No matter where you live you’ve probably heard rumours of cars having their hood ornaments ripped off and sold for dolla.
But chances are, you’ve never heard of a Rolls Royce having its hood ornament, obnoxiously named the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’, being torn off, and there’s a reason why.
When you talk about luxury cars, it's gotta be all about the Rolls, at least for a locomotive noob like myself. Rolls Royce cars are basically the physical embodiment of the term 'wealth', and the car just isn't complete without that badass hood ornament sitting pretty atop the hood.
It's called the Spirit of Ecstasy, and is in the form of a woman leaning forward with what I assume are wings. Basically, it's a fancy, expensive little thingy that almost solicits passing pranksters with a penchant for theft and cheap thrills.
Due to a massive rise in people stealing these winged lassies, Rolls Royce developed a nifty little retractable surface under the ornament so it gets sucked into the hood if anyone tries to tug it or put pressure on it, like so -
As you can see, whenever you try to tug at the ornament or apply any pressure whatsoever the car recognizes what is happening and immediately retracts the object into the hood.
Now although the salesman in the video doesn't put up much of a fight with the emblem, judging from the speed in which it's dragged into the hood, I personally wouldn't want to risk getting my fingers caught in it.
What a luxury defense system