• Rolls-Royce presents Project Nightingale, the first Coachbuild Collection
• Name derived from Le Rossignol, the name of the designers’ and engineers’ house at Henry Royce’s French Riviera estate, which means ‘the nightingale’
• Draws inspiration from high-speed experimental ‘EX’ Rolls-Royces of the 1920s
• Constructed using the Rolls-Royce Architecture of Luxury aluminium spaceframe
• Sheer, monolithic aesthetic inspired by the discipline of Streamline Moderne design
• Project Nightingale is a production concept, global testing and validation programme commencing this summer
• Available by invitation only, offered to clients with a deep affinity for Rolls-Royce design
• Limited to 100 client motor cars worldwide, with deliveries beginning from 2028

“Some of the most discerning Rolls-Royce clients in the world asked us for our most ambitious work. We responded by bringing three things together that have never coexisted within our brand: the complete design freedom of coachbuilding, our powerful, near-silent all-electric powertrain, and a uniquely potent yet serene expression of open-top motoring – an experience that only this technology makes possible. Achieving this required the same audacious mindset that drove our co-founder, Sir Henry Royce, to create his radically different experimental ‘EX’ motor cars of the 1920s. Project Nightingale shares the spirit of those landmark projects and is the most extravagant expression of what Rolls-Royce is capable of today.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Project Nightingale is built on the design principles that define this marque at its most compelling – grand proportions, absolute surface discipline, and a clarity of line that rewards the closest attention. And yet, it takes them somewhere entirely new. For me, this landmark motor car feels both inevitable and completely unexpected, and it will shape everything that follows.”
Domagoj Dukec, Director of Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars presents Project Nightingale, a Coachbuild Collection. Named after Le Rossignol, French for ‘the nightingale’, and the name of the designers’ and engineers’ house near Henry Royce’s winter home on the Côte d’Azur, this extraordinary production concept is an open-top two-seat motor car that introduces a dramatic new expression of Rolls-Royce design.

Defined by grand proportions and underpinned with a fully electric drivetrain that delivers a uniquely silent open-top experience, Project Nightingale draws on the glamour and confidence of the 1920s and 1930s while remaining entirely of its time. Its creative vision is fully resolved – the small number of design details that remain demand entirely new manufacturing techniques that are currently under development. Only 100 examples will be created for sale, each coachbuilt by hand at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood.

Project Nightingale and the Coachbuild Collection programme have been crafted for aesthetes – individuals for whom beauty is both observed and lived. These clients are connected by a shared conviction in the primacy of Rolls-Royce design, the value of the most considered motor cars in the world, and a deep appreciation for experiences that only Rolls-Royce can offer. Clients are already participating in a multi-year programme of gatherings and moments curated by Rolls-Royce, immersing them in the creative and technical formation of their motor car, as well as private events in the world’s most desirable destinations.


STREAMLINERS, SPEED, AND THE DISCIPLINE OF SHEER, MONOLITHIC BEAUTY

Project Nightingale has been conceived for the uniquely design-literate clients at the heart of the Coachbuild Collection programme: people for whom a perfectly resolved surface is as compelling as the glamour of driving an open-top Rolls-Royce. The motor car’s aesthetic is inspired by the principles of Streamline Moderne design from the late Art Deco era, wherein precise lines and uninterrupted forms are more powerful than ornament. In that spirit, when conceiving Project Nightingale, Rolls-Royce creatives embraced sheer, monolithic volumes.

Another point of inspiration for Project Nightingale is Rolls-Royce’s experimental motor cars of the 1920s. Known as ‘EX’ models and fitted with red badges – which Project Nightingale is also equipped with – these are some of the rarest and most desirable motor cars in the marque’s history. Two of these prototypes were a particular focus: 16EX and 17EX.

These motor cars were created in 1928, at the height of the Jazz Age, just three years after the Art Deco movement was given its name. Henry Royce and his engineers cloaked two powerful Phantom chassis in lightweight aluminium bodies to achieve a new top speed for Rolls-Royce. 16EX and 17EX were designed to reach in excess of 90 miles per hour, and their torpedo-shaped form perfectly captured the audacity of Royce’s ambition: an imposing overall scale; a long bonnet; a shallow windscreen; and a snug, enveloping cabin with driver and companion set deep inside.

From these foundations, Coachbuild designers distilled three principles that directly inform Project Nightingale. ‘Upright to flowing’: the Pantheon Grille’s commanding vertical gesture transitioning into a long, graceful rear; ‘Central fuselage’, defined by a single unbroken hull line running from front to rear; and ‘Flying wings’: sculptural volumes that create tension across the overall form and pull the eye towards the rear. Project Nightingale channels these principles in a way that is both familiar to those fluent in the Rolls-Royce story, yet unapologetically contemporary and unlike anything before it.


FRONT ELEVATION

At 5.76 metres in length, Project Nightingale is almost exactly the same length as the marque’s flagship saloon, Phantom, yet devoted entirely to a two-seat convertible form. The drivetrain transforms the front elevation entirely: with no requirement for the large cooling intakes needed for an internal combustion engine, designers achieved unprecedented expanses of uninterrupted surfacing between the outermost edges of the wings and the Pantheon Grille.

The grille itself is a bold interpretation of one of the most recognisable icons in luxury. Its generous surround – almost a metre in width – appears to be carved from a solid block of stainless steel, with 24 vanes set deeply within it. The Spirit of Ecstasy figurine is integrated on top of the grille in a subtly recessed section, its lines flowing backwards and dissolving into the bonnet, as though the figurine is moving at speed through water, and the metalwork is parting gently around her.

Beneath the grille, a structured section widens at 45 degrees from each lower corner before dropping down vertically, from which a carbon fibre apron projects forward, traced by an elegant chrome belt. This creates the effect that the grille is presented on a structural plinth, recalling the great Art Deco skyscrapers whose uppermost decorative floors are supported by solid geometric forms beneath them.

At the outermost edge of the wing is Project Nightingale’s most progressive statement: slender, vertically orientated headlamp assemblies. This treatment is emphasised with polished stainless-steel bands that run the full length of the motor car from the bottom of the headlamps all the way to the tail lamps.


TORPEDO ‘CENTRAL FUSELAGE’ IN PROFILE

In profile, the full impact of Project Nightingale’s driver-oriented, torpedo-shaped design is revealed. An expansive bonnet gives way to the dramatically raked windscreen, framed on each side by a stainless-steel form housing a delicate quarterlight window, inspired by the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé. Behind it is a compact cabin for two, set deep within the body, before the rear deck falls and tapers towards a dramatically low trailing edge. This is a motor car that is almost entirely bonnet and tail, its two-seat cabin an intimate counterpoint to the grandeur of the volumes surrounding it.

A single hull line runs continuously along Project Nightingale from front to rear, inspired by the line that separates a yacht’s hull from its superstructure. It begins at sculpted ‘Pinnacles’ on the front wings – a subtle reference to heritage Rolls-Royce designs – before flowing uninterrupted to the trailing edge. Set intentionally high, it creates the sensation of being enveloped deep inside the motor car. An upswept volume behind the headrests rises like a turned collar, cosseting driver and companion against the elements, integrating the height of the headrests into the sculpture of the motor car itself.

Beneath, a progressive negative sculpture in the lower bodyside deepens the impression of a central fuselage, balanced by a solid carbon fibre sill that makes an understated historical reference to the running boards of prominent heritage Rolls-Royce motor cars.

To add restrained decoration to the rear of the motor car, a second lower polished stainless-steel band is introduced just behind the centre of the rear wheels, its position and proportion recalling the gentle white water of a sailing yacht’s wake.

Significant development has been focused on the surfacing, ensuring that Project Nightingale appears to have been carved from a single, solid billet. To minimise visual noise, engineers developed a handle for the coach doors that incorporates a hidden lock mechanism and a discreetly integrated indicator lamp. The Rolls-Royce ‘Badge of Honour’ is also distilled into an elegant stainless-steel ‘Double R’ monogram, placed sparingly on each front wing and in the centre of the luggage compartment.

Against this serenity, 24-inch wheels – the largest fitted to a Rolls-Royce – strike a considered contrast. Their directional design is inspired by the propellers of a yacht viewed from beneath the waterline: forms that appear to be in continuous motion even when the motor car is stationary. The surface also includes subtle, machined stripes, creating the impression of wire wheel spokes moving at speed, while aluminium flakes within the black finish introduce a delicate sparkle as the wheel turns.


A TAIL OF CONSEQUENCE

Towards the rear, the surfacing swells around the rear wheel arches, creating an impression of planted, muscular strength that balances the overall design’s grace. The deck above is purposefully horizontal, broken by two rear lamps of exceptional precision: these slim clusters fall from the upper surface to the lower at an almost perfect right angle. This striking treatment is further dramatised by the Piano Boot, which opens sideways on a cantilever, both recalling the ceremony of a grand piano and transforming a functional moment into a considered act of arrival.

A single longitudinal brake lamp is placed directly at the centreline on the rear of Project Nightingale, recalling the speed stripes of great Streamline Moderne design. Directly below, a recessed chrome number plate surround is set into the lower rear face with the precision of a watch bezel: a small detail that rewards the closest attention.

Beneath, the same precision extends to the engineering. The bold lower transom diffuser, known as the Aero Afterdeck, is enabled thanks to the use of a fully electric drivetrain, which eliminates exhaust pipework. This single carbon fibre piece ensures stability at high speed without the addition of a spoiler, preserving the uninterrupted flow of Project Nightingale’s elegant silhouette.


OPEN-AIR SERENITY, CLOSED-ROOF DRAMA

Project Nightingale becomes an exercise in serene, open-air travel with the roof lowered. With it raised, the character transforms entirely, creating a commanding, coupé-like presence.

Within the roof itself, a unique sound-deadening material combines cashmere, fabric and high-performance composites. Paired with Rolls-Royce’s fully electric drivetrain, which generates virtually no mechanical noise, the marque’s acoustic engineers aim to achieve an exceptionally serene experience whether the soft top roof is raised or lowered, while still preserving the sounds that enhance the romance of driving – such as raindrops on canvas.

The near-silent sensation of driving even early Project Nightingale prototypes with the roof lowered is described by Rolls-Royce designers and engineers as akin to travelling by sailing yacht. The fully electric drivetrain generates virtually no mechanical noise, and wind noise is all but eliminated: what remains is the world itself – the sound of ocean waves breaking on the shore, the movement of air through trees, the particular silence of open countryside at speed, the chorus of birdsong.


THE INTERIOR SUITE: A WORLD FOR TWO

It was this extraordinary serenity that inspired the centrepiece of Project Nightingale’s interior. During an early prototype drive, Rolls-Royce designers were able to hear birdsong with unusual clarity. Intrigued by this experience – and in tribute to the motor car’s name – they began studying recordings of nightingales and analysing the distinctive sound-wave patterns created by their song. From these studies emerged an idea: to translate the rhythm of birdsong into a visual form that could envelop those within the motor car.

The result is the Starlight Breeze suite – a flowing constellation of ambient illumination comprising 10,500 individual ‘stars’ in three subtly varied sizes. Named after the gentle movement of air suggested by the nightingale’s song, the pattern of light draws directly from the soundwave forms studied by the designers. Extending from the front of each door around the driver and companion’s seat, the illumination wraps those within in their own celestial field, transforming melody into light.

The Starlight Breeze illumination is carried within a sculptural interior form called the ‘Horseshoe’, which rises behind the seats and frames the occupants in a protective architectural gesture.

The leather of the door card is overlaid as a raised section recalling a finely crafted saddle. This motif continues through the centre console in a leather-covered saddle armrest – split into two delicate pieces – which aligns precisely with the Coachline that runs the length of the bonnet, through the cabin to the rear central brake light.

On opening the coach door, the armrest glides rearwards automatically to reveal the Spirit of Ecstasy rotary controller. It is operated with an exceptionally tactile stainless-steel collar formed with four grooves reminiscent of contemporary haute joaillerie. Within each groove, the metal is facetedand then glass-blasted, delicately subduing the controller’s high polish. This jewelled treatment extends throughout the interior to the gear selector and remaining rotary controls, which are sparingly curated to just five in total.

At the touch of a button, the armrest moves further to reveal a concealed compartment for personal items. Polished individual aluminium cupholders – machined from billet – add a further jewel-like accent, and a hidden shelf behind the seats incorporates space for hand luggage: a considered and practical gesture for a motor car conceived for long, unhurried journeys.


BESPOKE EXPRESSIONS OF PROJECT NIGHTINGALE

For Project Nightingale, Rolls-Royce is developing an entirely new colour and material palette and set of Bespoke features, designed and reserved exclusively for this specific Coachbuild Collection. These will not be available on any other Rolls-Royce motor car. Each of the 100 examples will be meticulously curated with its commissioning client to reflect their personal taste, character and vision.


THE ‘EX’ MOTOR CAR PRESENTED TODAY

The motor car presented today reflects the creative spirit that shaped Project Nightingale’s design story. The exterior paint finish draws inspiration from the experimental Rolls-Royce 17EX of 1928, though it is interpreted rather than replicated. The pale, solid blue hue – named Côte d’Azur Blue – is infused with subtle red flakes that reveal themselves in changing light, a discreet reference to the red badges fitted to the ‘EX’ motor cars in period, and used today to denote Project Nightingale’s status as a production concept. The exterior is completed with a silver-coloured convertible soft top roof.

The interior hues evoke the atmosphere of the Côte d’Azur. The seats are finished in soft pastel Charles Blue, paired with a warm Grace White tone, creating an environment of gentle, sunlit calm. Deep Navy seat inserts introduce contrast and depth, while delicate flashes of Peony Pink appear within the fascia surround and headrests, inspired by the wild blooms of the Riviera. The palette is resolved with Openpore Blackwood laid in a ‘V’ shape that opens upwards, encouraging the eye to the sky above.


ENGINEERED ELEGANCE

Project Nightingale is powered by the marque’s fully electric drivetrain. For a Coachbuild Collection conceived for the most discerning and design-literate clients in the world, the qualities of electric power are deeply considered. The silent and effortless delivery of power amplifies every characteristic that has defined the Rolls-Royce experience for more than a century, and the nature of this powertrain unlocks completely new design possibilities. Further engineering details will be shared as the motor car progresses through its global testing and development programme.


HENRY ROYCE’S LEGACY, PROJECT NIGHTINGALE’S PROMISE

Project Nightingale marks the beginning of the Coachbuild Collection story. The individuals who inspired it represent a growing community of passionate clients who seek Rolls-Royce design at its most ambitious and uncompromising. In drawing on the experimental spirit of Henry Royce and the glamour of the Art Deco era, it is a motor car that looks to the past with the confidence of a marque that has always known its future. As Project Nightingale progresses through its global testing and development programme, Rolls-Royce will share further details of the motor car, its engineering and the extraordinary experiences that await its 100 clients.

Entry to the Coachbuild Collection programme is by invitation only and client deliveries will commence from 2028.

• Rolls-Royce introduces the Coachbuild Collection: a new proposition in super-luxury
• Unites a coachbuilt motor car with a multi-year journey of unforgettable experiences
• A Coachbuild Collection is a limited number production motor car, conceived and authored by Rolls-Royce, never to be repeated
• Entry by invitation only via the marque’s global Private Office network, offered to clients with a deep affinity for Rolls-Royce design
• Offers extraordinary access to the motor car’s creative and engineering development
• Private events hosted for clients in the world’s most desirable destinations

“I have had the privilege of meeting clients around the world who seek the very pinnacle in luxury and share an extraordinary passion for Rolls-Royce design. It became clear that they wished to see not only what Rolls-Royce would create if left entirely to its own imagination and with the freedom offered by coachbuilding, but they also wanted to witness that journey at every stage. Coachbuild Collection is the result. This is something the super-luxury world has never seen before. The experience of this programme is inseparable from the motor car itself, and both will be brought to life with the care and ambition worthy of the collectors who inspired them – and of Rolls-Royce itself.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

In response to global client demand, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announces the Coachbuild Collection: an entirely new proposition in super-luxury, in which a true coachbuilt motor car and an extraordinary multi-year programme of experiences are conceived as one. Each Coachbuild Collection is rare and extravagant, authored entirely by Rolls-Royce and created on a completely new canvas, never to be repeated. Clients with a special affinity for the marque are invited to participate in the programme through the global Rolls-Royce Private Office network.


