Rolls-Royce commemorates Bonneville speed record

The specials, limited to 35 examples of the coupe and 25 of the convertible, have been created to celebrate the speed exploits of Captain George Eyston. In 1938, his Rolls-Royce-powered car Thunderbolt tore along the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah at 357.497mph, setting the final of three World Land Speed records in the (alas long-lost) car.

The new Rolls-Royces won’t do 357mph and nor are they powered by V12 aero engines (Eyston has two of them in Thunderbolt). Neither do they have three axles, eight wheels and weigh seven tonnes like the behemoth Thunderbolt. These are a far more subtle reminder of someone who, as Rolls-Royce says, was a successful racing driver, gifted inventor and engineering genius, if these days something of a forgotten British hero.

“The innate desire to extend horizons and define new limits is an instinct we’ve always understood at Rolls-Royce,” says Rolls-Royce chief Torsten Müller-Ötvös. “The Collection celebrates someone with exactly that dauntless, fearless, pioneering spirit. George Eyston embodies so much of what makes Rolls-Royce unique.”

The latest models from Goodwood are both Black Badge editions of the Wraith and Dawn embellished with typically well-crafted details that hark back to Eyston’s LSR run in 1938. They come in a new two-tone paint finish – Black Diamond and Bonneville Blue – with touches inside that include facia veneers engraved to recall the fissured surface of the Salt Flats. And yes, RR went out there to take a digital trace of the surface to make sure it was accurate…

Also accurate (though no one surely would ever know if it wasn’t) is the cars’ starlight headliner whose 2,117 individually-placed fibre-optic ‘stars’ depict the night sky on 16 September 1938, the day of Eyston’s final speed record. A silhouette of Thunderbolt and details of its speed records are engraved on polished aluminium, and there are various other subtle nods to the man and his record-breaking machine.

And what of the yellow bumper inserts and other bright yellow accents? Yellow was chosen because it was the colour Eyston used to paint on the side of Thunderbolt – so Bonneville’s photo-electric timing equipment could pick up the otherwise shiny and unpainted bodywork.

Now who wouldn’t love a Rolls-Royce with a back story like that?