A LIMITED run of 12 special edition Rolls-Royce Wraiths has been announced to mark the end of production of V12 coupes as the luxury British brand embarks on a new electric era.

The Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow Collection has already been allocated to customers and the models pay tribute to the Thunderbolt world land speed record car of 1938.

Launched in 2013, the Wraith is one of the most important and influential Rolls-Royce models ever designed and built at the company's new home at Goodwood in Sussex.

The Wraith altered perceptions of Rolls-Royce and brought new, younger customer groups to the brand for the first time with the car being more performance-focused than its predecessors the Phantom and the Ghost.

With 624bhp coming from its 6.6-litre engine the Wraith has a 0 to 60mph acceleration time of 4.4 seconds, a top speed limited to 155mph, fuel economy of an average of 17.5 miles per gallon and a price starting from £282,000.

Rolls is not revealing the price of the Black Arrow models which are all finished in Gradient Paint, one of the most complex surface finishes the company has ever produced and which blurs a motion effect between silver and black.

The finish has been inspired by the crusted surface of the Bonneville Salt Flats where in 1938 Captain George Eyston set a world land speed record of 357.497 mph withthe Thunderbolt, a seven-tonne, eight-wheeled leviathan equipped with two Rolls-Royce V12 'R' Series aero engines.

Inspired by the analogue instruments of the 1930s, the facia clock bezel of the Black Arrow models references the raw, technical aesthetic ofThunderbolt'sinterior, enhanced by black hand-tips that mimic the originalcar's side-arrows.

The surround is inscribed with the legend ‘Bonneville' and Thunderbolt's everlasting record speed for a V12-engined car of 357.497 mph. A further ‘arrow' detail appears on the treadplates.

There's also at Starlight Headliner which incorporates, 2,117 fibre optic ‘stars' - the greatest number ever seen in a Rolls-Royce car. All individually arranged by hand, the ‘stars' depict the Milky Way as seen from vast open spaces, and the constellations precisely as they would have appeared over the Salt Flats in Utah on 16 September 1938, the date of Eyston's record.

An exclusive bespoke plaque is mounted on the engine cover to signify the cars as the last V12s ever to be fitted to a Rolls-Royce coupe. It is machined from a single piece of polished metal, and inscribed with the V12 monogram in bright yellow, and the legend ‘Final Coupe Collection' in black.