Goodwood, Sussex - This extraordinary gallery of detailed images shows the first Rolls-Royce Bespoke creation to encompass the company's entire range.
The Suhail Collection is the first to be offered on Phantom, Ghost and Wraith models; it's named after one of the brightest constellations in the southern sky, and celebrates the work of 10th-century mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham, whose major work, the Book of Optics - written more than 1000 years ago - is said to have been inspired by its light.
Al-Haitham was the first scientist to show that light enters the eye rather than leaving it, as held by mathematicians Euclid and Ptolemy. His seven-volume treatise was the first to apply the scientific method to the study of light transmission, and he's regarded as the father of optics.
The Book of Optics was translated into Latin around the turn of the 13th century and profoundly influenced Western thinkers such as Bacon, Galileo, Da Vinci and Descartes. He's been called the first true scientist; certainly his rejection of dogma in favour of experimental proof was a turning point in the history of science.
SPARKLING COLOUR
The Suhail Collection cars sparkle in a special moonstone pearl colour that's intended to evoke the colour of the stars at night, with a distinctive Suhail star emblem on a deep sky-blue coachline.
The interior is finished in cream leather with blue trim elements to match the coachline, between a navy-blue instrument panel top and carpets, and there are Suhail star emblems worked into the marquetry on the ash burr fascia as well as embroidered in the seat trim.
A starlight headliner brings the night sky inside the Phantom and Wraith models and finally, a very special matching clock face depicts the constellations of Ursa Minor and Ursa Major.
These special-edition show cars, and others like them, serve to show Rolls-Royce customers just what the Bespoke division can do; according to them nearly every Phantom sold, nine out of 10 Wraiths and eight out of 10 Phantoms now leave the factory with at least some special trim elements, commissioned by the customer, that are not in the catalogue.