Rolls-Royce builds first two identical Phantoms, Iron Man 2 destroys them [w/video]

What is it with Iron Man movies and the wanton destruction of perfectly good, desirable automobiles? In the first flick, the crew purposely crashed a pair of Audi R8 coupes, and neither sequence actually made it into the final film. For their sophomore effort, the crew reportedly dissected a pair of Rolls-Royce Phantoms – supposedly the first two identical machines that the famous marque has built.

According to The New York Times, the two luxury cars were cut up and slapped back together with strategically placed pyrotechnics to give the illusion that they were being sheared apart in real time. At least this time, the trashed Rollers actually do make an appearance in the final cut, though how they got there is a story unto itself.

It seems that, instead of filming the scenes at the Monaco GP circuit as originally planned – though approved by the government of Monaco, F1's no-fun chief Bernie Ecclestone rather unsurprisingly nixed the idea – the actual filming was done in Southern California on a makeshift Monaco replica track at the location that the first Space Shuttle was built. The fake grandstands were filled with inflatable blow-up doll fans. Monaco backdrops were the added in post-production.

In addition to the Rolls-Royce jigsaw puzzles, there were eight cars supplied by the Historic Grand Prix Association along with two running race cars built specifically for the movie using molds of a 1978 F1 car, powered by 5.7-liter GM V8 crate engines. Seventeen more non-running prop cars were built. Our friend Tanner Foust was the stunt driver of the blue and white Stark Industries car. Finally, though the other F1 replica car says Elon Musk on its side, we don't think the Tesla exec was actually behind the wheel.

The result? Movie Magic... maybe – we haven't yet gone to the theater to see Iron Man 2, which opened up just today. We'll get back to you in a bit. In the meantime, perhaps you'll enjoy the movie trailer that we've pasted after the break. Oh, and you can see some Rolls-Royce splitting action right here.

[Source: The New York Times]

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