Pebble Beach | United States
Each year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance offers an exceptional array of the old, the new and most importantly the unique. This year’s instalment was no different. During this time, the luxury motorcar giant Rolls-Royce hosted the Rolls-Royce Collectors Cocktail Reception where Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, handed over a stunningly contemporary Dawn Black Badge to Benjamin Treynor Sloss, the Vice President of Engineering at Google. Benjamin Sloss’ Rolls-Royce Dawn Black Badge has been created in collaboration with the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective in Goodwood, England in the Slosses’ personal livery. Ben Sloss commented:
“Our Rolls-Royce story began here at Pebble Beach in 2014 when we were looking for a two-door coupé with four useable seats for adults,” comments Ben Sloss. “Brands such as Aston Martin or Bentley do not offer anything suitable. When we saw the Rolls-Royce Wraith, we loved the style and elegance of the coupé, and when we took it for a test drive we were impressed (really, startled) by how well it accelerated and handled, in addition to the sublime ride quality and materials we already associated with the Rolls-Royce brand. The Wraith offered a unique combination of luxury car experience and sports car performance, and we fell in love with it on the spot.”
Benjamin Sloss’ Rolls-Royce Dawn Black Badge was created by working closely with the Bespoke Collective at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood through the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Los Gatos dealership. Sloss’ motor-racing pursuits ensured that he chose the more driver-focused Dawn Black Badge as the foundation for the vision of his dream car. The visual look of the car is a reinterpretation of the livery on the couple’s racing cars. “Our racing cars carry the colours of the flag of Modena in Northern Italy. I wanted to see what Rolls-Royce could do with those same colours,” comments Mr Sloss. “The first time I saw the livery the Rolls-Royce team had created for the Dawn, I burst out with ‘…that’s unreal – I love it!!’ It’s outrageous, it’s over the top… it’s perfect. I still grin every time I see it.”
The same color scheme is continued throughout the interior of Mr. Benjamin Sloss’ Rolls-Royce Dawn Black Badge, with the seats, dashboard, tonneau cover and rear seat waterfall clad in Navy Blue leathers, highlighted with Bright Yellow seat piping, stitched RR headrest logos and, unique to Black Badge models an infinity logo between the rear seats. The yellow theme continues in the cabin with a yellow flash along the door interiors, two-tone Navy Blue and Bright Yellow steering wheel and an exclusively developed Bright Yellow pinstripe applied to the Piano Milori Blue wood dashboard, the first use of Milori Blue outside the one-off customer Phantom, ‘Whispered Muse’, shown at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. Mr Sloss’ Dawn Black Badge is finished with a Navy Blue leather-clad Aero Cowling enclosing the rear seats.
