Over in the enormous leather shop, almost a factory in itself, they can emboss, tattoo or hand embroider any design you want, from a bamboo leaf motif to a snake shedding its skin (both real examples).
The leather is hand selected exclusively from three year old Bavarian bulls grown at alpine altitudes, to minimise defects from insect bites. Cows are not used because they get pregnant and that causes stretch marks.
It takes eleven bulls to dress a single Phantom, “the point in the tour for prospective customers when wives get distressed,” I am told. The leather is dyed in drums in Germany so the colour goes all the way through the hide and can’t fade.
And if you want lime green that’s fine. I saw it with my own eyes, and someone did order it, once, hopefully never to be repeated.
If you think wood and leather are old hat you can select a multi-colour carbon fibre weave tricked out with piano finish non-wood veneers, neither of which I’d seen before.
You can also ask for hand-painted coach lines interrupted by logos or family crests or Sumatran tiger heads or sickle moons comprising Arabic text.
Perhaps the most outrageous option, but one that is hugely popular, is this thing called a celestial roof. It’s only six grand so why not? The roof headliner is taken out of the line and put on a jig.
It then takes a worker two whole days to thread and individually glue hundreds of fibre optic strands that can all be lit to recreate the night sky, even to the point where real star constellations are recreated.
I counted seven heavens under construction when I visited, and there simply wasn’t room for any more – about as graphic an illustration as you can conjure for the roaring state of the mega-luxury car segment, and Britain’s leading role in it.
Perhaps more than any other British brand, Rolls Royce, care of BMW stewardship, and because of its bespoke capabilities, has been brilliant at adapting to the demands of globalisation.
As Maybach disintegrated, Rolls Royce went up a gear.
It’s a feel good story even if the products remain out of reach for most of us.
I’m glad it exists, and for the sake of the Bavarian bulls, I’m glad that it will remain aspirational for most of us.