AN UNPRECEDENTED COACHBUILDING LEGACY

Coachbuilding has been central to Rolls-Royce since the marque was founded. In the earliest years, a rolling chassis was delivered to specialist coachbuilders, who would design and construct a body of almost any form to the client’s precise requirements – similar to commissioning a suit on Savile Row or a dress from a Paris couturier. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce introduced one critical constraint: fixed proportions around the radiator ensured every motor car remained unmistakably a Rolls-Royce. That discipline endures today, enabling creative freedom while preserving an identity more than 120 years in the making.

THE WORLD'S MOST DESIGN-LITERATE COLLECTORS

The announcement of landmark coachbuilt motor cars in the Goodwood era – Sweptail in 2017, Boat Tail in 2021, Droptail in 2023 – deepened the affinity that the world’s most influential collectors had long held for Rolls-Royce design. For a significant and growing number among them, admiration evolved into something more.

What distinguished this group was the nature of their ambition. They were not seeking to direct the design process themselves. Instead, they were fascinated by the idea of entrusting Rolls-Royce to create something entirely of its own – to see what would emerge when the marque expressed its design principles with the total freedom of coachbuilding. This dialogue, sustained over years and geographies, became the foundation of the Coachbuild Collection.


THE COACHBUILD COLLECTION PROGRAMME

A Coachbuild Collection begins with a true coachbuilt motor car: a wholly unique body style formed, built and handcrafted by Rolls-Royce’s Coachbuild department. These motor cars will be fully homologated, road-legal, and created to be driven. Each Coachbuild Collection will be strictly limited in number and will never be repeated. Those clients known to have a special affinity for the Rolls-Royce brand, and who the marque believes would be fascinated to be part of such a remarkable project, are invited to participate in the programme through the marque’s global Private Office network: unique, creative and social spaces, located in Dubai, Seoul, Shanghai, New York, and at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood.

Rolls-Royce recognised that the collectors drawn to this proposition are equally collectors of singular experiences, and conceived a programme of equal ambition to reflect this. For the first Coachbuild Collection, clients will be granted exclusive access to closed testing facilities, witnessing the motor car’s development across performance and climate extremes. They will travel to locations chosen for their deep connection to this motor car’s story. They will be granted rare access to the innermost design studios within Rolls-Royce. They will be welcomed into the ateliers of master craftspeople from adjacent worlds within super-luxury, whose dedication to perfection mirrors that of Rolls-Royce itself. Clients will also gather in the world’s most desirable destinations for remarkable, curated private events at which the designers behind each Coachbuild Collection will share the inspirations and convictions that shaped it.


THE FIRST COACHBUILD COLLECTION

The design and engineering treatment of a Rolls-Royce Coachbuild Collection – as well as the number of motor cars produced, the features within them, and the experiences that participation unlocks – is not fixed and will be curated to serve the singular vision of each Collection.

The first Rolls-Royce Coachbuild Collection will be a fully electric motor car, reflecting the passion that so many clients have for a fully electric Rolls-Royce. Many of the collectors who inspired the Coachbuild Collections programme are existing Spectre owners who celebrate how its electric powertrain elevates the Rolls-Royce experience. For these individuals, the question of how the first Coachbuild Collection should be powered had only one answer. That so many of the world’s most exacting collectors responded this way is the most authentic measure of what Rolls-Royce has achieved with electrification.

The inaugural Coachbuild Collection represents a deeply considered first statement – one shaped as much by the convictions of its collectors as by the marque itself. Further details will be announced in April 2026.

• An overview of coachbuilding at Rolls-Royce from the 1900s to the present day
• Virtually all Rolls-Royce motor cars were coachbuilt until the 1950s
• Tradition all but died out with the introduction of monocoque construction
• Contemporary renaissance sparked by Rolls-Royce in 2017 with Sweptail
• New standards of innovation, excellence and ambition set by Boat Tail and Droptail
• An established part of the marque’s offer, with the new extension at the Home of Rolls-Royce adding further capacity and capability

INTRODUCTION

This Press Kit provides an overview of the history of coachbuilding at Rolls-Royce, the marque’s contemporary capabilities and notable examples of Coachbuild motor cars past and present. For more detailed information about Sweptail, Boat Tail and Droptail and the materials and techniques used in their manufacture, please refer to the specific product Press Releases.

Coachbuilding is the art and science of creating bespoke bodywork on a pre-assembled chassis, a craft that predates the motor car itself. At one time all but extinguished by mass production, coachbuilding today lives on at the Home of Rolls-Royce, drawing on more than a century of experience and the marque’s unique Bespoke capabilities.

Today, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild allows a small, select group of clients to collaborate fully with the Rolls-Royce team in creating a genuinely unique, utterly personal motor car unlike any other. Coachbuild enables them to specify their motor car’s actual physical form, with body panels hand-sculpted by specialist craftspeople at the Home of Rolls-Royce. Coachbuild also opens up new possibilities in materials, methods, engineering and technology, free of the restrictions of conventional series production.

Every Coachbuild project is a true one-off, undertaken on the strict understanding that it will never be replicated. These creations are far more than motor cars; they are authentic works of automotive art that represent a highly expressive and enduring legacy for their owners.


THE GENESIS OF COACHBUILDING

Rolls-Royce was founded in an era when car manufacturers generally produced ‘rolling chassis’, which were sent to specialist coachbuilders to be fitted with bodywork to the client’s specification. Some of these coachbuilders had simply switched from making horse-drawn vehicles; others had begun capitalising on the new opportunities the motor car presented.

These pre-Edwardian car bodies were built in much the same way as their horse-drawn predecessors. It quickly became apparent that, when applied to motor cars, their traditional materials and methods were unequal to the speeds of 30 to 40 miles per hour they were now being subjected to. The art of coachbuilding would have to adapt to the new reality.


COACHBUILDING AND ROLLS-ROYCE: A BRIEF HISTORY

As the 1920s dawned, mass-market car makers increasingly brought body construction in-house, where engineers could address emerging issues such as vibration and torsional stress. Luxury marques like Rolls-Royce, however, continued to outsource coachwork to specialist houses for several more decades.

Until the 1930s, most coachbuilders remained true to long-established practice, which involved assembling a wooden frame, usually in ash, onto which aluminium or steel body panels were typically nailed, tacked or screwed. As materials improved and motor cars’ speeds increased, frames were increasingly made from metal tubing or angle-iron.

This traditional craft was eventually replaced by semi-monocoque construction, with subframes for the mechanical components. In the case of Rolls-Royce, this occurred in October 1965 with the introduction of Silver Shadow. Contrary to popular belief, this did not mark the end of coachbuilding at Rolls-Royce. The Phantom VI, built on a separate chassis, remained in production, albeit in small numbers, until 1993, with coachwork supplied by Rolls-Royce subsidiary H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward Ltd.


SOVEREIGNTY OF DESIGN

Although a coachbuilt Rolls-Royce could, in theory, be any shape the client desired, in practice, there were constraints. Rolls-Royce motor cars were designed on proven technical principles that were, to Henry Royce at least, unarguable and inviolable. By insisting on fixed dimensions for the bulkhead behind the radiator, he was able to ensure the bodywork maintained the essential proportions that visually identified it as a ‘true’ Rolls-Royce.

Those proportions remain essential to the marque’s design language. Every Rolls-Royce motor car maintains the 2:1 ratio of body height to wheel diameter first established with the Silver Ghost in 1907. The body shape is defined by three fluid lines running the length of the motor car: the ‘waft line’ that gives the car its sense of movement; the ‘waist line’ that lends it purpose and presence; and the silhouette, which expresses its individual character. It is also graced with the Pantheon grille, crowned with the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine.

Coachbuild clients and designers enjoy considerable creative freedom within these fundamental parameters.


GREAT COACHBUILT ROLLS-ROYCE MOTOR CARS OF THE PAST

40/50HP Phantom I Brougham De Ville (1926)

The great coachbuilders paid as much attention to the interior as the exterior of the cars they created. Among the key elements were the instrument dials, which frequently transcended merely displaying essential information to become miniature works of art in their own right.

In 1926, the 40/50HP Phantom I Brougham De Ville, known as ‘The Phantom of Love’ was built by Charles Clark & Son Ltd of Wolverhampton for Clarence Warren Gasque, an American businessman of French ancestry living in London, as a gift for his heiress wife, Maude. Gasque commissioned an interior to recreate the Rococo ambience of a salon in the Palace of Versailles, with polished satinwood veneer panelling, Aubusson tapestries and a painted ceiling inspired by a sedan chair owned by Marie Antoinette. It also included a remarkable French ormolu clock, mounted on the partition between the front and rear cabins – an extraordinary detail that represents the pinnacle of the instrument maker’s art.

17EX (1928)

By 1925, Henry Royce was concerned that the weight and size of some of the coachwork fitted to Rolls-Royce chassis was affecting the motor cars’ performance – a fact its competitors gleefully seized upon. In response, Henry Royce built an experimental Phantom with an open, lightweight, highly streamlined body. Dubbed 10EX, this was the foundation for a series of motor cars that provided crucial new insights into overcoming air resistance and represented a giant leap forward in automotive design.

The fifth in the series, 17EX, was completed in January 1928. It was capable of speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour and, because Royce was adamant that even his experimental motor cars should look as good as any that bore his name, was finished in blue to the marque’s exacting standards.

The colour blue has long been associated with dependability, stability and calm; it is also highly visible at speed, as demonstrated by the record-breaking cars and boats of Royce’s good friend, Sir Malcolm Campbell.

Phantom II Continental Drophead Coupé (1934)

Co-creation has always been at the heart of coachbuilding. Having commissioned a design for their perfect motor car, the customer worked with the designers and manufacturing specialists to produce a final design that was technically achievable. The coachwork would then be completed to the customer’s satisfaction.

This 1934 Phantom II Continental Drophead Coupé, designed by A. F. McNeil and built in London by Gurney Nutting & Co., is considered one of the most exotic and beautifully balanced examples of boat tail coachwork ever created. The sweeping concave curves at the rear rise upwards to the razor-edged varnished rear deck. A design that has stood the test of time well, it remains a fine example of sporting elegance.

As a historical aside, McNeil’s protégé and successor, John Blatchley, was responsible for two of the most successful Rolls-Royce models of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the Silver Cloud and Silver Shadow.

Phantom VI limousine (1972)

The Phantom VI was the last Rolls-Royce model to be constructed with a separate chassis, and was thus the swansong of the coachbuilder’s art. This example was designed and built by H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward Ltd, then a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce. Much like a Goodwood era Private commission, it was based on the production model, but included numerous additional features specified by the customer. Indeed, so lavish and comprehensive were the enhancements that the marque produced a special promotional brochure for prospective patrons based on this motor car, highlighting the scope of its bespoke capabilities.

In addition to flower vases, a state-of-the-art sound and television system and a refrigerator for cooling wines and picnic food, the car was equipped with burled walnut picnic tables. Stored in the luggage compartment, these could be fixed to the front wings for alfresco dining; driver and passenger perched on a pair of ‘toadstool’ seats clipped to the front overriders.


CONTEMPORARY COACHBUILDING AT THE HOME OF ROLLS-ROYCE

Bespoke has been central to the marque’s offering and experience since production began at Goodwood in 2003. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars constantly seeks to create personal and deeply meaningful luxury products that reflect its clients’ ambitions and personal codes of luxury. Rolls-Royce’s unparalleled Bespoke capabilities enable clients to bring these desires to life through the commission of beautiful, handcrafted and truly individual Rolls-Royce motor cars.

A small group of exceptional individuals wished to elevate this remarkable, deeply personal experience even further and move beyond the canvas of existing Rolls-Royce products. Recognising this demand, and drawing on more than a century of experience, as well as its unique Bespoke capabilities developed in the modern era, the marque has defined a new coachbuilding movement.

The renaissance of contemporary coachbuilding began in 2017 with ‘Sweptail’, a bold two-door coupé created in response to a client’s wish to reprise the art of coachbuilding in partnership with Rolls-Royce. With its sharply tapered outline and full-length glass roof, it can be characterised as the Extrovert. It was followed by the unveiling of Boat Tail in 2021, a highly social open-top that amplified its clients’ love of hosting – a motor car that unashamedly represents the Hedonist.

Droptail, introduced in 2023, marked the third chapter in this remarkable story. For Droptail, the focus was placed on creating an intimate and cosseting interior, which would also serve as an unprecedented canvas for highly bespoke wood craft. Droptail captures the charm and embrace of two-seat motoring – it truly is the Romantic.


GOODWOOD-ERA COACHBUILT MOTOR CARS

Sweptail (2017)

In 2013, Rolls-Royce was commissioned to create a coachbuilt two-seater coupé featuring a large panoramic glass roof, inspired by the beautiful coachbuilt motor cars from the marque’s golden era in the 1920s and 1930s.

The first fully coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern Goodwood era, Sweptail’s defining feature is its raked rear profile, with the roof-line tapering in a sweeping gesture to a ‘bullet-tip’ that houses the centre brake light. The coachbuilt bodywork wraps under the motor car with no visible boundary to the surfaces, like the hull of a racing yacht. The underside of the motor car describes a progressive upward arc at the rear departure angle, producing the swept tail that gives the car its name.

With its clean lines and grandeur, and contemporary, minimalist handcrafted interior, Sweptail caused an international sensation when it was revealed in 2017. Four years in the making, it is now regarded as a true modern classic and the world’s greatest two-seater intercontinental tourer.

Boat Tail (2021-2022)

During the 20th century, a number of Rolls-Royce motor cars were built with a beautiful and distinctive body shape known as the Boat Tail. The nautical design was inspired by the great J-Class racing yachts that contested the sport’s ultimate prize, the America’s Cup, in the 1930s. In 2021, Rolls-Royce revived the Boat Tail design with the second fully coachbuilt commission of the modern Goodwood era. Boat Tail is entirely hand-built, with the body panels fashioned from single sheets of aluminium.

Three Boat Tails were completed, each unique to its commissioning client. The first two were unveiled at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in 2021 and 2022. At the request of its owner, the third was never exhibited in public, and no official images have ever been released.

Boat Tail (First Chapter) (2021) The first Boat Tail was commissioned by longstanding Rolls-Royce clients, and drew inspiration from a 1932 Rolls-Royce Boat Tail they had lovingly restored as part of their extensive private collection. The motor car is finished in a rich, complex blue embedded with metallic and crystal flakes. The rear deck is swathed in Caleidolegno veneer normally reserved for interior surfaces and specially adapted for exterior use, inlaid with brushed stainless steel pinstripes. At the press of a button, the deck opens in a sweeping butterfly motion to reveal an intricate Hosting Suite, complete with cocktail tables, interlocking stools made by Italian furniture house Promemoria, and even a parasol to shelter from the sun. A unique double refrigerator houses the clients’ preferred vintages of Armand de Brignac champagne.

The interior is finished in leather in two shades of blue with a soft metallic sheen applied to the surface. The centrepiece of the fascia is a pair of unique BOVET 1822 reversible timepieces commissioned by the client; a hand-crafted aluminium and leather case in the glove compartment contains a cherished Montblanc pen. The instrument panel dials are finished with guilloché, an intricate decorative technique more commonly seen in fine jewellery and watchmaking.

