Rolls tips its hat to Sir Malcolm Campbell

New levels of bespoke are evident in this special-edition Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Waterspeed collection, which has now been revealed following the release of first sketches in February.

Devised to celebrate the world water speed records set by 1930s speed hero Sir Malcolm Campbell in his Rolls-Royce powered Bluebird K3 boat, the drop-top is a “very special” car in a model range already costing almost $1 million in Australia.

The swashbuckling Campbell took the world speed record away from the Americans in September 1937 by clocking an average 126.33mph (203.31km/h) over the measured course on Lake Maggiore in Italy. His final record was set in August 1939, when he recorded an average speed of 228.11km/h on Coniston Water in Britain’s Lake District.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead that commemorates Campbell’s achievements is littered with bespoke flourishes.

They include things like the hand-beaten brushed steel decking that replaces the teak used on lesser Dropheads and hand-engraved door armrest “tunnel caps” with a Bluebird motif.

There is also the “power reserve dial” on the dashboard that replicates the gauge used by Malcolm Campbell to indicate when the K3’s Rolls-Royce engine was approaching maximum rpm, the front-lit clock with dials hewn from a billet of aluminium, and a hand-embroidered panel in the glove box commemorating the records set by Campbell at Lake Maggiore and Coniston Water.

The special Phantom is finished in Maggiore Blue paintwork inspired by the Bluebird colour scheme, with nine layers applied prior to exhaustive hand sanding and the application of a special powdered lacquer that “ensures an impeccable finish.”

The technique is also applied to the car’s fully polished 11-spoke alloy wheels, while inside, the special Roller uses Maggiore Blue accents to compliment the Windchill Grey leather.

Two special locations were reserved for the preview of the Waterspeed Collection Phantom Drophead Coupe: The Bluebird Restaurant in King’s Road London, housed in the Art Deco premises built in 1923 to accommodate the original Bluebird Motor Company, and Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa D’Este on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, adjacent to Lake Maggiore where Campbell set his initial water speed records.

“This very special motor car serves to pay a perfect homage to my grandfather’s remarkable acts of British daring and endeavour,” said Donald Wales, grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell.

“The extraordinary attention to detail and commitment to engineering excellence so evident in these motor cars perfectly echoes the lengths my grandfather and his colleagues went to in their pursuit of the water speed records.”

According to Guinness World Records, today’s unlimited water speed record is held by Australian Ken Warby, who took his jet-engined hydroplane, Spirit of Australia, to 511.11km/h at Blowering Dam Lake in NSW in October 1978. A year earlier, Warby recorded an unofficial 555km/h at the same location.