New car launches are relentless in the motoring world. Better, faster, newer… Flagship luxury cars tend to have a slightly less hectic gestation period and a model can last a little longer. The Rolls-Royce Phantom is definitely at the luxury end of the market, if not at its apex. Roughly halfway through the life cycle of the current eighth-generation Phantom, released in 2017, we were promised a mid-term unveiling. Clearly, the model is due a bit of a facelift.

This time, however, Rolls-Royce has done something slightly different. It has thrown the covers off the latest Phantom… and ‘ta-da’, it has done precisely nothing to the look of the car. Well, almost nothing. It’s an interesting approach and not without merit and good sense. It’s as if it has taken a leaf out of the luxury watch playbook. After all, when Rolex unveils its latest Submariner or GMT model, the result will never induce gasps. A little tweak here and there, and the job’s a good’un for another decade. As they say, don’t fix what ain’t broke and don’t mess with a classic.

In uncertain times, there is comfort in familiarity, and you can see this philosophy taking hold in other areas of the motoring market. A strong trend is remaking classic cars such as Jaguar E-Types with modern parts. Buyers spend hundreds of thousands of pounds for Singer Vehicle Design to make a ’70s-era Porsche 911 drive, perform and be as reliable as a present-day car with its “Reimagined” series. It also feels right in a time of sustainability.

So instead of radically changing shape, Rolls-Royce has used the opportunity to showcase its bespoke division and the magic dust it can sprinkle on your bog-standard £360,000 base model Phantom. Do not step into the Rolls-Royce bespoke department if you are remotely indecisive, as it can do anything you want. And that makes for a lot of choices. How about woven silk instead of leather for your rear seats – fine…but did somebody just mention a fabric sourced from bamboo that also looks great? Should I take the dashboard clock in precious metal, or should I have it in 3D-printed ceramic? The Pantheon Grille is surely “as it comes” and untouchable? Well, not exactly, you can have that in chrome, black or black and chrome and would Sir or Madam like it illuminated?

To ease the pain, Rolls-Royce Bespoke has made some examples of what it can do to help guide potential buyers down a design route that best suits their personality and taste.

The Platino version – a play on Platinum and the silver-white finish of the metal – is a silky tone-on-tone version of a Phantom and its purpose is to showcase traditional and different materials that are an alternative to leather. A repeating pattern of the Spirit of Ecstasy is woven into the fabrics. Particularly pleasing are the new flat-fronted “disc” wheels, in polished stainless steel or black lacquer that echoes a Roaring Twenties Art Deco style and gives the already imposing Phantom a monolithic profile.

Rolls-Royce also displayed a “Great British Phantom” version to complement the Royal Jubilee celebrations. It is a play on the red, white and blue of the union flag with the body a predominantly Magma Red that you wouldn’t initially imagine for a Phantom, but somehow works well. A hand-painted abstract version of the British flag sits behind the Phantom’s art gallery on the dashboard.

Other examples produced for the launch have names such as Iconoclast, Extrovert, Founder, Connoisseur, Prodigy and Aristocrat. Iconoclast is all dark and brooding and is the nearest you will get to a Black Badge Phantom – Rolls-Royce says it will never besmirch the Phantom model with its upstart Black Badge treatment, which accounts for sales of almost half of its other models, Dawn, Wraith, Ghost and Cullinan. The Founder is designed for a young, confident entrepreneur and is all Farrow & Ball hues of grey that are very subtle and tasteful on the outside, with a streak of rebellious colour on the inside. The Connoisseur is for patrons to display their taste to the world – you get the drift. You may find yourself unable to decide whether you are either a Prodigy or an Extrovert, but the exercise is designed to illustrate which version of the Phantom may be closest to what you would create if you were let loose in the bespoke division with no budget to hold you back.

The bespoke designers travel the world in search of elusive new materials to further heighten the exclusivity of these cars (… at least, that’s what they tell their bosses who sign off their expenses). It’s all incredibly indulgent – in a good way – and the resulting car will undoubtedly be very satisfying to the new owner, given that it’s so personal. Some buyers have even added family portraits or handprints of their babies to the Phantom’s unique dashboard gallery. This could accompany a starlight headliner with a constellation that matches the stars as they were on the day of your birth.

It’s such a high level of customer service that, despite the obvious expense, the craftsmanship makes you appreciate the work that has gone into these unique vehicles, and they will live longer on the road than most run-of-the-mill cars, further enhancing their sustainability credentials. If one of these bespoke models ever comes up on Auto Trader in the future, you can rest assured that ‘one careful owner’ may just, for once, be true.

rolls-roycemotorcars.com