Created to satisfy overwhelming demand from a new breed of Rolls-Royce patrons, Dawn Black Badge stands as the most luxurious, social and sensual space from which to take in the night air. This most glamorous, uncompromising expression of open-top luxury is given a new and darker sensual dimension through its suite of Black Badge engineering and design treatments.
The Rolls-Royce Dawn Black Badge was presented in a deeply intense shade of black. Multiple layers of paint and lacquer have been fastidiously applied and hand-polished in a process that amounts to the most exhaustive painting and polishing process ever used for a solid paint colour. The result clothes Dawn’s sensuous lines in the deepest, darkest and most intense black to ever grace a production car surface. The roof, which opens in a ‘Silent Ballet’ to allow in the sounds of the night, is also only available in black canvas, whilst the rear deck is finished in black leather.
In creating Black Badge, Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke designers have sought to create true signifiers of this more assertive alter-ego for the marque. Dawn gets this same treatment.
The Spirit of Ecstasy – itself a mascot that has taken many different forms throughout the marque’s history – transforms into a high-gloss vamp, finished in a perfectly executed black chrome. This transformation to a darker aesthetic extends to certain chrome surfaces including the front grille surround, boot lid finisher, exhaust pipes and air inlet finisher. The effect is an authentic transformation that speaks of a bolder, more confident sensibility. Finally, the ‘Double R’ signifiers on the Rolls-Royce badges are inverted in colour, confirming the creation of a true alter-ego of the marque.
This bold, edgy design ethos extends beautifully into the interior – an exquisitely appointed staging point for patrons who seek to discover the night’s elements with the roof down.
Evoking Sir Henry Royce’s founding philosophy to ‘design what does not exist’ – a collaboration between the marque’s design and engineering departments has seen the creation of a new luxury material. Inspired by Rolls-Royce’s aviation heritage and echoing advanced production techniques for stealth aircraft, a beautiful and highly innovative new treatment for the car’s surfaces has been conceived.
Its construction displays every hallmark of Rolls-Royce’s fastidious attention to detail. Threads of aircraft grade aluminium, a delicate 0.014m in diameter, are woven together and then bonded in carbon fibre. Surfaces are then finished with six coats of lacquer before being left to cure for 72 hours and hand-polished to Rolls-Royce’s hallmark mirror finish. The result is a highly contemporary finish, perfectly attuned to the darker more menacing aesthetic today’s patrons of luxury demand.
This exquisite expression of noir informs every conceivable detail. For example, innovative production techniques such as Physical Vapour Deposition, a highly technical surfacing method, perfectly darkens the air-vents throughout the interior in a manner that will never discolour or tarnish.
Reflecting the marque’s Bespoke philosophy, Rolls-Royce Dawn Black Badge also plays host to a new interior palette break-up. Higher levels of exquisite Black leather are accented boldly with Mandarin highlights, including a strip of orange highlight which encircles the cabin at hip- , evocative of the sunset before the passengers are immersed in darkness.
A final touch, again, in a nod to one of Rolls-Royce’s great pioneer patrons, Sir Malcolm Campbell, finishes the rear interior space. His famous ‘Infinity’ rating logo beautifully embroidered into the car’s rear waterfall, gives a subtle nod to a man very much possessed of the restless spirit that so defines the Black Badge attitude.
