![]() It wasn’t until 2006 that the Antikythera mechanism captured broader attention. One investigator dubbed it “an ancient Greek computer.” But the X-ray images were difficult to interpret, so mainstream historians ignored the artifact even as it was championed by fringe writers such as Erich von Däniken, who claimed it came from an alien spaceship. Holding it in your hands, you could track the paths of the Sun, Moon and planets with impressive accuracy. X-ray imaging in the 1970s and 1990s revealed that the device must have replicated the motions of the heavens. Nothing as sophisticated, or even close, appears again for more than a thousand years.įor decades after divers retrieved these scraps from the Antikythera wreck from 1900 to 1901, scholars were unable to make sense of them. Nothing else like this has ever been discovered from antiquity. Crammed inside, obscured by corrosion, are traces of technology that appear utterly modern: gears with neat triangular teeth (just like the inside of a clock) and a ring divided into degrees (like the protractor you used in school). Get closer, though, and the sight is stunning. From a distance, they look like rocks with patches of mold. Driven alongside these two ancient Ghosts, my Grey Ghost seemed a fitting successor for our century.A fter 2,000 years under the sea, three flat, misshapen pieces of bronze at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens are all shades of green, from emerald to forest. These long-timers helped define Rolls-Royce, helped build its image as one of the world’s finest cars. Both cars are driven on a regular basis and the maroon car has completed “Wholly Ghost” rallies on several continents, logging ten thousand miles and more every year. My second day with the Grey Ghost I drove two hours south to San Diego’s Mission Bay for the Rolls-Royce Owners Club national meet, where I spent the morning in two 100-year-old Henry Royce masterpieces, a Silver Ghost straight-sided Barker open tourer and a Mayfair sedan with partition, both built in the 1920s in Rolls-Royce’s short-lived U.S. But put the hammer down, and Ghost becomes, truly, a bank robber’s car. On the highway, one thinks of a missile cruiser christened HMS Ghost, assuredly plying the open seas. On my mountain circuit the car began to shrink. becomes more aggressive, perfect for roasting gawkers at stoplights or attacking a demanding two-lane mountain road. Press the “LOW” button on the shift lever and calibration for engine, transmission and suspension. Every time I settled behind the chunky steering wheel, I reached to the cliff-like leading edge of the upper dash to run fingers over the threads. And to remind just how special the car is, the flawless hand assembly work-not a single stitch of Tailored Purple thread flubbed, crooked or loose anywhere in the car-is a perfect color-match for the leather and clock hands. (The other Ghost I sampled had my favorite Rolls interior color, Hotspur Red.) Even the dash clock’s hands were rendered in Tailored Purple one assumes the clock painter builds ships in a bottle as a relaxing hobby. My Grey Ghost’s black leather dash, door panels and seats were accented in a kinky shade, “Tailored Purple,” which would be ridiculous on a KIA or Camry, but in the gentleman’s study of the Ghost, flourishes of Tailored Purple work beautifully. Then a seamstress hand stitches, the hide spread across a table-sized platform. Every time you settle in and see that, it reminds of the quality, the rarity.Armed with a diamond-tip tool, the cutter stretches the hides over a broad surface with vacuum pinholes sucking the leather flat to ensure not a wrinkle or crease develops. Note the quality of stitchwork, and exact color match. My test car had black leather with “Tailored. Craftsmanship is a key differentiator in a Rolls.
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