Gallery: Wraith Black Badge Landspeed at FOS

Put together to commemorate the records set by Captain George Eyston and his Landspeed Thunderbolt that was kitted out with huge Rolls-Royce R V12 aero engines, our West Sussex neighbours have made sure the Wraith Black Badge Landspeed does its ancestors proud.

Finished in two-tone liveries that purposefully evoke the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where Eyston achieved his record-breaking runs between 1937 and 1938, this particular version in Black Diamond Metallic with a Bespoke Bonneville Blue hue looks lavish yet classic. As is to be expected from Rolls-Royce. It’s a paint job that transitions under sunlight from light blue to silver, illustrating the reflections created by the vast sky Bonneville skies and the moon-like salt flats against the Thunderbolt’s sheet aluminium bodywork. Nice.

But Rolls being Rolls, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The interiors department wanted a piece of the action too and have created a stunning Starlight Headliner that mimics the actual night sky and the constellations visible on the 16^th of September 1938, when Eyston set his third and final land-speed record of 357.497mph. Even the elegant clock just right of the touchscreen is modelled after period gauges used in the Thunderbolt.

Powered itself by a hefty but oh-so-smooth V12 engine and having received the Black Badge treatment in an effort to appeal to ever-younger, hipper audiences, the Wraith Black Badge Landspeed is luxurious, intriguing and exciting in equal measure. And certainly one for those with a keen sense of history and occasion. We love it.

Photography by James Lynch.