Boat Tail (Second Chapter) (2022)

The second Boat Tail to be completed was commissioned by a client whose family business grew from his father’s origins in the pearling industry. At the start of the commissioning process, the client presented Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers with four pearl shells: these inspired the exterior colour, which was then one of the most complex Bespoke finishes ever created by Rolls-Royce. A shimmering blend of oyster and soft rose with large white and bronze mica flakes adding a pearlescent quality, it changes subtly under different light conditions. The contrasting cognac-coloured bonnet contains fine bronze and gold-coloured aluminium mica flakes under a crystal and iced matt clear coat.

The rear deck, which houses Boat Tail’s unique ‘butterfly-design’ hosting suite, is made from Royal Walnut veneer, inlaid with rose gold-plated pinstripes. The interior is finished in cognac and oyster-coloured leathers and Royal Walnut veneer, with rose gold and mother-of-pearl accents throughout.

The centrepiece of the dashboard is a timepiece made from mother-of-pearl; the same material appears on the control switches and instrument dials.

Droptail (2023-2024)

Droptail represents a renaissance of the roadster body type, which breaks free from the four-seat convention previously associated with Rolls-Royce. In capturing this spirit, designers studied the 1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost ‘Sluggard’, the 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom Brewster New York Roadster and the 1925 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Piccadilly.

Droptail has two very distinct characters: a lithe, open-top roadster; and with the carbon-fibre roof installed, a dramatic coupé. Since each client wished to use their motor car around the world in multiple climates, the roof incorporates electrochromic glass that adjusts the amount of light entering the interior. In a technique reserved exclusively for Droptail, the body is a rigid monocoque in which steel is used for the load-bearing front wing and door sections, and carbon fibre from the B-pillar rearwards: the rear quarter panels are the largest carbon fibre panels ever created for a Rolls-Royce motor car.

La Rose Noire Droptail (2023)

The first to be unveiled was La Rose Noire Droptail, inspired by the Black Baccara rose, an intense, velvet-like flower that originates in France. The exterior is finished in the lustrous and complex True Love red, a completely new paint process perfected over 150 iterations; like the Black Baccara rose, it appears to change colour depending on the viewpoint.

The interior features the most complex parquetry ever created at Rolls-Royce, with an abstract depiction of falling rose petals formed using 1,603 Black Sycamore veneer triangles, each cut, sanded and precisely positioned by hand.

The fascia incorporates an integrated one-off timepiece by Audemars Piguet, specially commissioned by the client. The 43mm Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date is removable, so it can be attached to a strap and worn. The motor car also includes a unique Champagne Chest finished in rose-petal parquetry.

Amethyst Droptail (2023)

Inspired by the eponymous gem – the birthstone of the commissioning clients’ son –Amethyst Droptail is finished in a soft purple main body colour with a delicate silver undertone. Named Globe Amaranth in tribute to a flower native to the clients’ home region, fine flecks of powdered aluminium reflect the light, creating a subtle iridescent effect. The deep purple Amethyst contrast paint on the upper coachwork contains red, blue and violet mica flakes to give a subtle metallic sheen. Inside, the primary Amethyst leather is finished with a subtle pearlescent lacquer.

Amethyst Droptail features the most extensive wooden surface area in Rolls-Royce history, extending from the fascia and doors to the shawl panel, cantilevered ‘plinth’ centre armrest and onto the rear deck. The deck was made using a new veneering process developed specifically for this project: the protective coatings, also unique to Amethyst Droptail, have been granted their own patent.

The fascia is graced with a unique timepiece commissioned by the client from the renowned Swiss haute horlogerie maison, Vacheron Constantin. Handmade in Geneva, the timepiece, named ‘Les Cabinotiers Armillary Tourbillon’, has an intricate hand-wound movement and is securely housed in a specially designed holder, enabling it to be removed and stored separately from the motor car if desired.

Arcadia Droptail (2024)

This commission takes its name from the mythical realm of Arcadia, depicted in Ancient Greek mythology as ‘Heaven on Earth’ – a land renowned for its extraordinary natural beauty and perfect harmony.

Arcadia Droptail is finished in a calm, natural duotone white, which appears as a solid colour at first glance, with aluminium and glass particles creating depth and shimmer when the light strikes it. In a key departure from the other Droptails, the carbon fibre used to construct the lower sections of Droptail is painted in the solid Bespoke silver colour rather than left fully or partially exposed. The wood elements are made from Santos Straight Grain, which has one of the finest grain types of all the woods used by Rolls-Royce. Despite its delicacy, it appears throughout Droptail, including the aerodynamically functional rear deck section, which is made up of 76 separate pieces.

The leather interior is finished in two entirely Bespoke hues, named after the client and reserved exclusively for their use. The main leather colour is a Bespoke White, continuing the exterior paint theme, while the contrast leather is a Bespoke tan colour that complements the veneer.

The fascia incorporates the most complex Rolls-Royce clock face ever created. Developed by Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers and craftspeople, it incorporates an exquisite geometric guilloché pattern in raw metal with 119 facets, and partly polished, partly brushed hands and 12-hour markers or chaplets, each just 0.1mm thick.


THE FUTURE OF COACHBUILDING AT ROLLS-ROYCE

As clients’ desire for extraordinary expressions of contemporary Rolls-Royce coachbuilding continues to grow, Rolls-Royce is building for an even more ambitious future.

The marque’s site extension at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood, which is scheduled for completion in 2029, will provide additional space and state-of-the-art facilities for Bespoke and the marque’s Coachbuild division, enabling more and increasingly complex commissions to be undertaken.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars presents Arcadia, the third Coachbuild Droptail commission
• Celebration of the form: uniquely pure reflection of Droptail’s principal design
• Features most complex clock face in Rolls-Royce history. Assembly alone took five months
• Wood sections took 8,000 hours to create
• Commission named after Arcadia, a place known in Ancient Greek mythology as ‘Heaven on Earth’
• Droptail is the first roadster body style in Rolls-Royce’s modern history
• Coachbuilt masterpiece presented to commissioning client at private ceremony in Singapore

“Rolls-Royce Coachbuild is the pinnacle expression of this incredible brand, and an unmatched concept in the luxury sector. In this department, the world’s most influential individuals collaborate with our designers, engineers and craftspeople to bring completely new ideas to life. Together, they create exquisite motor cars that not only become a cherished part of the commissioning client’s personal story but also add to the proud history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Clients curate every facet of these masterpieces, which are brought into being by what I believe is the most talented team of experts in the luxury industry. Arcadia Droptail exemplifies this approach. This motor car is deeply connected to the client’s personality and preferences, and in capturing their character we have been empowered to make inspiring design, craft and engineering statements that show the world our ambition, and our unparalleled abilities.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“The Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail wonderfully demonstrates the true nature of a Coachbuild proposition in completely transforming the character of a motor car. Each Droptail commission reflects a deeply personal understanding and interpretation of a foundational design. With Arcadia Droptail we witness daring in minimalism and subtlety, informed by the lifestyle of an individual who has a unique appreciation for British luxury. In creating this historic motor car, we once again prove our peerless abilities in synthesising and executing Bespoke design at its highest level.”
Anders Warming, Design Director, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“The significance of Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail lies in its subtlety. It is a projection of an individual who values clarity and precision in all areas of their life – from their passion for fine cuisine, their highly curated personal and professional spaces and affinity with contemporary design. This motor car is one of the most faithful expressions of an individual’s personal style and sensibilities we have ever created within the Coachbuild department. In capturing their spirit, we reveal a unique appreciation for simplicity, serenity and beautifully restrained elegance – one that was a privilege for me to have been a part of.”
Alex Innes, Head of Coachbuild Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is delighted to present Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail, an exquisite coachbuilt expression of tranquillity. Arcadia Droptail is the epitome of quiet irreverence towards expected codes of luxury, celebrating purity of form and natural materials while serving as a bold statement of the client’s personal taste. Commissioned by an individual who possesses a distinct affinity for architecture and design, Arcadia Droptail is a testimony to the patron’s sensibilities and personal codes of luxury, defined by purity and subtle restraint, reflecting their firm belief in distilling complexity to reveal the inherent, fundamental essence.

This coachbuilt commission takes its name from the mythical realm of Arcadia, a place depicted in Ancient Greek mythology as ‘Heaven on Earth’ – a land renowned for its extraordinary natural beauty and perfect harmony. Like the haven that inspires its name, Arcadia Droptail was envisioned by the client as a serene space characterised by reduction, material depth and tactility that would serve as a refuge from the complexities of their business life.

In capturing the theme of tranquillity, Coachbuild designers embarked on an exploration of design, sculpture and architecture from the client’s favourite regions around the world. This included the precision and richness of modernist tropical sky gardens seen in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam as well as British ‘Biomimetic’ architecture, where organic forms and material honesty are celebrated.

In addition to these references, the client was also inspired by the motor car itself and the purity of the Droptail design concept. The commissioning client insisted that their Coachbuild motor car should be absolutely faithful to the earliest hand-drawn sketch they were first presented with in 2019.

It was the profile of this highly contemporary projection of the roadster body type that resonated so strongly with the commissioning client. They were particularly compelled by the motor car’s bold, low stance, ensconcing cabin design and dramatic body lines. They also immediately recognised the nautical inspiration behind Droptail’s ‘sail cowls’: named after their resemblance to a yacht’s jib, these sharp, angular forms rise behind the doors and curve gently inwards, subtly directing the eye to the motor car’s occupants.

EXTERIOR: A TRIBUTE TO DROPTAIL

In order to fulfil the client’s ambition to honour Droptail’s form, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers developed a calm, natural duotone colourway for the motor car’s coachwork. The client’s aspiration was to define a timeless white, appearing as a solid colour at first glance, but creating a level of intrigue upon further study under natural light. To achieve this, the main body colour is a solid white infused with aluminium and glass particles. This not only creates an effervescent shimmer when the light strikes the coachwork but, upon close inspection, creates the illusion of unending depth in the paint. Rolls-Royce specialists developed a more faceted, striking metallic using larger sizing of aluminium particles. The client was very particular and involved in their request for the Bespoke silver to contrast against the white, not only in colour, but also in terms of intensity.

In a key departure from the other three coachbuilt Droptails in this series, the carbon fibre used to construct the lower sections of Droptail is painted in the solid Bespoke silver colour rather than left fully or partially exposed, visually ‘lifting’ the motor car in profile to intensify its lithe, dynamic intent.

In tribute to the brilliant mirror finish of brightwork on historical Rolls-Royces, which particularly fascinate the client, the exterior grille surround, ‘kinked’ vane pieces and 22-inch alloy wheels have been fully mirror-polished.

While Arcadia Droptail’s exterior palette is rich in subtle detail, its primary intention is to celebrate the form and proportions of the coachwork. The client was particularly compelled by Droptail’s clean, monolithic surfacing and bold use of negative sculpture – features that are amplified by the motor car’s muted paint colours, which reflect sunlight and cast dramatic shadows, highlighting Droptail’s many subtle design gestures.

INTERIOR: THE CENTRALITY OF WOOD

As the exterior of Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail celebrates the motor car’s form, the interior is a deeply personal reflection of the client’s individual aesthetic, reflective of the style they have curated in their residences and business spaces around the world. Arcadia Droptail’s colour palette and material treatment was envisioned to be a truly personal statement and instantly recognisable as a personal signature of the commissioning client.

Wood development was central to Arcadia Droptail’s interior and the client’s focus, whose very specific expectations concentrated on the texture, grain, colour and richness of the material itself. The client shared many examples of preferences and inspiration from architecture, residences and classic cars, to guide Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers and material specialists.

Santos Straight Grain was eventually selected as the most modern statement, based upon its rich texture and visual intrigue, which is derived from its unique, interlocking grain pattern.

Using this high-density hardwood on Droptail’s interior posed a significant challenge for the marque’s craftspeople. Santos Straight Grain has one of the finest grain types of all the wood species used within a Rolls-Royce – if not handled with the greatest care, it easily tears when machined and ‘checks’ (a crack that appears parallel to the grain) during the drying process. Despite the challenges of working with this delicate material, Santos Straight Grain is used throughout Droptail, including the aerodynamically functional rear deck section, where the grain of the open pore veneer is laid at a perfect 55° angle. To achieve a perfect composition over complex geometry, Rolls-Royce artisans used a total of 233 wood pieces throughout Arcadia Droptail, with 76 pieces applied to the rear deck alone.

Given that Arcadia Droptail will be used internationally, including some tropical climates, specific attention was paid to developing a protection system and testing process for the exterior wood surfaces. Coatings used on superyachts were initially considered but rejected given that they require regular servicing and re-application. Instead, a Bespoke lacquer was developed that requires just one application for the lifetime of the motor car.

To validate this coating, Rolls-Royce specialists conceived a unique testing protocol wherein veneer pieces were subject to a punishing cycle inside a specialist machine simulating global weather extremes. This involved spraying sample wood pieces with water intermittently, between periods of leaving them to dry in darkness and exposing them to heat and bright light.

This was repeated for 1,000 hours on 18 different samples before the marque’s specialists were satisfied with the endurance of the pieces. In total, the wood pieces and protective coating required more than 8,000 hours of development.

INTERIOR: A STUDY IN WHITE

The leather interior is finished in two entirely Bespoke hues, named after the client and reserved exclusively for their use. The main leather colour is a Bespoke White hue, continuing the exterior paint theme, while the contrast leather is a Bespoke tan colour, developed to perfectly complement the selected wood.

The interior also includes the exquisite shawl panel that unites all four Droptail motor cars and is the largest continuous wood section ever seen on a Rolls-Royce motor car. In Arcadia Droptail, it is made in the same Santos Straight Grain open pore veneer as the rear deck, book-matched at the same 55° angle, with individually shaped leave stripes running seamlessly into the door linings. CAD tools were used to map the placement of each wood piece, and although it appears to be constructed from just two mirrored sections of veneer, this panel alone is made up of 40 sections, each digitally mapped before being fixed to the motor car.

Applying wood to the complex curvatures of Droptail’s interior required Rolls-Royce engineers to develop an entirely new substructure for several components. The dramatic geometry of the dashboard, door linings and central cantilevered ‘plinth’ armrest had to be incredibly rigid to ensure the stability of the wood pieces once they were laid in place. Engineers called on carbon fibre layering techniques used in Formula 1 motor racing to develop an incredibly stiff base onto which the wood could be applied, ensuring that it remained secure regardless of the dynamic extremes the motor car experienced.

BESPOKE TIMEPIECE: A PRECISION INSTRUMENT

The Santos Straight Grain veneer fascia incorporates a clock conceived and developed by Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers and craftspeople. This expression of haute horlogerie is the most complex Rolls-Royce clock face ever created: the assembly alone was a five-month process, which was preceded by more than two years of development.

The clock incorporates an exquisite geometric guilloché pattern in raw metal with 119 facets. This is a symbolic nod to the marque’s heritage; as the client first saw a preview of the motor car in late 2023 – the year when Rolls-Royce celebrated its 119-year anniversary. The specially designed clock face also includes partly polished, partly brushed hands and 12 ‘chaplets’ – or hour markers – each just 0.1mm thick. To ensure the readability of the timepiece, specialists gave each chaplet an infill bridge and painted them by hand using a camera capable of magnifying an image by up to 100x.

While many haute horlogerie methods were used to develop the timepiece, the testing and validation standards at Rolls-Royce are higher than those of the watch world. This required the marque’s specialists to draw on an expansive palette of materials. For example, instead of anodizing the timepiece’s minute marker, which is common practice in watch manufacturing, it is finished in a ceramic coating chosen because of its stability over time as well as its aesthetic merits. Small areas of the coating were laser-etched away to reveal the mirror finish of the aluminium material beneath it. Like every piece within the timepiece, including the Bespoke ‘double R’ monogram, they were individually machined from solid stainless-steel billet and polished by hand prior to assembly.

Themes from the clock are paired with the instrument dials, sharing materials, techniques and execution. They feature the same repeated guilloché pattern, as well as brushed and polished brightwork and frosted white inserts, recalling the colourway of the motor car.

