Luxury-car manufacturer Rolls-Royce recently revealed its new limited-edition Waterspeed Phantom Drophead Coupé — a tribute to Sir Malcolm Campbell’s water-speed record attempts in his Bluebird K3.
His grandson, Donald Wales, said: “This very special motor car serves as a perfect homage to my grandfather’s remarkable acts of daring and endeavour.”
The new model is powered by the standard Rolls-Royce V12 6.75-litre engine, delivering 719Nm of torque while offering an acceleration of 0-62mph in 5.6sec and a top speed of 149mph. The company plans to make only 35 of the new coupés, costing £435,000 each.
After being shown to potential customers on the site of the original Bluebird motor company on London’s King’s Road (now the location of the Bluebird restaurant), the new vehicle will head to Lake Como for this autumn’s Concorso d’Eleganza competition for classic and vintage cars at Villa d’Este. It was on the adjacent Lake Maggiore on 1 September 1937 that Sir Malcolm set a record of 126.3mph in the Bluebird K3 powered by a Rolls-Royce engine.
The coupé will have a Maggiore Blue exterior finish and a Windchill Grey interior leather scheme; it will feature abachi wood, which the comp-any describes as “cool to the touch, with a satin-like tactility and ‘book-matched’ at an angle to echo the wake left by a boat moving at speed”.