There are two ways to put a custom, one-of-a-kind Rolls-Royce in your driveway. You can ask the company’s Bespoke division to build it for you, as the owner of the $13 million Sweptail did, or you can work with an array of aftermarket tuners. Professional skier Jon Olsson chose the second option to customize his luxurious Wraith coupe.
Olsson is known for building cars that look like nothing else on the road, and his Wraith — which is named George the Rolls — is no exception. It receives a white, gray, and black camouflage paint job that ensures he’ll never lose it in a parking lot, unless it’s covered by a foot of snow. The Rolls rolls on black 24-inch alloy wheels that add a sinister touch to the look. Extra bright fog lights in the grille and right above the windshield — a must in Sweden — light up the road in the winter.
The Wraith is equipped with a roof rack, an add-on that’s fairly easy to install on a standard car. However, as you can imagine, the folks at Rolls-Royce didn’t design the coupe with a roof rack in mind. The only thing the average Wraith buyers hauls around is a larger-than-normal wallet. Olsson wanted to build a practical car, so he had to get creative. Consequently, the roof rack is held on with magnets, which admittedly sounds sketchy at best and extremely dangerous at worst. It’s a system that apparently works, though, because the rack is still firmly attached to the roof after a long drive from Holland to Spain.
Skiing season isn’t for another few months, so the Wraith is currently carrying a jet-powered surfboard made entirely out of carbon fiber. Four cans of fuel are strapped down to the roof rack to provide fuel for the surfboard, or for the Wraith’s V12 if it runs out of gasoline.
Speaking of what’s under the hood, a Dutch engine tuner named Absolute Motors has massaged the 6.6-liter 12-cylinder to squeeze every last ounce of power out of it. Fitted with a pair of large turbochargers, the mighty V12 now makes 810 horsepower and 840 pound-feet of torque. In comparison, a stock Wraith posts figures of 624 hp and 590 lb-ft. It exhales through a custom exhaust system that makes it sound like a race car.
The Wraith joins Olsson’s collection of oddball exotics, which includes a 1,000-horsepower Audi RS 6 Avant and a Lamborghini Murcielago that took three years to build.
