Can You Break the Code?
The Rolls-Royce Wraith Kryptos – a labyrinth of complex ciphers
What do Alan Turing, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll and Rolls-Royce have in common? They’re all creatives and masters of code. Drama and intrigue are synonymous with the Rolls-Royce Wraith Kryptos – its name originating from the Ancient Greek word for ‘hidden’.
Incorporating only the finest materials and contemporary applications, Rolls-Royce Collection Cars are executed with creative passion and technical precision. Design is naturally the starting point for these endeavours. For the Wraith Kryptos Collection, one designer’s passion for cryptography led to Wraith becoming a willing canvas for an intricate and clandestine design. The Collection, which consists of just 50 motor cars, incorporates a labyrinth of complex ciphers into its beguiling façade.
Encrypted Cipher
The Wraith Kryptos Collection carries within it an encrypted cipher that evolves throughout the car for the clients’ pleasure and amusement, leading them on a journey of discovery and intrigue. To the uninitiated, these ciphers appear, on the surface at least, to be an alluring design purely for aesthetic purposes and devoid of any discernible pattern. However, for those that look closer, those few who hold the key, they will embark on an experience that leads to an enlightening conclusion.
Code
Indeed, the code is so secret that only two people at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood know the full resolution of the sequence – the designer and the Chief Executive. The answer has been placed in a sealed envelope, in the safe of the Chief Executive Officer, at the Home of Rolls-Royce, in Goodwood, West Sussex. Clients will be invited to submit their efforts at cracking the code via the members only Rolls-Royce Application, Whispers.
The cryptographic journey begins with the Spirit of Ecstasy, which has graced the bonnet of the marque’s motor cars for over a century. An engraving with green enamel detailing introduces the Rolls-Royce cipher on the base of the enigmatic figurine.
The alluring colourway of the Collection hints at the car’s inner-most secrets. Delphic Grey, a bespoke exterior hue consisting of a solid Anthracite base colour has a hidden effect – only in sunlight do the blue and green mica flakes appear. This effect is accentuated by a hand-painted double coachline, the upper being painted in the newly developed Kryptos Green while the lower acts as a shadow in Dark Grey, both depicting clues relating to the interior code.
Inside, stepping over the illuminated treadplates, the cipher evolves deep into the fabric of the motor car. In perhaps the most apparent clue, elements of the cipher are embroidered into Wraith’s headrests, where the customary ‘double‑R’ emblem can so often be found. For the driver’s enjoyment, an intriguing screen print flows across the metal fascia, spanning the width of the interior.
Enrapturing Wraith’s occupants with light, Wraith Kryptos Collection features a beautifully elaborate, bi-coloured headliner depicting an in-motion data-stream inspired motif. Illuminated door pockets continue this theme with Rolls-Royce woven leather and Kryptos Green threads to reveal an unexpected and subtle illumination that fades towards the base of the pocket. The centre tunnel is exquisitely stitched, repeating the horizontal lines of the door pockets, also hinting towards the driver focused nature of this special motor car.
Decipher
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, commented, ‘The brilliant and creative minds of our Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective have excelled once again, creating an extraordinarily contemporary and compelling iteration of Wraith. The Wraith Kryptos Collection, on first glance, is a statement of dynamism. On closer examination, a series of messages are hidden behind a unique Rolls-Royce cipher. I look forward to seeing whether any of our clients will crack the code!’
Who will crack the code? And what answers will the code bring? Only time will tell. Or will it?
www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com