STATEMENT OF A COSMOPOLITAN LIFESTYLE

Reflecting the patron’s international lifestyle, the motor car is specified with left-hand drive to facilitate its use around the world. This international dimension was so important to the commissioning client that the Coachbuild Collective wanted them to experience the motor car in multiple locations around the world before it was built. Coachbuild designers used the marque’s ‘holodeck’ to facilitate this – a unique virtual 3D environment in which the client uses an advanced virtual reality (VR) headset to view the motor car as it would appear in specific locations around the world.

ARCADIA DROPTAIL: AN ELEGANT SPACE IN THE DROPTAIL CANON

While every Rolls-Royce client is different, they each share a powerful strength of conviction, and this individual’s requirements were clearly stated from the outset. However, translating these complex, highly personal sensibilities into a coherent, workable design was the product of a significant body of work. It was here that the Coachbuild process, with its unprecedented investment of time – over four years in total – and uniquely close relationship between the client and the marque, paid incalculable dividends.

Coachbuild designers invested many months examining and interrogating the client’s tastes in everything from clothes and furnishings to food and travel destinations. From this, they defined and codified an aesthetic rooted in the client’s truth and experience; an objective portrait of their internal world and external surroundings, backed by the certainty and authority of the design team’s own discernment, understanding and professional judgment. Other family members, notably the client’s daughter, also become engaged with the process. When the final design was ready, the client’s wider family were invited to review it: all agreed that it perfectly captured the client’s aesthetic and character.

The client derived enormous pleasure from having their tastes and identity so clearly rationalised and projected back to them. Indeed, the process revealed the client had a far more modern outlook than they realised, defined by lightness, the use of natural materials and a clear passion for precision. Arcadia Droptail has since become a reference point for the client’s commissions from other luxury houses and architects.

This unique expression of Rolls-Royce Droptail reflects this remarkable client’s confidence, clarity of vision and long-term relationship with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Its significance lies both in its exquisitely minimal execution and the unique skill of Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers in capturing the sensibilities and soul of an individual.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars presents Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail
• Extraordinary coachbuilt project is inspired by the birthstone of the patron’s son
• Incorporates exquisite celebration of painstaking craft and focussed minimalism
• Veneer aft deck is the largest wood surface ever produced by Rolls-Royce
• Rear section is the only aerodynamically functional wood surface on a new motor car
• Precious amethyst gems are incorporated into interior and exterior
• First time both brushed and polished finish have been applied to Pantheon grille
• Finish inspired by haute horlogerie, referencing client’s Vacheron Constantin timepiece
• Unveiled to commissioning client at private event in Gstaad, Switzerland

“This stunning expression of Rolls-Royce Droptail truly captures the soul of its commissioning client. This distinguished and international individual exemplifies connoisseurship, and their global outlook, refined tastes and deep-rooted heritage were a broadening pleasure to explore. The extraordinary projection of their spirit, captured in Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail, is a clear statement of Rolls-Royce Coachbuild’s intent: to collaborate profoundly as a means to produce an historic expression of applied art. It is the client’s personal involvement that gives Coachbuild motor cars their unparalleled strength of character. These products reflect an exceptional clarity of vision, executed with absolute conviction. Amethyst Droptail captures these virtues in extremis.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“A Coachbuilt Rolls-Royce derives its identity and legend from the accomplishments, sensibilities and character of its owner. It is this human dimension, combined with highly progressive design, that makes it entirely unique and irreplaceable. This specificity gives every Coachbuild commission a sense of timelessness and artistic endurance. Within Rolls-Royce design, Amethyst Droptail will stand in our history as a representation of how accurate our creative response can be in projecting the soul of an individual commissioning client through both literal and highly conceptual expressions of personal luxury.”
Anders Warming, Design Director, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail is the epitome of quiet artistry and its significance lies in its depth of detail. Together with a discerning patron whose character resonates throughout the commission, we explored their sensibilities, cherished pursuits and values through masterfully curated details, each imbued with profound symbolic significance. Created for an individual with a passion for modern design, the minutia of haute horlogerie techniques and whose family has a special connection to gemstones, Amethyst Droptail is a remarkable projection of connoisseurship, contemporary design and personal heritage.”
Alex Innes, Head of Coachbuild Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

AMETHYST DROPTAIL

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is honoured to present Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail – a breathtaking coachbuilt masterpiece that celebrates its commissioning client’s cultural heritage, family legacy and personal passions.

One of four unique expressions of the Rolls-Royce Droptail, Amethyst Droptail is a truly elevated expression of applied art, commissioned by a patron whose family business has grown from a gemstone boutique to a multinational corporation with diversified interests. Exceptionally well-travelled, internationally educated and truly global in their inspirations, the client is an established patron of the arts, whose collection of precious jewels, significant motor cars and contemporary artworks are housed in a specially commissioned private museum.

The patron tasked Coachbuild designers to create an elegant expression of Droptail inspired by the amethyst gem – the birthstone of their son and an enduring symbol of purity, clarity and resilience; themes that are explored throughout this exceptional motor car in extraordinary depth. The client’s passion for quiet artistry and subtle flourishes is what defines Amethyst Droptail – a projection of true connoisseurship that rewards those who study it with beguiling details.

Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail was unveiled to the commissioning client, their family and friends at a private event in Gstaad, Switzerland – a region of particular significance for the patron.

A FLOWER IN THE DESERT

The patron and co-creator of Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail expressed a profound desire to celebrate the cultural heritage of their home region. Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers responded with an inspiration point that would define this Droptail’s exterior treatment: the Globe Amaranth wildflower, which blooms in the desert near one of the client’s homes.

The duotone exterior paint finish captures multiple stages of the flower’s bloom. The main body colour is a soft purple hue with a delicate silver undertone, named Globe Amaranth in tribute to the flower, and is enhanced with fine flecks of powdered aluminium that reflect the light and create a captivating iridescent finish. A deep purple Amethyst contrast paint, which is used on the motor car’s upper coachwork, contains a blend of red, blue and violet mica flakes that together create a unique mauve colour with a subtle metallic sheen.

In sunlight, the motor car also reveals a gentle hint of mauve paint on the inside of the 22-inch wheels, providing a subtle but elegant contrast to the mirror-polished aluminium surface; a touch that the client compared to the colourful lining of their favourite bespoke jacket.

The exterior is finished with a subtle but highly complex treatment to the carbon fibre used to construct the lower sections of the motor car. The result of two years of development, the marque’s craftspeople created a chevron pattern book-matched along two axes, which adds geometric decoration to Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail’s technical exterior surfaces. The carbon fibre itself is finished with a fine layer of lacquer tinted with Amethyst pigment, which in most lights reads as body colour. This intricate and technically demanding detail is hidden until the motor car is closely scrutinised, speaking of the client’s passion for subtlety and restraint.

DEPTH OF DETAIL

The client’s trust in Rolls-Royce’s artisans to execute the most challenging flourishes is expressed in the Pantheon grille treatment. The exterior grille surround and ‘kinked’ vane pieces are partially hand-brushed and partially hand-polished with a precise line demarking each finish – a surface treatment that had never been attempted on this scale before. The concept was suggested by the commissioning client’s son, a collector of haute horlogerie who was inspired by the brushed hands of an historically significant piece in his archive. Achieving the perfect uniformity in the finishes, as well as the sharpness of contrast between the finish types, was the result of more than 50 hours of collective work.

Beneath this extraordinary expression of contemporary craftsmanship is an intricate lower front air intake. This highly detailed piece was digitally designed and ‘printed’ in a lightweight composite and incorporates 202 hand-polished stainless-steel ingots, each of which has been painstakingly painted by hand in the Globe Amaranth hue.

The front end is resolved with a Spirit of Ecstasy figurine surrounded by amethyst cabochons. The cabochon treatment, whereby a gemstone is shaped and polished into a rounded form rather than faceted, was requested by the client in order to avoid a conspicuous sparkle. This subtle detail recalls the client’s early enterprise in the precious gemstone business.

CELEBRATION OF MATERIALS

Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail celebrates the materials and crafts personally curated by the commissioning client and his family. The material selection began with a sample of wood offered by the client – a stunning Calamander Light open-pore wood, which has a complex texture and long bands of colour.

The colours of the client’s initial wood sample served as the inspiration for the motor car’s leather treatment – the gently contrasting leather, in the aptly named Sand Dunes hue, was developed to perfectly match the caramel strands on the Calamander Light open-pore wood.  Following this, wood specialists were challenged to source material with bands in precisely the same colour as the leather, a task that took more than six months to resolve, requiring specialists to review more than 100 logs before the perfect piece was discovered.

The primary leather hue, named Amethyst, complements the exterior surface and is finished with a subtle pearlescent lacquer, reminiscent of the brilliance of the precious gemstone after which the motor car is named.

For Amethyst Droptail, Rolls-Royce has created the most extensive wooden surface area in its history, with the material extending from the motor car’s fascia and doors to the shawl panel, cantilevered ‘plinth’ centre armrest and onto the aft deck.

In applying wood to the aerodynamically functional aft deck, the marque’s aerodynamicists and wood specialists worked closely together to experiment with not just the form of the panel, but with different wood-grain textures and the precise angle of the placement of the veneer itself. The result is both an extraordinarily artistic piece and the world’s only ‘raw’ wooden surface that produces downforce on a new roadgoing motor car.

A completely new veneering process was developed specifically for Amethyst Droptail, with each veneer sheet placed upside down to expose the raw wood texture. Two techniques are combined: ‘bookmatching’ at 55 degrees, in which the sheets of wood mirror each other, and ‘slip-matching’, in which the sheets of wood are aligned side by side in sequence, to create a repeating grain pattern for an organic, natural effect that gives the illusion of a single piece of wood.

To ensure Amethyst Droptail can be enjoyed by its commissioning client in a variety of climates around the word, the interior wood parts were tested to meet the same rigorous endurance standards as the exterior parts. Prior to its final construction, more than 150 samples underwent over 8,000 hours of testing. This included a full sunlight exposure simulation and rainfastness assessment, as well as testing for durability in temperatures ranging from +80°C to -30°C. The deck’s protective coatings, developed specifically for Amethyst Droptail, have been granted their own patent.

To complete the interior treatment, the client requested an elegant addition: the adornment of the rotary dials with rare amethyst gems. As with the gems at the base of the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine, they too are shaped in a convex cabochon style rather than faceted. The stunning depth and clarity of each stone is of a standard usually reserved for fine jewellery. Each stone was examined by experts within the client’s organisation before they were personally and individually approved by the client. The interior suite is resolved with woven leather floormats – a subtle tribute to the traditional weaving crafts found for centuries in the souks of the client’s original home region.

BESPOKE, ELEVATED

A removable hard top has been designed to give Rolls-Royce Droptail two distinct characters: without its roof, Droptail is a lithe, open-top roadster; with the roof installed, it is a formidable and dramatic coupé.

The roof incorporates electrochromic glass that allows the surface to change colour and transparency instantly. The client challenged Coachbuild designers to develop a glass that would alter its hue in order to correspond with the colourway of Amethyst Droptail. In response, the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective developed a unique chameleon effect for its electrochromic glass: when deactivated, it is completely opaque and has a subtle purple tint, mirroring the motor car’s Amethyst exterior finish. Once the glass is activated at the touch of a button, it becomes translucent with a hue that matches the Sand Dunes leather colour used in the interior suite. The realisation of this extraordinary flourish required specialists to experiment with 60 iterations of glass colouring before a perfect match was found.

A SINGULAR TIMEPIECE

Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail fascia is graced with a unique timepiece commissioned by the client from the renowned Swiss haute horlogerie maison, Vacheron Constantin. Handmade in Geneva, the piece, named ‘Les Cabinotiers Armillary Tourbillon,’ has an intricate hand-wound movement and is securely housed in a specially designed holder, enabling it to be removed and stored separately from the motor car if desired. The timepiece features a bi-retrograde display with instantaneous return of the hours and minutes as well as a bi-axial tourbillon.

Vacheron Constantin and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars worked closely together to ensure the forms, materials and colours of the timepiece were in perfect harmony within the motor car. The instrument dials combine amethyst-coloured inserts with the partially brushed and polished finish of the timepiece’s hands. The timepiece is affixed to a white-gold baseplate with a hand-crafted sunburst guilloché pattern.

AMETHYST DROPTAIL: A PERSONAL PLACE IN ROLLS-ROYCE HISTORY

This extraordinary expression of Rolls-Royce Droptail is a testament to the commissioning client’s passion for quiet detail, playfully but meticulously incorporated into one of the most historically significant Rolls-Royces ever built. It also represents the marque’s capabilities, not just in realising such a clear vision, but in artfully harmonising heritage, modernity and soul.

• First of four unique Rolls-Royce Droptail commissions, named ‘La Rose Noire’
• Inspired by romance and the allure of the Black Baccara rose
• Incorporates most complex expression of parquetry in Rolls-Royce history
• 1,603 wood pieces hand-finished and hand-placed over almost two-year period
• New exterior paint process required 150 iterations to perfect
• Matching Champagne Chest commissioned to stage client’s exclusive vintage
• Features wearable Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept timepiece

“Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail is a love story, thoughtfully captured and stunningly projected onto the canvas of a Rolls-Royce motor car. It is an expression of the deep and passionate partnership between a husband and wife who are the heads of a prominent international family – to be part of their remarkable story is a privilege. Furthermore, La Rose Noire Droptail stands as a testament to our brand’s relentless pursuit of perfection, where artistry and the vision of a single client truly harmonise. In every detail of this historic commission, there are echoes of both Rolls-Royce’s rich heritage and the commissioning clients’ character, from its captivating yet formidable form to its flawless and elegant romantic gestures. La Rose Noire Droptail, like the remarkable clients who dared to make such a potent and contemporary statement, will be written into Rolls-Royce history forever.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail stands as one of the most progressive expressions of Rolls-Royce Coachbuild ever conceived. In capturing the romantic and glamorous spirit of the commissioning clients, our design team explored bold new artisanal processes and highly complex creative gestures in their pursuit of a deeply personal language of luxury. The remarkable execution of the wood elements of La Rose Noire Droptail in particular are a clear statement that time-honoured exquisite crafts have a place at the pinnacle of modern design. Indeed, the ambition of the marque’s clients, and the peerless capabilities of its designers signal a long and exciting future for Rolls-Royce Coachbuild and its standing as the leading creative force in applied art at its highest level.”
Anders Warming, Design Director, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail is glamour distilled. The guiding inspiration for this dark, bold and powerful commission was the Black Baccara rose, which was a significant point of affection for the client and a source of fascination for the design team. Its rich and complex character informed our creative exploration, influencing the palette, composition, and intricate detailing of the motor car. It led us to blend radically modern design concepts with age-old exquisite craft techniques, while using materials that subtly reinforce the clients’ deep connection to France. Our shared commitment to shaping a meaningful and progressive design statement have culminated in a deeply significant expression of the patron’s character and a new pinnacle for contemporary craftsmanship.”
Alex Innes, Head of Coachbuild Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

LA ROSE NOIRE: THE FIRST DROPTAIL

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is privileged to present Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail, a dark, daring and dramatic coachbuilt masterpiece. This extraordinary motor car, presented to the clients who commissioned it at a private event close to Pebble Beach in California today, symbolises the distillation of experiences, significant moments and objets d’art cherished by its owners – an international family that exemplifies connoisseurship and luxury of the very highest order. Indeed, Coachbuild designers described the family’s talent for sensitive and informed curation in their homes and within their notable collection of motor cars and fashion icons, as an art form unto itself.

Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail is inspired by the allure of the Black Baccara rose, an intense, velvet-like flower that originates in France and is beloved by the mother of the commissioning family. The dark pomegranate colour of its petals appears almost black in shade, but in direct light, a red, pearlescent shimmer is revealed on the dark surface. These two colours form the primary palette of La Rose Noire Droptail. The first red shade is named ‘True Love’ in recognition of the romance the client wished to capture in this commission. The darker tone is named ‘Mystery’, inspired by the mysterious nature of the rose, which appears to change colour when viewed from different angles. Indeed, it was the essence of true love and the mystery of exploration and travel that captivated the clients throughout the commissioning process.

