2019 Rolls-Royce Wraith Eagle VIII unveiled
British limited edition luxury car pays homage to the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919.
Rolls-Royce has unveiled a limited edition Wraith Eagle VIII ahead of its public display on Lake Como in Italy this week.
The exclusive variant will be shown from May 24 to 26 at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este car show, however the British brand did not reveal pricing or availability details.
Rolls-Royce built this car to celebrate the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919 - 100 years ago next month.
Pilots John Alcock and Arthur Brown accomplished the feat using a modified World War I Vickers Vimy aircraft, taking off from Newfoundland, Canada and landing in Clifden, Ireland.
The new car takes its name from the aforementioned aircraft, powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII 20.3 liter, 260 kW engines.
The instrument panel is inlaid with silver and copper to resemble the ground from above at night.
A plaque on the driver's door quotes one Sir Winston Churchill as speaking of this momentous achievement.
“I don’t know what we should admire more—their courage, determination, skill, science, their aircraft, their Rolls-Royce engines—or their luck,” it says.
The Wraith Eagle VIII features special touches that hark back to the landmark flight: a two-tone Gunmetal paint job separated by bronze details and a black grille inspired by the engine cowl of a Vickers Vimy aircraft.
In typical Rolls-Royce style, the cabin uses a variety of exotic materials, including smoked eucalyptus wood with precious metal inlays that evoke the view of the earth from above at night.
The bespoke headliner depicts the night sky as it was in 1919.
The large clock on the dashboard has a frozen background and glows a faint green under nighttime driving conditions.
The clocks belonged to the instruments of a transatlantic aircraft, which were frozen at high altitude and were barely visible, with only the green light from the control panel illuminating the dials.
Most spectacularly, the upholstery of the car's interior is littered with small lights that specifically depict a celestial device during a flight in 1919.
In addition, Rolls-Royce engineers embroidered "clouds" on the ceiling lining and stitched the aircraft's flight path across the night sky.
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