Look at all these special Rolls Royces

Rolls Royce does bespoke-ry like no other manufacturer. So to this week’s Geneva Motor Show it’s bringing three “distinct customer visions”, each commissioned by a “discerning connoisseur of luxury”, and destined to “demonstrate why Rolls-Royce is a Luxury House in the business of motor cars and the by-word for Bespoke”. We’re gonna let Rolls itself do a lot of the explaining on this one. Let’s just say it has a way with words…

So, first is ‘The Gentleman’s Tourer' (kid ye not), a Phantom Rolls says “harks back to the era of the grandest of Grand Tourers – the Phantom II Continental Saloons of the Thirties”. These were four-door, SWB Phantoms driven by their owners on long, cross-country journeys, so specified for “driving endurance rather than show”. This Phantom is therefore finished in a special ‘Iced Gunmetal’ shade of grey developed to appeal to this customer’s interest in aviation. Inside it’s all greys and blacks, and in the ‘Gallery’ (a panel of toughened glass runs the full width of the Phantom’s dashboard. You can put whatever you want in there) sits a sculpture in ‘Ruthenium’. Just 20 tonnes of this precious metal are mined annually, compared to 2,500 tonnes of gold. Imagine the £££.

Then we have two EWB Phantoms, the first to be commissioned with “completely one-off, artist designed Galleries. ‘Whispered Muse’ has a Gallery designed by British artist Helen Amy Murray. In Rolls’ words: “By creating different planes in silk through directional sculpting, Helen has created individual contours, beautiful in their own right, that fuse together to resolve in a partial image of the Spirit of Ecstasy’s dress flowing backwards from her neck.” Elsewhere you’ve got “two-tone Selby Grey and Palais Nemaskar Dawn” paint, rose gold detailing and front/rear-seats in trimmed in two different leathers.

‘A Moment in Time’ is the last of the three, special Phantoms. And again, we’re gonna have to let Rolls explain because, well, read this: “This Phantom’s Gallery captures A Moment in Time as though the Spirit of Ecstasy’s shawl was allowed to drape over the car at high speed, capturing that moment that leaves time standing still. Achieved through the artistic process of photography, fluid dynamics and sculpture by the Based Upon Collective in London.” Oh my.

The fourth thing Rolls is bringing to Geneva is a little less…artsy. The ‘Aero Cowling’ – for the Rolls Dawn – is designed to enclose its rear-seats “in a beautifully hand-made unit that features two cowls that rise from the leading edge of the tonneau area, which conceals the Dawn hood, to behind each front seat”. Each one gives lockable, leather lined storage compartments and is said to improve aero.

And breathe.