The Spirit of Ecstasy – Rolls Royce

Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy: f/9; 1/80sec; ISO-200

Do you know that every Rolls-Royce Phantom is hand-built at the home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, West Sussex in England? 108 years since Frederick Henry Royce (from 1930 Sir F. Henry Royce, Bart.) and Charles Stewart Rolls, son of Lord Llangattock, had founded the Rolls-Royce marque, new bumpers and foglights are still being designed to invoke elegance and aggression in equal measures.

Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy: f/9; 1/125sec; ISO-200

Looking much like the façade of an ancient Greek temple, an oversized grille highlights the front of the Phantom. It is crowned by Rolls-Royce’s flying beauty, the Spirit of Ecstasy, which can be retracted at the touch of a button to protect her against thieves and souvenir-seekers…

Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstacy: f/9; 1/80sec; ISO-200

But none such persons of dubious repute reside here in Dubai, where I spotted this fully silver Phantom, complete with the Spirit of Ecstasy in-situ. She stands at 3 inches and, for safety, is mounted on a spring-loaded mechanism designed to retract instantly into the radiator shell if struck from any direction.

Phantom Rolls-Royce: f/4; 1/250sec; ISO-110

The Spirit of Ecstasy was designed by Charles R Sykes who invoked in this flying lady’s billowing form the secret love story between John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, (second Lord Montagu of Beaulieu after 1905, editor of The Car Illustrated magazine from 1902) and the model for the emblem, Eleanor Velasco-Thornton.

Eleanor was John Walter’s secretary, and their love was to remain hidden for over a decade. But this passionate affair was immortalised in feminine form through sterling silver plate or 24-carat gold plate, or as this extraordinary example of Phantom design shows, in pure platimum, imported into Dubai from the oil rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Registration plates? Number Uno of course! Stand aside one and all, for royalty has rolled into town…