Rolls-Royce Wraith Kryptos Collection Version Unveiled with Puzzle Hidden Inside
- Buy a Rolls-Royce Wraith that's part of the limited Kryptos Collection, and you'll get your very own secret message search game, put there by the maker.
- Only the CEO and chief designer of Rolls-Royce know the answer to the "encrypted cipher" that becomes evident throughout various places in the coupe.
- The Kryptos is being made in a limited edition of 30 cars, priced well north of the $130,000 base price of the Wraith.
Affording a Rolls-Royce is hard enough, but now the British luxury maker has announced a new model that will require owners to expend considerable brainpower on solving it. The Wraith Kryptos Collection incorporates a series of secret encoded messages that, if correctly deduced, will lead to an answer we're promised is known only to the company's chief executive and the car's designer.
There are few truly novel ideas when it comes to car marketing, but this does seem to be one. We've seen hidden Easter-egg details in cars before now, but with the Wraith Kryptos Rolls-Royce seems to be attempting something closer to a Dan Brown novel, with "an encrypted cipher that evolves throughout the car for the clients' pleasure and amusement." One that could appeal strongly to those who have made their cash in the technology sector, or even more obviously through cryptocurrencies.
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The cipher is featured throughout the car, with Rolls-Royce having only given partial details of where owners will find it. The company says the puzzle begins with the Spirit of Ecstasy badge at the front of the car, this featuring a dot-and-dash code incorporated into its base. Other appearances of the cipher are on the external coach striping, headrests and the illuminated headliner that – rather than the Wraith's usual "starry night"—has been given a new pattern depicting "an in-motion data-stream-inspired motif."
ROLLS-ROYCE
Rolls-Royce clearly doesn't want to give too many clues at this stage—it clearly doesn't want anyone to solve the car using only the publicity shots—with those who actually buy one of the limited run of 50 coupes being invited to submit efforts at cracking the code through an owner-only app. The company says that the answer is in a sealed envelope in a safe in company CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös's office, but beyond the sense of achievement for getting there first there, doesn't seem to be any formal reward for solving it.
The idea came from Rolls-Royce designer Katrin Lehmann, who has turned a personal interest in hidden messages into the idea of an encrypted car. We don't have any word on pricing yet, but the Kryptos's Collection status suggests it will carry a chunky supplement over the approximately $330,000 starting price for the regular Wraith. Buyers determined to solve the mystery first should also factor in the cost of a team of cryptanalysts to help break it.