The exterior coachwork is finished in the lustrous and complex True Love red. Like the Black Baccara rose, the motor car also appears to change colour depending on the point it is examined from. To achieve this rich variation, surface finish specialists developed a completely new paint process, which was perfected over 150 careful iterations. A base coat, the colour of which is a closely guarded secret, was followed by five layers of clear lacquer, each blended with a slightly different tone of red.

The duotone theme extends into La Rose Noire Droptail’s brightwork. The dark finish, named Hydroshade due to its liquid quality, was developed specifically for this project. These pieces are not painted; rather, a specific chrome electrolyte is introduced in the chrome plating process and co-deposited on each stainless-steel substrate in a layer just one micron thick – roughly the same width as a strand of spider-web silk. This dark but reflective finish is continued on select metal details throughout the interior, each of which have been precision-polished by hand to achieve a high-gloss finish.

A removable hard top has been designed to give Droptail two distinct characters: without its roof Droptail is a lithe, open-top roadster; with the roof installed, it becomes a formidable and dramatic coupé. Exclusively for La Rose Noire, the roof is uniquely low-slung, which is further exaggerated with a faster and longer rake to underpin its assertive, glamourous character. Behind it, an ingot with the motor car’s name is included – a first for Rolls-Royce. The completely Bespoke roof also features an electrochromic glass section, which instantly transitions to a near-translucent shade at the touch of a button, inviting patrons to explore the world above.

The commissioning clients’ passion for detail is exemplified on La Rose Noire Droptail’s Pantheon grille vanes. In a discreet embellishment, True Love paint is hand-applied as an accent on the reverse surface of the vanes themselves – a refined detail that is only visible by way of indirect reflection.

This subtle flourish continues into the intricate lower front air intake. This highly detailed piece was digitally designed and 3D printed in a lightweight composite and incorporates 202 hand-polished stainless-steel ingots, each hand-painted in the True Love hue.

A significant exterior element is the treatment of the striking alloy wheels, which feature the dark Mystery paint finish. Like the flower itself, from afar the finish appears to be black, but upon closer examination, the sunlight reveals shimmering dark red undertones. The Mystery paint is applied to the entire surface of the rim and then, through a high-precision diamond milling process, areas of the paint are removed to expose accents of the base alloy material that are then polished. This treatment emphasises the directional nature of the wheel and its bold 22-inch size, underpinning this Droptail’s formidable personality.

LA ROSE NOIRE: GLAMOUR DISTILLED

The most remarkable element of this extraordinary motor car is its cocooning interior. This reveals the most complex expression of parquetry ever created at Rolls-Royce – the product of nearly two years of development, intense experimentation and hand craftsmanship.

The artwork represents an abstract expression of falling rose petals, formed using 1,603 pieces of black wood veneer triangles. The highly complex pattern is formed with 1,070 perfectly symmetrical elements forming the background, and 533 asymmetrically positioned red pieces representing the rose petals. The asymmetry was requested by the clients to represent a natural, organic ‘scattering’ of petals.

Made from Black Sycamore wood sourced in France as a subtle tribute to the French provenance of La Rose Noire, each triangle is cut, sanded and precisely positioned by hand.  The pieces that appear to be stained light and dark grey are in fact presented in their natural hue; the colour difference is achieved by using veneer from several logs with different ‘figures’ – the natural pattern on the veneer. Paint was used only to create the red pieces – to avoid the colour fading over time, the marque’s artisans spent a year developing a new lacquer formula to protect this extraordinary projection of contemporary craft.

This intricately detailed and embracing piece envelopes the motor car’s occupants, stretching from the rear shawl panel through the doors and onto the expansive fascia. Its assembly required such intense concentration that the single craftsperson tasked with creating it could only work in one-hour sessions for no more than five hours total per day, to ensure they maintained the focus required for perfect execution. The artisan, who has been with Rolls-Royce since their apprenticeship, spent weeks working in absolute silence in a sound-insulated space to mitigate against any potential distractions. To create what is unquestionably a work of art in its own right took more than nine months in total.

Resolving the interior, La Rose Noire Droptail’s two seats are decorated at the edges with both dark red Mystery leather, and light red True Love leather, each finished with a subtle copper shimmer, evoking the pearlescent texture of the Black Baccara rose petals.

A SINGULAR TIMEPIECE

The fascia of Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail is provisioned with an integrated one-off timepiece by Audemars Piguet, which was specially commissioned by the client. The 43mm Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date is powered by a unique self-winding Calibre 4407 movement, featuring a flyback chronograph and a split-seconds mechanism. Masterfully matched to La Rose Noire’s colourway, it incorporates red counters and a red inner bezel, providing a bright contrast to the black ‘openworked’ dial highlighted with rhodium-toned bevels.

Integrating the timepiece presented a significant challenge: the clients requested that it should both be mounted in the motor car and also be removable, so that it can be attached to a strap and worn. This was realised with a powered clasp mechanism that gently presents the timepiece at the touch of a button.

Once the timepiece has been removed, the aperture in the fascia is covered with an elegant titanium openworked blank head watch highlighting a white-gold coin displaying a rose engraving, hand-sculpted by Audemars Piguet artisans. Subtle rose engravings on the motor car’s Bespoke Audio speaker frets mirror this motif. Each of the pieces were meticulously crafted by hand in the Swiss brand’s atelier and represent the only literal expressions of the Baccara Rose in the whole motor car.

A slim, soft leather pouch in the door paniers houses the strap and the blank head watch while the timepiece is displayed in the fascia.

A COMMISSION TO CELEBRATE

To celebrate their Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail, the owners commissioned an exclusive vintage of Champagne de Lossy, one of their favourite wine properties. This is of particular significance given the special wine created for La Rose Noire Droptail is one of only a precious handful of vintages produced by the Chateau in its 160-year history.

As the perfect staging point, the commissioning family requested a unique Rolls-Royce Champagne Chest. Appointed with matching rose petal parquetry and coordinated to match the colour palette and materials of the motor car, it is the product of the same meticulous attention to detail as the clients’ coachbuilt Rolls-Royce.

At the press of a button, the Champagne Chest opens, revealing an intricate champagne set replete with hand-blown crystal champagne flutes. The exterior lid converts to a serving tray made of bookmatched open pore Black Sycamore wood with a design of the Chateau central to the brushed and laser-cut stainless-steel inlay.

The sides are adorned with the same intricate parquetry work as La Rose Noire Droptail. Once deployed, they reveal two hammocks cradling the clients’ special edition Champagne de Lossy, designed to match the motor car’s colour scheme. Stored thermal champagne coolers, made from black anodised aluminium and carbon fibre, are finished in the dark Mystery hue and ensure the champagne is maintained at the optimum drinking temperature.

LA ROSE NOIRE DROPTAIL: TAKING ITS PLACE IN THE ROLLS-ROYCE LEGEND

This bold and historic motor car is a romantic celebration of the couple who created it, characterised by passion and a restless desire for meaningful experiences. In commissioning this extraordinary expression of Droptail, this remarkable family has not only shaped their own legacy but also participated in the legend of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars reveals Droptail, the next chapter in the marque’s Coachbuild story
• Coachbuild is the equivalent of Haute Couture and is the pinnacle of the Rolls-Royce brand
• Droptail is the first roadster body style in Rolls-Royce’s modern history
• Represents the most involved, progressive and refined Coachbuild project yet
• Striking aft deck section is aerodynamically functional: a feat of engineering unto itself
• Incorporates bold reinterpretations of the Rolls-Royce badge of honour and Pantheon grille
• Product of a remarkable four-year collaboration with the marque’s most ambitious clients
• Four Droptails will be built in total, each a highly unique expression of the commissioning clients’ character

 
“Today, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unveils Droptail, an exquisite coachbuilt motor car that resets our understanding of what is possible in the luxury sector. Indeed, our dedicated Coachbuild department is the only place in the world where true patrons of luxury can create a motor car not for their image, but in their image. These extraordinary products are roadgoing expressions of applied art, built from the ground up over more than four years in collaboration with a small constellation of our most ambitious clients. These individuals join our designers, engineers and craftspeople at every stage of their masterpiece’s development. The result of this partnership is an historic motor car that is as fundamentally unique as its owner that will enter Rolls-Royce history as a testament to the shared ambition of our brand and its clients. Droptail also answers a long-standing question – can a car be created as art? With the unveiling of this extraordinary roadster, the answer is, unequivocally, yes.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Within Rolls-Royce design, the Coachbuild department is a place without limitation, where the most ambitious ideas can be expressed and a forward-looking vision of what is possible can be realised. The nature of Coachbuild gives us the latitude to go beyond our existing design strategy and explore bold, new and highly focussed creative avenues. These motor cars represent the dreams of our clients and capture a specific moment in time, while also projecting a bold and timeless interpretation of the Rolls-Royce brand. Yet Droptail, the most involved, progressive and refined Coachbuild to date, is not a concept car or a design study – it is a motor car that has been built to be driven.
Anders Warming, Design Director, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Motivated by the significance of shaping the world’s only contemporary Rolls-Royce roadster, we felt liberated to re-examine the fundamental tenets of Rolls-Royce design. For the first time in our history, the iconic Pantheon grille has been significantly reshaped, setting the tone for a highly progressive design treatment: Droptail is a celebration of reduction and focus of purpose that is entirely in tune with contemporary codes of luxury. Like every coachbuilt Rolls-Royce, Droptail expresses a deeply personal reflection of each of its commissioning clients’ sensibilities, which it was my great privilege to explore with them over many years. The result is a landmark statement reflecting an unprecedented era of confidence, clarity and precision within Rolls-Royce design."
Alex Innes, Head of Coachbuild Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

ROLLS-ROYCE COACHBUILD: APPLIED ART

As a House of Luxury, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars constantly seeks to create personal and deeply meaningful luxury products that reflect the marque’s clients’ ambitions and personal codes of luxury. Rolls-Royce’s unparalleled Bespoke capabilities enable clients to bring these desires to life through the commission of beautiful, handcrafted and truly individual Rolls-Royce motor cars.

A small group of exceptional individuals wish to elevate this remarkable, deeply personal experience even further and move beyond the canvas of existing Rolls-Royce products. These highly ambitious and discerning clients seek the opportunity to work directly with the marque’s designers, engineers and craftspeople to create completely unique Rolls-Royce motor cars beyond the brand’s product portfolio, participating in every stage of their development. This is Rolls-Royce Coachbuild.

Creatives within Rolls-Royce Coachbuild approach the motor car as an elevated expression of applied art – the discipline of creating something beautiful, intellectually stimulating and emotionally resonant, that has a clear and single purpose.

The renaissance of contemporary coachbuilding began in 2017 with ‘Sweptail’, a bold two-door coupé created in response to a client’s wish to reprise the art of coachbuilding in partnership with Rolls-Royce. With its sharply tapering outline and full-length glass roof, it can be characterised as the Extrovert.  It was followed by the unveiling of Boat Tail in 2021, a highly social open-top that amplified its clients’ love of hosting – a motor car that unashamedly represents the Hedonist.

Today, Rolls-Royce is proud to present Droptail: the third chapter in a remarkable story that reflects the absolute pinnacle of the Rolls-Royce brand, and by extension the super-luxury sector. For Droptail, the focus was placed on creating an intimate and cosseting interior, which would also serve as an unprecedented canvas for highly bespoke wood craft. Droptail captures the charm and embrace of two-seat motoring – it truly is the Romantic.

Only four expressions of this remarkable motor car will be created, each telling a unique and personal story that reflects the ambition, visions and taste patterns of its commissioning client – all of whom are significant collectors, patrons of the arts and business leaders.

RENAISSANCE OF THE ROADSTER BODY TYPE

Droptail represents the renaissance of the roadster body type, which breaks free from the four-seat convention previously associated with Rolls-Royce. In the first decades of the twentieth century, Rolls-Royce supplied rolling chassis to coachbuilders, who then added specially commissioned bodies. While European clients were drawn to grand, four-door, chauffeur-driven saloons, a young and bold generation of American clients were specifying two-door, two-seat roadster bodies. In doing so, these assertive and confident self-drivers disrupted the traditional, more formal codes of the brand.

Rolls-Royce Droptail is a highly contemporary projection of these values – a concept each commissioning client found deeply compelling. In capturing this spirit, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers studied the 1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost ‘Sluggard’, the 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom Brewster New York Roadster and the 1925 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Piccadilly. Like these motor cars, Droptail takes a highly distilled approach to design. Indeed, for Rolls-Royce’s creatives and artisans, simplicity and absolute clarity is the most challenging brief of all, but the most rewarding to behold.

DROPTAIL EXTERIOR: FOCUS AND INTENT

At 5.3 metres long and 2 metres wide, the exterior dimensions of Droptail recall the compact proportions of early Rolls-Royce roadsters. Yet, as the motor car’s progressive front end treatment clearly signals, this is not a retrospective pastiche of a classic Rolls-Royce. For Droptail, designers dared to introduce a new interpretation of the marque’s most precious iconography: the Pantheon grille and the Badge of Honour.

Ordinarily, the vanes of the marque’s Pantheon grille are straight and upright, but for Droptail – and for the first time in Rolls-Royce history – they are ‘kinked’ towards the top of the radiator, gently reclining to create a ‘temple brow’ overhang. This progressive treatment creates a more informal expression of Rolls-Royce design principles, using shadow to connect the two front headlamps visually. This strong horizontal graphic, bookended by deep-set daytime running lights, forms the motor car’s powerful brow line. Beneath, the grille falls to reveal relaxed, chamfered corners – another reference to the informal spirit of Droptail.

In profile, Droptail is radically unique in its proportions, which amplify the motor car’s driver-orientated configuration. This is characterised by a low and assertive stance, snug and enveloping cabin space and poised, taut surfacing. A dramatic negative body line is sculpted into the coachwork, falling from the front wheel and encouraging the eye to the rear of the motor car and to Droptail’s ‘sail cowls’, which denote that it is a strict two-seater. Named after their resemblance to a yacht’s jib, these sharp, angular forms rise behind the doors and curve gently inwards, subtly directing the eye to the motor car’s occupants.

Droptail’s sail cowls frame an extraordinary feat of engineering. The aft deck section, which sits between the occupants, performs an aerodynamic function in that it produces downforce to improve stability when the motor car is travelling at speed. Realising this while retaining Droptail’s signature ‘dropping’ rear end – a design style not ordinarily conducive to producing downforce without a peripheral ‘wing’ – was a considerable challenge. Indeed, the aft deck’s final form is the product of a deep collaboration between the marque’s designers and aerodynamicist and was resolved over a two-year period and 20 iterations.

This elegant innovation led Droptail’s commissioning clients to challenge the marque’s designers with ever more complex requests. On reviewing Droptail in profile, one client declared that nothing but the door handles, Spirit of Ecstasy and Rolls-Royce monogram should interrupt its monolithic surfaces. To fulfil this request, engineers developed a door handle that incorporates a hidden lock mechanism and a discreetly integrated indicator lamp. The design team’s reinterpretation of the Rolls-Royce ‘Badge of Honour’ is another testament to the freedoms within this department – it is distilled into a stainless steel ‘Double R’ monogram, which is placed on both sail cowls.

Rolls-Royce Droptail concludes with a rear treatment that evokes the roadster spirit but also references nautical design. The generous horizontal transom section uses the sky’s natural light to create an impression of width and solidity – a design feature inspired by racing sailing yachts of the thirties. The vertical rear lamps also cant forwards to signal the motor car’s dynamic intent. Underneath, the tall rear diffuser is finished with a semi-transparent lacquer, highlighting its raw carbon-fibre finish and providing a visual foundation that anchors Droptail to the road.

