2012 Rolls Royce Ghost Ewb. Diamond Black With Dark Spice on 2040-cars

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Drive like a prince: Join us for a walk through Monaco's car collection

Small, crowded, and a royal pain in the trunk lid to drive into during rush hour, Monaco sounds like an improbable location for a huge car museum. And yet, this tiny city-state has been closely linked to car culture for over a century. It hosts two major racing events every year, many of its residents would qualify for a frequent shopper card if Rolls-Royce issued one, and Prince Rainier III began assembling a collection of cars in the late 1950s. He opened his collection to the public in 1993 and the museum quickly turned into a popular tourist attraction. The collection continued to grow after his death in April 2005; it moved to a new facility located right on Hercules Port in July 2022. Monaco being Monaco, you'd expect to walk into a room full of the latest, shiniest, and most powerful supercars ever to shred a tire. That's not the case: while there is no shortage of high-horsepower machines, the first cars you see after paying ˆ10 (approximately $11) to get in are pre-war models. In that era, the template for the car as we know it in 2023 hadn't been created, so an eclectic assortment of expensive and dauntingly experimental machines roamed whatever roads were available to them. One is the Leyat Helica, which was built in France in 1921 with a 1.2-liter air-cooled flat-twin sourced from the world of aviation. Fittingly, the two-cylinder spun a massive, plane-like propeller. Government vehicles get a special spot in the museum. They range from a Cadillac Series 6700 with an amusing blend of period-correct French-market yellow headlights and massive fins to a 2011 Lexus LS 600h with a custom-made transparent roof panel that was built by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet for Prince Albert II's wedding. Here's where it all gets a little weird: you've got a 1952 Austin FX3, a Ghia-bodied 1959 Fiat 500 Jolly, a 1960 BMW Isetta, and a 1971 Lotus Seven. That has to be someone's idea of a perfect four-car garage.  One of the most significant cars in the collection lurks in the far corner of the main hall, which is located a level below the entrance. At first glance, it's a kitted-out Renault 4CV with auxiliary lights, a racing number on the front end, and a period-correct registration number issued in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of France. It doesn't look all that different than the later, unmodified 4CV parked right next to it. Here's what's special about it: this is one of the small handful of Type 1063 models built by Renault for competition.

Rolls-Royce rolls out one-off Ghost Golden Sunbird in China

In 2001, archeologists in the palace city of Chengdu, China, uncovered the Golden Sun Bird, an ancient artifact that dates back to the Shang Dynasty from 1000 BC. The disc depicts the sun and is made of almost solid gold, measuring five inches across and weighing 20 grams. The city adopted it as its logo, and now Rolls-Royce has commemorated the find and the heritage behind it with a unique one-off.
Based on the long-wheelbase version of the Ghost, the Golden Sunbird edition features a two-tone white and gold paint scheme, with gold coachline and gold grille topped by a gold Spirit of Ecstasy. The interior has likewise been gilded with gold embroidery atop the light brown leather and white trim to match the coachwork.
The result may be elegant but is certainly not subtle. And of course it's just the latest in a long line of special editions and one-offs Rolls-Royce has crafted, particularly for markets in the Middle and Far East.

Rolls-Royce wrapped a Ghost in gold for Antonio Brown's Super Bowl use

Well, don't I feel like a jerk. While in San Diego earlier this week for the Honda Civic Coupe launch, I stumbled across a Rolls-Royce Phantom that had been wrapped in a chrome/polished gold finish. It was atrocious, so I took a picture, posted it on Facebook, and captioned it by suggesting that Charles Rolls and Henry Royce were turning in their graves. Now, the company those two men lent their names to have wrapped a Ghost in a very similar style for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown to drive around San Francisco during Super Bowl 50. It's not clear why Brown is in San Francisco, since his team never made it past the AFC Divisional Playoff. But his love of Rolls-Royce motorcars is no secret. Brown made headlines in the sporting world in July of 2015 for his Phantom. Sporting a matte-black finish with a wide yellow stripe down the middle – just like the Steelers' helmets – the car also wore whitewall tires and bore Brown's signature in a gloss decal. This wrapped Ghost is about as tasteful. Its semi-gloss gold finish is broken up by the silver hood, while Brown's catchphrase, "Business Is Boomin" is displayed along the doors. The front fenders feature Brown's initials and his number. At least there aren't whitewall tires. You can check out the one-off Ghost in the gallery above. Or you could do the sensible thing and forget this thing ever existed. Related Video: