We’re entering the twilight of the Rolls-Royce Dawn, so before it goes off into the sunset the ultra-luxury brand is treating it to a special edition.
With a unique exterior appearance, this special edition could just be the silver bullet to get well-heeled buyers through Rolls-Royce’s doors.
In fact, it’s called the Rolls-Royce Dawn Silver Bullet and, as the name implies, it’s finished in silver paint.
Just one of the 50 Silver Bullets being produced will be sold in Australia and it’s at Rolls-Royce’s Brisbane dealership.
It’s priced at $893,000 before on-road costs; in contrast, the ‘regular’ Dawn costs $710,000 before on-roads, while the Black Badge is $802,000 list.
The finish is called Brewster Silver and, though it may look like a garden-variety silver in photos, up close it has a brilliant sparkle Rolls-Royce says resembles crushed diamonds.
The signature feature of the Silver Bullet, however, is the Aero Cowling, which sits over where rear-seat passengers would be in any other Dawn.
It’s inspired by roadsters of the 1920s – think Great Gatsby era luxury, like the Phantom 1-based Brewster Playboy Roadster.
The detachable cover sits over the rear seats and includes a leather-lined storage compartment in each cowl and a titanium Silver Bullet badge.
Weighing around 50kg and made of carbon fibre and aluminium and finished in leather, it isn’t motorised and requires two people to remove. The black soft-top slides over it.
High-gloss black trim is used on the grille, the strip on the bonnet, and around the tail lights, and also encircles the cabin.
The 21-inch, seven-spoke alloy wheels are also finished in high-gloss black with a translucent shadow finish, decorated with a single silver pinstripe.
The silver of the exterior contrasts with the warm Casden Tan interior, while the dashboard is adorned with open-pore technical fibre trim and the centre console is finished with quilted leather.
The Silver Bullet uses the standard Dawn’s twin-turbocharged 6.6-litre V12 engine, producing 420kW of power and 820Nm of torque, instead of the Black Badge’s 442kW/840Nm tune.
That’s still sufficient to haul this 2630kg convertible to 100km/h in just 5.1 seconds.
The Dawn and its Wraith coupe sibling are based on the first-generation Ghost, which has just been redesigned.
The Ghost has moved from the previous-generation BMW 7 Series platform to a new aluminium spaceframe chassis shared with the current Phantom and Cullinan.