DROPTAIL ROOF: A SECOND CHARACTER

A removable hard top has been designed to give Droptail two very distinct characters: without its roof, Droptail is a lithe, open-top roadster; with the roof installed, it is a formidable and dramatic coupé. Droptail’s exceptionally low-slung profile and ‘postbox’ glasshouse is an intentional statement of attitude, partially inspired by ‘hot-rod’ and ‘Kustom’-style modified cars of the mid-twentieth century. These vehicles were unique in that sections of the metalwork between the roof and the main bodywork were removed – or ‘chopped’ – by hand in order to lower the roofline and create a bold and assertive aesthetic statement.

Rolls-Royce’s contemporary, high luxury expression of this attitude was considerably more complex. Droptail’s removable roof is made from carbon fibre to accommodate the dramatic curvature and crisp edging of its cantilevered design. Each client wished to use their motor car around the world in multiple climates. For this reason, the roof incorporates electrochromic glass that alters the amount of light entering the interior at the touch of a button. The electrical connection for the roof is channelled through the mounting points, allowing effortless installation and removal.

DROPTAIL INTERIOR: INNER CLARITY

Droptail celebrates the intimacy of a two-seat roadster with a cocooning interior, cosseting and protecting occupants with a high waist-rail and low seating position. Commissioning clients were particularly compelled by the notion of a highly focussed, minimalistic approach to the interior. In response to this, Rolls-Royce designers sketched a fascia that celebrated minimalism and analogue tactility. Just three primary buttons are visible, yet all of the functionality of a contemporary Rolls-Royce remains. The fascia alone took four years of development, testing and homologation.

This minimalist approach to the entire interior shape and form of Droptail was created to celebrate the discipline of woodcraft without interruption, thereby showcasing the exceptional craft skills of Rolls-Royce artisans. The generous surfaces and expressive sculpture carefully consider the orientation and specific placement of wood, highlighting its richness and striking natural beauty, purposefully catching light from multiple angles and recalling the organic forms of the most contemporary cabinetmakers.

The most prominent gesture within the cabin is the curved shawl panel; a vast, uninterrupted and intricately formed section of wood that wraps around the driver and their companion, evoking a sense of companionship and intimacy that is entirely in tune with the romantic character of this cocooning two-seater roadster.

A theatrical cantilevered plinth-like armrest between the two seats makes a bold signature statement with its uninterrupted, elliptical profile. At the touch of a button, the plinth glides backwards and forwards, allowing effortless access to the rotary information and entertainment system controller when required, then hiding it from view thereafter. Recalling the interior’s cosseting treatment, the plinth itself is embraced by inner seat bolsters finished in soft, supple leather.

Achieving the remarkable and unprecedented level of surface simplicity, which is such a vital part of Droptail’s presence and character, was the most challenging undertaking in Coachbuild history.

DROPTAIL ENGINEERING: FREEDOM THROUGH BESPOKE

Completely new underpinnings were developed for Rolls-Royce Droptail beyond the marque’s existing architecture. Reserved for Droptail’s exclusive use, this rigid monocoque is constructed from aluminium, steel and carbon fibre. Steel is used for the load-bearing front wing and door sections, but from the b-pillar rearwards carbon fibre is used, comprising three bonded sections. Lightweight and infinitely formable, carbon fibre enabled the bold compound curves of Droptail’s form to be realised. Indeed, the rear quarter panels are the largest carbon fibre panels ever created for a Rolls-Royce motor car.

In the spirit of the earliest coachbuilt Rolls-Royces, whereby a body was lowered onto a rolling chassis, Droptail’s exterior form is mounted on a contemporary Rolls-Royce drivetrain, ensuring a familiar experience to commissioning clients, all of whom are long-standing Rolls-Royce collectors. To reflect Droptail’s fleet visual character, the twin-turbocharged 6.6-litre V12 engine has been subtly enhanced to deliver an additional 30bhp and an elevated torque figure of 840Nm – the first time that engine power output has been increased for a Rolls-Royce Coachbuild project.

DROPTAIL: A SHARED LEGACY. A BOLD FUTURE

The focus and precision of Droptail’s execution represents the Coachbuild department’s most detailed and technically demanding undertaking to date. It also represents Coachbuild’s standing as the highest expression of applied art. Droptail’s bold reimagining of Rolls-Royce iconography, focus on simplicity and permanence as a monument to its owners represents both a new standard in the luxury sector and clear confirmation that coachbuilding will form a significant part of Rolls-Royce’s long-term strategy. Indeed, Droptail is a clear statement that the future of Rolls-Royce will be built in collaboration with its clients.

• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars to present next coachbuilt Boat Tail
• Global public unveiling at Concorso d'Eleganza, Villa d’Este on 21 May 2022
• Boat Tail represents the apex of the marque’s coachbuilding capabilities
• Created by a client in homage to his father and family heritage
• Unique exterior finish and interior detailing inspired by mother-of-pearl
  
  
  

“Coachbuild elevates our work as a House of Luxury into a new space; it is the haute couture of our industry. For the commissioning patron it offers the ultimate in individuality, self-expression and Bespoke service. Far more than just a beautiful motor car, a coachbuilt creation becomes a legacy that embodies something extraordinarily personal and emotionally resonant for each client. For our designers, too, Coachbuild provides unparalleled creative freedom; opportunities to take design, materials, engineering and craftsmanship to the very highest levels. For Rolls-Royce as a marque, it is both a return to our roots and a contemporary revolution, in which we deliver the impossible in conventional automotive manufacturing into a stunning reality.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“Every Rolls-Royce Coachbuild commission is, of course, incredibly special; but in this case, there was an additional depth of feeling. Creating a motor car in honour of a revered client’s father and family history is an extraordinary privilege; a responsibility that we took very much to heart. The commissioning patron's deep-rooted connection to Boat Tail is an inspiration – the result far exceeds a means of conveyance to become, quite literally, a moving work of art."
Alex Innes, Head of Coachbuild Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars



Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is honoured to present the next chapter of its Boat Tail coachbuilt commission – one of just three that have been, and ever will be made.

The essence of Rolls-Royce Coachbuild is that each commission tells a story entirely unique and personal to its owner, reflecting their own history, tastes and sensibilities. With this in mind, Boat Tail, revealed at Concorso d'Eleganza, Villa d'Este 2022, on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, is a masterwork of restraint, sophistication, elegance and attention to detail.

Boat Tail is entirely hand-built, with the body panels fashioned from vast, single sheets of aluminium to create the distinctive outline inspired by the racing yachts of the early 20^th century. In every respect, this remarkable motor car is entirely unique.

It was commissioned by a patron whose family business has grown from his father's origins in the pearling industry. Widely travelled, internationally educated and cosmopolitan in his tastes and influences, the client is an established patron of the arts, who additionally owns a sizeable collection of classic and modern cars, housed in a dedicated private museum.

A level of sophistication, garnered from the client's extensive knowledge of luxury, is clearly visible in this coveted objet d'art. The overall design aesthetic is restrained; a study in carefully considered materials and precise details that together create a highly personal and emotionally resonant homage to the client’s father. 

At the onset of the commissioning process, the client presented Rolls-Royce Coachbuild Designers with a selection of four pearl shells, personally chosen from his private collection for their unique colour and complexity. The shells provided inspiration for the exterior colour, which is one of the most complex Bespoke finishes ever created by Rolls-Royce.

The foundation of the colour is a shimmering blend of oyster and soft rose, with large white and bronze mica flakes adding a unique pearlescent quality that changes subtly under different light conditions. The contrasting cognac-coloured bonnet, created specifically for this Boat Tail, contains fine bronze and gold coloured aluminium mica flakes complete with a layer of crystal and iced matt clear coat, adding significant warmth and depth to the car's appearance. The technical fibre lower sills of Boat Tail incorporate a rose gold woven thread.

The rear deck, which houses Boat Tail's unique 'butterfly-design' hosting suite, is swathed in Royal Walnut veneer, inlaid with rose gold-plated pinstripes with a satin-brushed finish to ensure a sensitive and sophisticated appearance. The Royal Walnut was specifically selected by the client for its beautiful properties as it matures over time, a material that will gradually transition to the tonal properties of the cognac colour. From above, one observes a harmonious balance and satin effect of the iced bonnet and tactile wooden rear deck, in contrast with the high-gloss front and side perspectives.

From the front, the Pantheon Grille, milled from a single, solid billet of aluminium, is graced with a Spirit of Ecstasy fashioned in rose gold.

The interior is a beautifully curated combination of perfectly matched cognac and oyster-coloured leathers and Royal Walnut veneer, with rose gold and mother-of-pearl accents throughout. The leathers, complete with a pearlescent finish, accentuate the surfaces and forms of Boat Tail's seats and interior design. The transmission tunnel is formed from Royal Walnut veneer with rose gold pinstripes, drawing a direct visual reference to the rear deck and adding a glowing warmth to Boat Tail's interior.

The centrepiece of the dashboard is a timepiece made from mother-of-pearl, chosen and supplied by the client from his own collection; the fascia of which is pure and minimal in its appearance so as not to detract from the precious material. The same prised substance graces the control switches and instrument dials, creating a strong visual and material connection between the car, the owner, and his family heritage.

Alex Innes, Head of Coachbuild Design, said, “Boat Tail is a step-change in ingenuity and creative liberty. Building a motor car by hand offers a new realm of exploration and possibility: we can accomplish things and resolve challenges that normal industrialised methods would prohibit. This is the tale of two worlds: a modern motor car of contemporary design, made possible by historical techniques and time-honoured craft. It is truly, one-of-a-kind.”

• Unique coachbuilt 'Boat Tail' makes its first-ever public appearance at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on 2 & 3 October 2021
• Boat Tail on view to guests and media for two days only on the Mosaic Lawn within the grounds of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este, on the shores of Lake Como, Italy
• Exhibited four years after the first coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern era, Sweptail, was launched at the same event in 2017

“It is a wonderful privilege to reveal this unique Rolls-Royce to the world for the very first time. Although images have been widely shared, the car itself has not been displayed in public before. The Villa d'Este Concorso d’Eleganza is the perfect occasion, bringing together leading international media alongside knowledgeable motoring experts and discerning luxury aficionados, on the glamorous shores of Lake Como. There is also a pleasing symmetry in that we launched the first coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern era, Sweptail, at the 2017 event.

"It is a truly historic moment for the marque. We are leading a modern coachbuilding movement that takes the wider luxury industry into an entirely different space, where hyper-personalisation and contemporary patronage provide essentially limitless possibilities."
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars


Rolls-Royce's coachbuilt masterpiece Boat Tail makes its global public debut at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on 2 October 2021. The car will be unveiled at 11.30 local time on the Mosaic Lawn by Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. It will then be available for guests and journalists to view for two days only, before returning to the privacy and seclusion that have surrounded it since it was formally revealed in May 2021. 

Images of the car have been shared and admired around the world; however, this is the first time Boat Tail itself has been displayed in public. It is a unique opportunity for guests and journalists to examine the car's remarkable coachbuilt construction and extraordinary Bespoke detailing, which were designed and hand-built at the Home of Rolls-Royce in a highly demanding technical and creative project lasting almost four years.

Boat Tail marks a seminal moment in the annals of Rolls-Royce, demonstrating the marque's commitment to coachbuilding as a central part of its future direction and portfolio. It continues and accelerates a contemporary coachbuilding movement that began with Sweptail, the first coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern era, which also made its first public appearance at Villa d'Este back in 2017.

Boat Tail represents a pivotal moment for the wider luxury goods sector.  As a truly hand-built, one-of-a-kind creation, in which both the bodywork and interior are designed and produced to the client’s specification, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild redraws the boundaries of luxury and opens vast new possibilities for patrons of contemporary design and fine craftsmanship.

First staged in 1929 on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is one of the most important and glamorous occasions on the international lifestyle calendar. Normally held in May, the 2021 event takes place from 1-3 October 2021, with Boat Tail presented to the world, for the first time, on 2 & 3 October only.

• Rolls-Royce collaborates with Swiss master horologists BOVET 1822 to create unique timepieces for first Boat Tail coachbuilt commission 
• Pair of reversible tourbillon timepieces, each designed to be worn on the wrist, used as a table clock, pendant or pocket timepiece, or placed within the fascia as Boat Tail’s Timepiece
• Timepieces and dashboard holder took 3,000 hours to develop and manufacture  
• Five-day power reserve and tourbillon mechanism ensure the timepieces keep perfect time when used as dashboard clocks
   

“Rolls-Royce Boat Tail is a pure expression of its owners’ interests, influences and passions, with every detail minutely considered. We have enjoyed working with BOVET 1822 to create a pair of exquisite timepieces that also serve as Boat Tail’s dashboard clocks. In doing so we have together created historically significant items of detail, precision, and beauty. These remarkable objets d’art, unique to the first iteration of Boat Tail, represent the finest examples of the skills and values shared by our two great luxury Houses.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

"I am so proud of the BOVET 1822 team, who worked in tandem with their counterparts at Rolls-Royce to produce something truly spectacular. The owners of the coachbuilt car, and these bespoke timepieces, are personal friends, as well as valued collectors of BOVET 1822. It was important to do the very best for them - two completely unique pieces that are unlike anything we have ever done before."
Pascal Raffy, Owner, BOVET 1822


A MOMENT IN TIME

The clock in a Rolls-Royce motor car frequently assumes a jewel-like status, often becoming a canvas for the client to tell the story of their commission in miniature. For Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, the recently unveiled, first of three, coachbuilt creations, in which every element has been created to the owners' exact specifications, this iconic centrepiece has been elevated to new technical and aesthetic heights.

In a spirit of warm collaboration, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Swiss master watchmakers, BOVET 1822, have created a pair of unique timepieces for Boat Tail and its owners. This ambitious undertaking brought together designers, engineers and craftspeople from both luxury Houses, in a magnificent demonstration of their shared values of excellence, precision, heritage, artistry, innovation and attention to detail.

The timepieces are unique to both the horological and automotive worlds. Made as a pair - in lady's and gentleman's versions - they are reversible, and housed in BOVET 1822's patented Amadeo case, which allows them to be worn on the wrist, or used as a table clock, pendant or pocket-watch, as well as being placed front and centre in Boat Tail’s fascia as the motor car’s own timepiece. Both are fitted with tourbillon mechanisms to ensure perfect accuracy.


IN KEEPING WITH TRADITION

BOVET 1822 initially earned its reputation making luxury pocket-watches for wealthy patrons in China; today, it is renowned worldwide for its exquisite timepieces featuring hand-painted dials, detailed engraving and finely finished visible mechanisms.

The timepieces, created for this first iteration of Boat Tail, have specially designed 18K white gold cases and feature matching front dials with the same Caleidolegno veneer found on the aft deck of Boat Tail itself, and are finished with the owner-couples’ names. The gentleman’s timepiece is highly polished; the lady’s is ornately engraved then filled with blue lacquer.

On the reverse side, the dials are more individual. The gentleman’s features an aventurine dial with the celestial arrangement of the night sky over the place of his birth on his birth date; the lady’s is decorated with an ornate miniature painting of a flower bouquet on a mother-of-pearl dial. This design is a traditional BOVET 1822 motif, chosen by and personalised for the owner.

Both reverse dials have hand-engraved Bespoke sculptures of Boat Tail, complete with wheels, door handle, mirrors and other fine details. By working closely together, the teams at Rolls-Royce and BOVET 1822 were able to achieve a precise colour match between the lacquer on this tiny work of art and the full-size motor car.

Further close cooperation was required to ensure the timepieces conformed to the demands of their unique role as motor car clocks. In watchmaking, weight is rarely an issue for a complex timepiece, but in this instance, there was a limit on the combined permissible weight of the timepieces and their holders. BOVET 1822 met this requirement by creating an entirely new 44mm white gold case. In addition, the timepieces and holders also had to be tested to automotive-industry standards for vibration and crash safety – something never previously undertaken on mechanisms of this kind.

