterned umbrellas fitted into the rear doors, in a nod to the design used by Goldfinger in the Stoke Park scene.

“It could have just been a black and yellow car that was made to look like the original - but we wanted to do more,” said Nick Rhodes, lead Rolls-Royce Bespoke designer on the project.

“We wanted to make it a sort of evolution of the original but also tell the story of the film.”

One suggestion was to “just make everything gold” but Rhodes added: “We wanted to make it more sophisticated than that.”

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He said hiding the “easter eggs”, such as the map of the Furka Pass engraved onto the dashboard gallery, “really tells that story a bit more”.

Rhodes referenced the special Spirit of Ecstasy finish as a nod to the special work undertaken on the car. The mascot appears to be made of solid gold but is plated silver - this is in reference to Goldfinger trying to smuggle gold in the body panels of his Phantom. Since it is not possible to silver-plate gold, specialists used a solid silver Spirit of Ecstasy and plated it with 18-carat gold to achieve the ‘gold reveal’ effect.

“We could have just put a gold [mascot] on there,” said Rhodes, “but enhancing that and telling that story a bit more really enhances the role of the car. It's not something you notice until somebody tells you."

Will Rimell

Will Rimell
Title: News editor

Will is Autocar's news editor.​ His focus is on setting Autocar's news agenda, interviewing top executives, reporting from car launches, and unearthing exclusives.

As part of his role, he also manages Autocar Business – the brand's B2B platform – and Haymarket's aftermarket publication CAT.

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ianp55 26 October 2024

What are BMW doing with Rolls Royce who were once seen as the pinnacle of British manufacturing? the Black Editions were bad enough but this really is a step too far? The yellow/black colour scheme looks pretty good but some of the ther additions seem a bit questionable to say the least. Don't mind Rolls Royce having a bespoke service but this looks more like a Pimp My Ride special from a Californian custom shop    

lukeski 26 October 2024

Each to their own Peter, but using the word classy about any rolls royce, let alone this one is a mystery to me. The only way to have a classy rolls royce, is to have it as an absolute banger, maybe keep chickens in it - which i think my wifes 1st father in law did. He was also the deliverer of the most deathless line i have ever heard. When i asked him how he had a rolls royce, he paused and said. "well you have to remember, back then everybody in Huddersfield had a rolls-royce!

Peter Cavellini 26 October 2024
lukeski wrote:

Each to their own Peter, but using the word classy about any rolls royce, let alone this one is a mystery to me. The only way to have a classy rolls royce, is to have it as an absolute banger, maybe keep chickens in it - which i think my wifes 1st father in law did. He was also the deliverer of the most deathless line i have ever heard. When i asked him how he had a rolls royce, he paused and said. "well you have to remember, back then everybody in Huddersfield had a rolls-royce!

Thats why I commented on it like that, bespoke should mean nobody but the future owner should know about it, remember FAB1 ?

Rodester 25 October 2024
A sham, charlatan. Tainted by the hand of the Hun. By Range Rover, buy the best and slam the Almain imposter with a mighty British fist.