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Rolls-Royce celebrates Goodwood with Chicane edition Phantom Coupe

Of all the automakers out there, perhaps none scream "race track" as quietly as Rolls-Royce. But the British luxury automaker has its home near the Goodwood Motor Circuit, and has honored that proximity with its latest special edition.
Called the Chicane, it's based on the Phantom Coupe and is upgraded with a series of tastefully motorsport-inspired details. It's painted in gunmetal grey with a matte black hood and windshield frame, with matching gunmetal wheels - a modern Rolls-Royce first - and a red interior decked out with carbon-fiber trim and a checkered flag motif that's repeated on the exterior coachline.
The special one-off was commissioned by the dealership in Dubai and was created by the Rolls-Royce Bespoke division. Feel free to read more in the press release below.

Rolls-Royce sets sales record in 2021, despite ongoing pandemic

LONDON — Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce, a unit of Germany's BMW, said on Monday its sales soared 49% to a record high in 2021 despite the global coronavirus pandemic, as demand worldwide for luxury vehicles surged. In an online presentation, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos said the carmaker sold 5,586 vehicles to customers in more than 50 countries, the largest number in its 117-year history despite all the volatility wrought by the pandemic. "In the luxury sector as a whole, the struggle was not so much focused on attempting to find customers, but rather producing enough product to satisfy huge customer demand," Muller-Otvos said. He said sales hit all-time records in most regions, including China and the Americas. Premium and luxury car sales have been growing more broadly in key global markets such as China and the United States as pandemic travel restrictions have left wealthy consumers with more disposable income. "Covid forced many people to ground, not to travel anymore and for that reason there is quite a lot of wealth accumulated and that is spent on luxury goods," Muller-Otvos told Reuters. "We profited from that development." He said the carmaker's British plant in Goodwood was running at close to maximum capacity and its order books were full well into the third quarter of 2022. "If you order a Rolls-Royce today, you will expect to take delivery of it about a year from now," he said. Luxury British carmaker Bentley, a unit of Volkswagen AG said last week that it had cruised to a record year in 2021 as global sales jumped 31% amid strong demand for high-end vehicles. Last week BMW said it had achieved record sales of over 2.2 million vehicles from its BMW brand in 2021, outstripping 2019 sales despite a global shortage of semiconductor chips. Muller-Otvos said that while the chip shortage was cause for concern, Rolls-Royce's parent BMW had "assured that we could take delivery of all the chips we need to build our cars, so we haven't seen any shortages." Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Lunaz electrifying classic cars with coachbuilt, millimeter precision

One day last year, as David Lorenz waited by the side of the road for repair help with his classic car, he had an idea: Why not update all of that ancient mechanical "character" with a modern electric drivetrain? That would give an owner the beauty of the past, the mechanicals of the present, and the powertrain of the future. Jaguar does it with the E-Type Zero, and Aston Martin's in the game with the reversible EV powertrain swap for the DB6 Volante. And so Lorenz founded the British engineering firm Lunaz Design, named after his daughter Luna and headquartered at the Silverstone Technology Park. The company's first products are almost ready for order, starting with a 1953 Jaguar XK120 and a 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V. Lunaz conversions aren't a matter of pulling an engine and installing a battery pack; Lunaz reengineers classics. Managing Director Jon Hilton oversees a team bringing experience from carmakers such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, McLaren, and Rolls-Royce, with Hilton's resume including six years with Cosworth Engineering followed by eight years in Formula One. To develop the Lunaz offerings, a chosen car is stripped to the metal and weighed so that engineers understand the weight distribution at each corner, then the car is stripped to the chassis and 3D-scanned. This yields information allowing designers to create a powertrain that fits to the millimeter and stays true to the handling dynamics of the original vehicle. During the rebuild, the company says, any imperfections are remedied "using traditional coachbuilding techniques." The Jaguar and the Rolls-Royce get battery packs in two locations, one under the hood and one under the trunk floor. Lunaz says it can fit more battery for its in-house design into each car that way. The Jaguar's 80-kWh battery feeds two electric motors sending 375 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels. The Phantom V uses a 120-kWh battery pack, but its output hasn't been released. While remaining true to the exterior and interior design of each car, Lunaz fits LED lights and modern tires, a modern suspension, better brakes with regenerative braking, power steering, an upgraded propshaft, and a fly-by-wire throttle. Safety and comfort additions include cruise control, traction control, and anti-lock brakes. Inside, the instrument cluster gets battery gauges, there's modern climate control, an infotainment screen with satellite navigation, and a Wi-Fi hotspot.