At a conservative estimate, the timepieces’ design, engineering, sculptures, miniature painting, marquetry, bespoke movements and cases took a total of 3,000 hours to complete.


THE TRANSFORMATIVE TOURBILLON

When a pocket-watch is left static in one position for any length of time, the effect of gravity on key moving parts can impair its accuracy. At the end of the 18^th Century, watchmakers solved this problem by developing the tourbillon, where the escapement and balance wheel are mounted in a cage that slowly revolves, cancelling out the gravitational effect. In a wristwatch, the wearer’s natural physical movements diminish the need for the tourbillon. However, when that same timepiece is mounted vertically in a car dashboard for many hours at a time, the tourbillon truly comes into its own. 

BOVET 1822 is a specialist in tourbillion timepieces, for which it holds a number of patents and has received many awards including the Aiguille d’Or, watchmaking’s highest honour. It is also one of the only companies in the watch industry to manufacture its own spirals and regulating organs. To reduce potential impact from the vibration from the car, the tourbillon has pivots rather than the traditional ball bearings; a heavier balance wheel and an increased oscillation rate to aid precision. Finally, the tourbillon bridge is finished with a miniaturised Spirit of Ecstasy handcrafted in gold.

The timepieces have an astonishing five-day power reserve, rather than the 42-48 hours of a 'standard' watch, to allow for their role as motor car clocks.


DASHBOARD HOLDER MECHANISM: PERFECT PRECISION 

The holder mechanism is unique to Rolls-Royce Boat Tail and was designed by BOVET 1822 engineers and the Rolls-Royce Coachbuild design team from a blank sheet of paper. Although in a Rolls-Royce vibration is naturally reduced to an absolute minimum – undetectable vibrations are inevitably still present. This highly complex mounting assembly serves to isolate the timepieces from these micro-vibrations. It also ensures they operate silently, are easy to mount and remove from the dashboard and, above all, remain safe and secure.

These challenges were unlike any normally encountered in watchmaking and car manufacture. From the start, BOVET 1822 was determined to follow a purely mechanical approach in keeping with its tradition of Swiss handcrafted production. The engineers’ innovative solution was to keep all the system’s moving parts external, with the dashboard providing a solid setting for the holder. Finally, Rolls-Royce ensured that when the holder is not housing one of the time pieces, it can be covered with a beautiful engraved and lacquered display plaque.  Below the clock, the dashboard is fitted with a special drawer, lined with the same leather as Boat Tail’s seats, which serves as a safekeeping receptacle to house the timepieces, straps, chain and pendant when not in use. 


ROLLS-ROYCE BOAT TAIL TIMEPIECES FACTS & FIGURES

Case Size: Bespoke; diameter - 44mm; thickness – 14mm

Case Type: 18K white gold Fleurier case; BOVET 1822 bow at 12 o’clock; 49 components

Case Function: Amadeo Convertible System; reversible; pocket watch on chain; pendant watch on necklace; table clock; dashboard clock

Case Finishing: Men’s timepiece is high polish finish; Women’s timepiece is hand-engraved then filled with blue lacquer

Movement: Bespoke 60-second tourbillon; manual-wind; 284 components (without dial and hands); 21,600 v/h

Functions: Hours and minutes on both sides (reverse hand-fitting); power reserve indicator on front

Power Reserve: 5 days

Men’s Front Dial: Hand-made wood marquetry dial; hand-engraved Spirit of Ecstasy sculpture fixed to the tourbillon bridge; "A Special Timepiece Commission" on the dial

Women’s Front Dial: Hand-made wood marquetry dial; hand-engraved 18K white gold Spirit of Ecstasy sculpture; "A Special Timepiece Commission" on the dial

Men’s Reverse Dial: Blue aventurine glass with sky chart of owner’s birth day and birth place; hand-engraved bespoke Boat Tail sculpture, lacquered to match the colour of the car then miniature painted by hand to add the details; lady's name engraved on the mirror-polished (by hand by the watchmaker) tourbillon bridge

Women’s Reverse Dial: Miniature hand-painting of flower bouquet on mother-of-pearl dial (based on historical BOVET 1822 timepiece, customised); hand-engraved bespoke Boat Tail sculpture, lacquered to match the colour of the car then miniature painted by hand to add the details; gentleman's name (engraved on the mirror-polished (by hand by the watchmaker) tourbillon bridge

Dashboard Holder: Aluminium and Titanium; 51 components; Engraving of two Rolls-Royce Boat Tails in a white gold case, to match that of the timepieces, to place inside when the timepiece is not present (100% engineered, designed, and produced in-house by BOVET)

In-car Drawer: to hold timepieces, straps, chain, necklace

Independent laboratory certification: shock, temperature, humidity, vibration

• Rolls-Royce introduces utterly unique coachbuilt ‘Boat Tail’ commission
• Rolls-Royce Coachbuild to become a permanent fixture in future portfolio
• Based on a true commission model, ‘Boat Tail’ represents a collaborative exploration of luxury, design and culture between the marque and commissioning clients
• Coachbuild empowers clients to create potent evocative expressions of personal taste
• Rolls-Royce Coachbuild is contemporary patronage in its truest form
• Rolls-Royce prompted the contemporary coachbuilding movement in 2017 with the introduction of ‘Sweptail’

“Today marks a seminal moment for the House of Rolls-Royce. We are proud to unveil Rolls-Royce Boat Tail to the world, and with it, the confirmation of coachbuilding as a permanent fixture within our future portfolio.

“Historically, coachbuilding had been an integral part of the Rolls-Royce story.  In the contemporary Rolls-Royce narrative, it has informed our guiding philosophy of Bespoke. But it is so much more. Rolls-Royce Coachbuild is a return to the very roots of our brand. It represents an opportunity for the select few to participate in the creation of utterly unique and truly personal commissions of future historical significance.

“Rolls-Royce has carefully listened to its closest clients, each of whom has expressed a desire to deepen their relationship with the brand by creating ambitious, personal statements of true luxury. Rolls-Royce Boat Tail is not a concept created to be retrospectively sold.

“Quite the contrary. Rolls-Royce believes in complete authenticity and Boat Tail is the culmination of a four-year collaboration with three of our most special clients.

“Rolls-Royce Coachbuild clients are intimately and personally involved at each step of the creative and engineering process. We work in harmony with the client to gain complete fluency in the nuances of their character and personality. We carefully translate these qualities into the elements with which they wish to imbue their commission.

“Only the House of Rolls-Royce can offer its Coachbuild clients the inimitable opportunity to commission a product of future historical significance, that is as fundamentally unique as they are – and then participate in every detail of its creation.

“This is authentic luxury. This is contemporary patronage in its truest form. This is Rolls-Royce Coachbuild.”


Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce 

“Rolls-Royce Boat Tail challenges the notion of what a motor car is and creates a new definition of what a motor car means. Boat Tail exists far beyond a mere means of transport. It is not just the method to reach a destination, but the destination itself. It is an ambition realised with a remarkable cohort of women and men who empowered the marque to create a concept of extraordinary scope.

“Coachbuild provides freedom to move beyond the usual constraints. Normally, there is a natural ceiling to Rolls-Royce Bespoke by way of the canvas. At Rolls-Royce Coachbuild we break through that ceiling, embracing the freedom of expression afforded by coachbuilding to shape a concept directly with our commissioning patrons.

“With Boat Tail we have achieved this. We have created a trio of exceptional cars which, although they share a common body style, are each imbued with the unique, highly personal imprint of the commissioning patron, thereby telling differing stories. Boat Tail is unprecedented. Boat Tail is a distinct counterpoint to industrialised luxury.” 

Alex Innes, Head of Rolls-Royce Coachbuild Design, Rolls-Royce


As a House of Luxury, Rolls-Royce imbues its products with meaning. A Rolls-Royce serves as a canvas onto which clients reflect their personal tastes, express ambitions and often, define legacies. The Bespoke treatment of a Rolls-Royce elegantly reflects its status as ‘the best car in the world’ while stylishly expressing the personality of its commissioning client.

Ever increasingly, clients appreciate and enjoy the marque’s Bespoke capabilities and Rolls-Royce is called upon, by its clients, to integrate itself into their lives in meaningful ways. The brand and its clients have become progressively closer and the designers, engineers and craftspeople at the Home of Rolls-Royce, a Global Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence, have developed a unique fluency in interpreting the lifestyles of these remarkable women and men. This evolution of mutual confidence has resulted in ever more ambitious commissions, reaching well beyond the scope of Bespoke competencies and capacity, into the rarefied realm of coachbuilding. To fulfil these extraordinary client commissions Rolls-Royce has reached a decision to return to one of the historical roots of the marque and to initiate a distinct department within the company, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild.

Coachbuilding is a highly distilled expression of Rolls-Royce Bespoke and is reserved for those who look to move beyond existing constraints. It is based on a true commission model and represents a collaborative exploration of meaningful luxury, design and culture between the marque and its commissioning client. The results become pivotal moments in time that create a future historical legacy, advancing designs which in turn define an era, extending influence far beyond the original intended purpose of a mere means of transportation.

Rolls-Royce Coachbuild is contemporary patronage in its truest form.

The discipline inherent in Rolls-Royce’s approach to coachbuilding requires elite artistic skills that do not exist elsewhere in the automotive industry. Commissioning clients demand an object that is truly transformative; an object that makes a permanent statement and sets itself apart from anything that has gone before.

In response, the marque must interrogate and deeply understand two worlds. The first is the intimately personal context of the client – their individual life-space, how they celebrate, what and who they surround themselves with, and the experiences that have defined the very best moments in these exceptional people’s lives. The second is the broader cultural context in which a Coachbuild car will exist. Here the marque explores the cultural nuances of the client, movements in architecture, couture, colour palettes, artistic tastes – even hospitality.


THE DAWN OF A MOVEMENT

In 2017, the celebrated Rolls-Royce Sweptail defined the dawn of the contemporary coachbuilding movement. It created a definitive moment that raised the awareness of a new watermark in luxury and automotive possibility, illustrating a new realm of exploitation owing to its hand-built nature. This remarkable product, which was instantly proclaimed as one of the finest intercontinental tourers in history, represented a major recalibration of possibility, and confirmed that the legacy of Rolls-Royce will be defined in collaboration with its clients.

Sweptail set a new waterline of potential and ignited a fascination among a rarefied cohort: collectors, patrons of the arts and commissioning clients of now-iconic architecture. A number of these women and men approached Rolls-Royce to discover if they too could collaborate on a unique commission, one that was even more profound – one that provided an elevated sense of curation. The marque agreed, signalling the genesis of a permanent contemporary Coachbuild department at the Home of Rolls-Royce.

Within this group, it emerged that three potential patrons shared a deep appreciation of contemporary nautical design. J-Class yachts were often referenced as points of inspiration, both for their purity of form and their requirement for hand craftsmanship at the highest level to will them into existence.

This client-led creative expression coincided with a long-held ambition of the design team at Rolls-Royce to create a contemporary expression of the Boat Tail typology, where coachbuilders would graft the hull forms of sailing boats onto the rolling chassis of a Rolls-Royce. When the idea of this design direction was proposed, the three patrons were unequivocal in their approval. And all three shared a single demand: “Show me something that I have never seen before.”

In consultation with the clients concerned, an agreement was reached whereby three cars would share a common body, but each would then be individually, highly personalised, reflecting the confluence between vision, capability and ambition of the marque and each of the individual commissioning patrons.

Rolls-Royce Boat Tail was conceived.


THE TRANSFERENCE OF SOUL

The manual techniques of coachbuilding offer new realms of design opportunity. Once the preliminary design proposal is penned by hand, the discovery of the form is enabled with a full-sized sculpture in clay, allowing hand-crafted manipulation of the expansive surfaces to perfect its shape. Throughout this process, the clients were invited to envisage the scope of the collaboration and influence its direction. Cutting-edge engineering technologies within Rolls-Royce are fused with the artistic practice of coachbuilding to exploit new possibilities. The clay sculpture is digitally remastered, from which the buck, is created on to which aluminium sheets are hammer-formed by hand.

Employing age-old individual hand skills and craft, a living canvas is created from metal –honing and optimising the aluminium body, creating a clarity of surface and continuation of line that is unable to be achieved by machine alone. 

The process is akin to yacht building, easing the transference of soul into the creation. A process of hand refinement is repeated almost endlessly, without the pressure of time. Slowly, vast sheets of metal transform into the sculptural representation of Boat Tail. A truly pure form is created: uninterrupted by panel breaks, dramatic in its curvature, monolithic in scale and formed from one seemingly endless surface.


A CELEBRATION OF SUCCESS

The first Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, unveiled today, is a curation of exceptional thoughts, concepts and items, which culminate to form the clients’ perfect experience. The commissioning patrons, a globally successful couple who are highly proficient in the appointment of Rolls-Royces, truly personify connoisseurship; their luxury curation is an artform in itself. Their proposition was purposefully self-indulgent. Their desire was to create a response to a life of hard work, success achieved, and celebration required. Their Rolls-Royce Boat Tail should be joyful, a celebratory car to enjoy with their family.

Together, with the marque’s designers, they embarked on an intellectual journey, founded on a long-standing and creative relationship with the brand.  Indeed, the clients’ fascination of the Boat Tail form was furthered by a motor car in their private collection; a 1932 Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, lovingly restored, by them, in time for their modern Boat Tail’s completion.

Rolls-Royce Boat Tail presents a wonderful new aesthetic for the marque, balancing previously unseen levels of sculpture with discrete, sometimes playful functionality. The creation tells the romantic tale of Rolls-Royce’s history, echoing a Boat Tail design but not explicitly mimicking it, fusing an historical body type with a thoroughly contemporary design. 

At nearly 5.8m long, its generosity of proportion and clarity of surface present a graceful and relaxed stance. The front profile is centred on a new treatment of Rolls-Royce’s iconic pantheon grille and lights. The grille becomes an integral part of the front end, not an applique; a freedom of design bestowed only upon models within the Coachbuild portfolio. This progressive treatment softens Rolls-Royce’s familiar formality while retaining the marque’s undeniable presence. A strong horizontal graphic with deep-set daytime running lights forms Boat Tail’s intense brow line and frames classical round headlamps, a design feature recalled from the design archives of Rolls-Royce.

In profile, nautical references are very suggestive. The wrap-around windscreen recalls the visor on motor launches, while the gentle rearward lean of the A-pillar, the large, crisp volumes at the front and the tapered rear create a gesture that recalls a motor launch rising out of water under power. A progressive negative sculpture in the lower bodyside creates a lithe impression, while making an historical reference to the running boards of prominent heritage Rolls-Royce designs.

Viewed from dead rear, the body resolves in a gentle sharpening of the form. As with the front, a horizontal emphasis is established at the rear with wide, deep-set lamps – a break from the expected vertical Rolls-Royce lamp iconography. 

Indeed, it is at the rear where the nautical references become more apparent. The aft deck, a modern interpretation of the wooden rear decks of historical Boat Tails, incorporates large swathes of wood.  Caleidolegno veneer is applied in a feat of Rolls-Royce engineering; the grey and black material which is typically housed in the interior, has been specially adapted to be used on the exterior, with no compromise to the aesthetic. 

The open pore material features a linear wood grain which is visually elongated by brushed stainless steel pinstripe inlays, serving as an optical nod to the typical wooden construction of yachts – both old and new. The honed skills of Rolls-Royce’s wood specialists have manipulated and book-matched the grain so as to contract with the geometry of the car. The veneer treatment extends to the lower transom area resolving the taper and overall volume astern. This bold truncation is a subtle reference to the hull lines of classic Boat Tail bodies.

From the rear, one perceives a strong graphical composition marked by further horizontal emphasis, accentuating Boat Tail’s great width.  Deep-set lamps establish a dramatically low reference point, evoking the dipped stern and proud bow of a motor launch under power and on plane.

