Rolls-Royce Reveals Black Badge Landspeed Collection Editions

New Rolls-Royce Black Badge Landspeed Collection models celebrate 1930’s speed records set by British engineer Captain George Eyston.

The new Rolls-Royce Landspeed Collection celebrates the record-breaking land speed records set by British engineer Captain George Eyston during the 1930s in his “Thunderbolt” speed car powered by two Rolls-Royce R V12 aero engines.

Born in 1897, George Eyston was fascinated with motorsport from childhood, racing both cars and (under an assumed name) motorcycles while still at school before studying engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge.

While at college, his studies were interrupted by the Great War, in which he served with distinction, rising to the rank of captain and winning the Military Cross, but he was able to return and by the 1920s and 30’s he spent his time developing and driving racing cars and as an inventor, held several patents including several in the field of supercharging.

In 1935, Eyston was among the first British racers to travel to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where he set new 24-hour and 48-hour endurance speed records and subsequently received the Segrave Trophy, awarded to ‘the British national who demonstrates Outstanding Skill, Courage and Initiative on Land, Water and in the Air.’

In 1937, he returned to the Flats and set three world land-speed records with Thunderbolt, a specially designed car with three axles, eight wheels, and seven tonnes.

Drawing on elements from the Thunderbolt and Bonneville Salt Flats where Eyston set the speed records, the two new Rolls-Royce Black Badge Wraith Landspeed and Dawn Landspeed editions feature a host of details linking the modern vehicles back to the original record-breaking car like the engraved “Salt Flats” fissured texture across the fascia and a Starlight Headliner depicting the night sky on 16 September 1938 when Eyston set his final land-speed record of 357.497mph.

Bright yellow accents throughout the Landspeed Collection, including two-tone yellow and black bumper, are reminiscent of the large black arrow with a yellow circle painted on Thunderbolt’s aluminum body for visibility against the searing white of the Salt Flat’s surface.

The clock’s design also recounts this theme with the yellow and black instrument dials details and black-tipped hands are inspired by the arrows painted on the original car’s exterior.

“The Collection, which includes both Wraith and Dawn Black Badge, celebrates someone with exactly that dauntless, fearless, pioneering spirit. His name was Captain George Eyston, a Cambridge University graduate, racing driver, gifted inventor, and engineering genius. In the late 1930s, he broke the world land-speed record three times with his car Thunderbolt, powered by two Rolls-Royce R V12 aero engines. He was a true hero from an age of epic endeavours; yet both he and Thunderbolt have been all-but forgotten for more than 80 years,” shares Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

“With this Collection, we have revived Eyston’s memory and retold his remarkable story. Throughout Wraith and Dawn Landspeed, clients will find numerous subtle design elements and narrative details that recall and commemorate his amazing achievements, grand vision and exceptional courage.”

Production of the Rolls-Royce Landspeed Collection cars is strictly limited to just 25 examples of the Black Badge Dawn Landspeed and 35 Black Badge Wraith Landspeeds, all of which have already been allocated to customers.