An explicit architectural influence is discovered in Boat Tail’s unconventional fixed-canopy roof. Adding to the sculptural form, the sweeping roofline concludes in delicate structural elements that touch down on the rear, redolent of flying buttresses. Of course, if inclement weather is encountered while the roof is removed, a temporary tonneau is stowed for static transitory shelter.


A MUSE IN BLUE

The exterior of Rolls-Royce Boat Tail is swathed in a rich and complex tone of the client’s favourite colour – blue. The hue, with an overt nautical connotation, is subtle when in shadows but in sunlight, embedded metallic and crystal flakes bring a vibrant and energetic aura to the finish. To ensure the smoothest possible application when rendering the exterior, a finger was run over the definitive body line before the paint had fully dried to soften its edges. The wheels are finished in bright blue, highly polished and clear coated to add to Boat Tail’s celebratory character. 

A hand-painted, gradated bonnet, a first for Rolls-Royce, rises from a comparatively subdued deeper blue which cascades onto the grille, providing a progressive but informal aesthetic and a solidity of overall volume when viewed from the front.

The interior leather reflects the bonnet’s colour tone transition with the front seats swathed in the darker blue hue, recognising Boat Tail’s driver focused intent, while the rear seats are finished in the lighter tone. A soft metallic sheen is applied to the leather to accentuate its pairing with the painted exterior while detailed stitching and piping is applied in a more intense blue inspired by the hands of the car’s timepieces. A brilliant blue is also found woven at a 55 degree angle into the technical fibre elements to be seen on the lower bodywork, precisely orientated to emulate the spill of a water’s wake.

The fascia is distilled in its appearance, purposefully reduced to provide a modern aesthetic. This minimalist canvas accentuates the jewel like features of the completely unique BOVET 1822 timepieces specifically commissioned by the client for Boat Tail (see below). Collecting pens is another of the clients’ great passions. A particularly cherished Montblanc pen will reside in a discretely placed, hand-crafted, case of aluminium and leather, in Boat Tail’s glove box.

The instrument panel dials are adorned with a decorative technique named Guilloché, more commonly perfected in the workshops of fine jewellers and watchmakers. An elegant, thin rimmed two-tone steering wheel then bears the colours of the commission.

The tactility of the open pore Caleidolegno is brought into the cabin. Anthracite in colour, the veneer brings modern strength and depth to offset the softness of the light blue and metallic sheen. The wood is applied to the lower cabin and floor area, reminiscent of wooden hull forms, again, at 55 degrees, perfectly book matched on centre line providing a uniform appearance when viewed from either side.


A SENSE OF OCCASION

“This car should mark a sense of occasion and serve that occasion like nothing else”.

Such was the brief of Rolls-Royce Boat Tail’s commissioning patrons. In response and in reflection of their character, the rear deck inconspicuously houses a highly ambitious concept never seen before in the automotive world. At the press of a button, the deck opens in a sweeping butterfly gesture, to reveal an intricate and generous hosting suite. Its complex movement was inspired by cantilever concepts explored by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava.

The hosting suite creates a celebratory focal point for a shared occasion and affords ample opportunity to reveal the individuality of the clients’ tastes and desires. It harbours an abundance of surprises executed to the highest quality. Expressed in a celebratory fashion, subverting the very notion of the motor car, the hosting suite surprises and delights all who come to experience it. 

Hinged towards the centre line, the synchronised balletic opening movement reveals a treasure chest of moving parts that offer themselves to the host at a precise angle of 15 degrees. This subtle gesture of presentation reflects a genteel and quintessentially British expression of service.

The chest is appointed with the perfect accoutrements for a true Rolls-Royce al fresco dining experience; one side dedicated to aperitifs, the other, cuisine, complete with cutlery engraved with the name ‘Boat Tail’, made by Christofle in Paris.

A double refrigerator has been developed to house the clients’ favourite vintages of Armand de Brignac champagne. Elegant cradles were created to stow the specific bottle size within the refrigerator, the surrounds are highly polished and colour matched to the bottle.

While champagne is a familiar trope in the luxury world, Boat Tail’s client had a particular affinity with fine wine. The husband of this couple recalled a story from his humble beginnings. A great friend of his was a sommelier in his hometown and educated him in the taste profiles of various Grandes Marques de Champagne. This became a life-long education that turned into one of the most informed collections of rare Grand Cru champagnes in the world. The requirement for this knowledge and passion to be shared through the client’s Boat Tail was paramount – as was the need for this champagne to be rapid-cooled to precisely six degrees – the optimum serving temperature of the preferred vintage.

A classic design element of contemporary Rolls-Royce motor cars is the stowage of Rolls-Royce umbrellas in the doors, in anticipation of possible poor weather. In a delightful twist and to heighten the languid experience of Boat Tail, a unique parasol is housed beneath the rear centre line in anticipation of fine weather. A telescopic movement opens this beautiful and whimsical canopy inversely, ensuring effortless deployment.

Cocktail tables, which elegantly rotate to mimic the offering of an attendant, open on either side of the hosting suite providing access to two highly contemporary minimalist stools, which are discretely stowed below. Designed by Rolls-Royce and created by Italian furniture maker Promemoria, the slim-line interlocking stools are formed from the same technical fibre found on the exterior of the car. The interior blue Rolls-Royce leather provides the stools’ suitably comfortable seating materials.


TIMELESS PASSION – A COLLABORATION WITH BOVET 1822

In a move that further demonstrates the clients’ visionary approach to contemporary patronage, two great luxury Houses with a common pursuit of perfection have been brought together at the clients’ behest. World-class craftspeople from the House of BOVET 1822, which was founded on the philosophy of ingenuity and engineering, were called upon to work hand-in-hand with Rolls-Royce’s own masters in their field.

The mechanically minded clients sought to break new ground in horology. As esteemed and passionate collectors of both the Swiss-based House of BOVET and Rolls-Royce, their vision was to create exquisite, ground-breaking timepieces for their Boat Tail. In an act of tireless endeavour and genuine collaboration, the Houses have come together to re-imagine Rolls-Royce’s iconic centrepiece, the dashboard clock.

The result is an accomplishment never before realised in either industry. Two fine reversable timepieces, one for the lady and one for the gentleman, have been designed to be worn on the wrist, or, placed front and centre within Boat Tail’s fascia as the motor car’s clock. 

The two-sided timepieces required Rolls-Royce and BOVET 1822 to work side by side over the course of three years to develop a ground-up remastering of the Amadeo convertible system, the most complex undertaken to date. The result is a true reflection of BOVET’s mastery, allowing for the bespoke tourbillon timepieces’ inclusion in the motor car.

Pascal Raffy, owner, BOVET 1822, commented, “I am so proud of the BOVET 1822 team, who worked in tandem with the elite design team at Rolls-Royce to produce something spectacular. These two pieces, and the mounting system, are completely unique and unlike anything we have ever done before.” 

The story behind the creation of these remarkable works of art, and a detailed exploration of their mechanisms, together with information on the precious materials, unique micro-sculptures and the vast complexity of the watch carrier will be shared via a press release on 8 June, 2021 at 1pm BST.


AN ENGINEERING MARVEL

To fulfil the clients’ extraordinary ambitions, significant engineering challenges were overcome in the development of Rolls-Royce Boat Tail. Indeed, 1813 completely new parts were created specifically for the cars. Time, patience, dedication and passion were the project’s hallmarks. To complete the preliminary engineering phase, prior to the commencement of production, a total of over 20 collective years were expended.

While designs were being finalised with the clients, the marque’s body-in-white, with its scalable aluminium spaceframe architecture, was completely reconfigured to support Boat Tail’s generous proportions, a process that took eight months in itself. As ever, the 15-speaker Bespoke Rolls-Royce Audio System was intended from the motor car’s inception, but the spaceframe architecture was exploited differently. Rolls-Royce’s existing product portfolio use a specially designed sill section of the architecture as the resonance chambers for the sound system’s bass speakers. In Boat Tail, the entire floor structure is utilised, creating an exceptional audio experience for the client.

To support the complex requirements of the hosting suite to the rear of Boat Tail, a unique electronic treatment was required. Five electronic control units (ECUs) were created for the rear of the car alone – a process that required a completely redesigned, dedicated wiring harness, which was the product of nine months of intensive research and development. Only then was it possible for the aft deck lids to open to an appropriate 67-degree angle, incorporate a highly secure locking mechanism and integrate a total climate control system to the rear hosting suite to preserve any cuisine stowed on board.

Indeed, the inside temperature of the hosting suite was a specific consideration. Boat Tail was created in anticipation of fair weather, so measures needed to be taken to ensure that heat absorption did not adversely affect the contents of the suite, which could include food, liquids and of course champagne. To that end, two fans are mounted in the lower section of the hosting suite to dissipate heat.  To confirm this and to ensure that Boat Tail’s hosting suite will acquit itself in all climates, it has been rigorously and successfully tested to 80 degrees Celsius and -20 degrees Celsius.

As Boat Tail is a fully homologated, road-legal motor car that was created to be driven, it was only fully released by the marque once it had undergone the same rigorous dynamic testing as all other Rolls-Royces, including high speed analysis to ensure the contents of the rear hosting suite are sufficiently fastened and therefore silent under power. Indeed, each client has stipulated that they wish to drive their Boat Tail immediately upon receipt.

Torsten Müller-Ötvös, concluded, “Boat Tail is the culmination of collaboration, ambition, endeavour, and time. It was born from a desire to celebrate success and create a lasting legacy. In its remarkable realisation, Rolls-Royce Boat Tail forges a pivotal moment in our marque’s history and in the contemporary luxury landscape.” 

When, approximately one year ago, Rolls-Royce presented 103EX to the world, it invoked its coachbuilding heritage to inspire its future clientele. This Vision Vehicle envisaged a world of completely personal luxury mobility where new technologies would allow every Rolls-Royce to be designed in their owners’ image, should they wish. Such a Rolls-Royce would represent the truest meaning of luxury – a personal, Bespoke motor car like no other for each individual commissioning patron.

The mere idea of a modern coachbuilt Rolls-Royce was not enough for one Rolls-Royce connoisseur however. This individual approached the marque with his own idea of a two-seat Rolls-Royce that he wanted to be created in the here and now. That motor car is here, now and is christened ‘Sweptail’. In a nod to the swept-tail of certain Rolls-Royces from the 1920s, admired by the client so much, he asked Rolls-Royce to reimagine this feature on his one-off motor car.

Presenting the car to the media at the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este on Saturday 27^th May 2017, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars said, “Sweptail is a truly magnificent car. It exudes the romance of travel for its own sake, and immediately places ‘Sweptail’ in the pantheon of the world’s great intercontinental tourers. Rolls-Royce’s history as the world’s leading coachbuilder is at the very core of its identity as the world’s leading luxury brand. The arrival of 103EX shone a light on the future of Rolls-Royce in this field, and ‘Sweptail’ is proof, today, that Rolls-Royce is at the pinnacle of coachbuilding. We are listening carefully to our most special customers and assessing their interest in investing in similar, completely exclusive coachbuilt masterpieces. At the same time we are looking into the resources which will allow us to offer this unique service to these discerning patrons of luxury.”

Through this commission, Rolls-Royce has proven once again to be the world’s leading luxury goods provider.

‘Sweptail’ – how the vision became the reality
“Sweptail is the automotive equivalent of Haute Couture,” comments Giles Taylor, Director of Design at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “It is a Rolls-Royce designed and hand-tailored to fit a specific customer. This customer came to the House of Rolls-Royce with an idea, shared in the creative process where we advised him on his cloth, and then we tailored that cloth to him. You might say we cut the cloth for the suit of clothes that he will be judged by.”

In 2013, Rolls-Royce was approached by one of its most valued customers with a very particular request. A connoisseur and collector of distinctive, one-off items including super-yachts and private aircraft, this gentleman came to Rolls-Royce to realise his vision of a one-off luxury motor car like no other.

The client immediately established a close rapport with the design department led by Taylor, who set about bringing the idea to life.

Inspired by the beautiful coachbuilt Rolls-Royces of the 1920s and 1930s, the client’s desire was for a coachbuilt two seater coupé featuring a large panoramic glass roof. As a connoisseur of Rolls-Royces, he was inspired by many of his favourite cars from the marque’s golden era of the early 20th Century, as well as many classic and modern yachts.

The grandeur, scale, flamboyance and drama of the 1925 Phantom I Round Door built by Jonckheere; the svelte tapering glasshouse, dramatic dash to axle proportion and up-sweep of the rear departure angle of the 1934 Phantom II Streamline Saloon by Park Ward; the elegantly falling waist-rail, swept tail coachwork of the 1934 Gurney Nutting Phantom II Two Door Light Saloon, and the flowing roofline, rising departure angle, and again the swept tail coachwork of the 1934 Park Ward 20/25 Limousine Coupé were all considered by today’s Rolls-Royce designers in the creation of this very distinctive motor car.

Over the course of a number of years, Taylor and his team of designers engaged with the client in a wonderfully intellectual journey as they worked together to realise the customer’s distinct vision and bring it to life.

“Our job was to guide, edit and finely hone the lines that would ultimately give our client this most perfect of Rolls-Royces,” comments Taylor.

The result of this one-off coachbuild project is the completely unique Rolls-Royce ‘Sweptail’.

‘Sweptail’ – A distinct vision
The ‘Sweptail’ is without question a Rolls-Royce that fits to the marque’s DNA. Its initial formality when seen from the front signals that this is one very different and distinct Rolls-Royce. One’s attention is first attracted by the confident and solid character of the front profile, centred on a new treatment of the iconic Rolls-Royce Pantheon grille. The largest of any modern era Rolls-Royce, the grille is milled from solid aluminium before being painstakingly polished by hand to a mirror finish. The periphery of the front face of ‘Sweptail’ is framed in brushed aluminium.

As one moves around to the side of ‘Sweptail’ one finds that it is the striking silhouette that defines its unique character. Flowing as they do from upright and formal frontal aspect, the lines of ‘Sweptail’ resolve into a sveltely elegant form. The scale and grandeur of this regal looking coupé is evident. From the leading edge of the windscreen, the roofline accelerates as it fires backwards towards the rear of the motor car, overshooting the boot lid edge to emphasise its length. The longer side window graphic and wide C-pillar finisher underscore the length and proportions of this more wondrous of conveyances.

The coup de gras of the rear is the ultimate homage to the world of racing yachts that inspired the client, with its raked stern. Seen directly from behind, the rear taper contrasts strongly with the front of the motor car, shaping a completely new perception of a dramatic Rolls-Royce Coupé.

Both the roof line as it tapers towards the centre line of the car, concluding in a ‘bullet-tip’ that houses the centre brake light, and the sweeping lower bumper area of the motor car, combine to create a greater feeling of elegance in motion.

The cleanliness of the surface of ‘Sweptail’ is maintained as the bodywork wraps under the car with no visible boundary to the surfaces, a treatment that is akin to the hull of a yacht. The underside of the motor car was designed to deliver the visual of a progressive upward sweep at the rear departure angle of the car, culminating in the swept-tail that gives ‘Sweptail’ it name.

And finishing off the uncluttered rear of this one-off motor car, is its identifier and registration number, 08. Two individual digits milled from ingots of aluminium and hand polished.

The panoramic glass roof invites one into the magnificent interior, along with the natural light
The highlight feature of ‘Sweptail’ however is that specifically asked for by the client. An uninterrupted glass roof, one of the largest and most complex ever seen on a motor car of any marque, allows the cabin to be flooded with natural light, animating a host of beautifully handcrafted materials and componentry.

The size, scale and complexity of the glass roof’s curvature is a marvel to behold, and from above again accentuates the speed and elegance of ‘Sweptail’. Creating the ambience of the interior of the motor car, the glass of the roof is framed by polished aluminium rails that channel it into a vanishing point at the rearmost extremity of the cabin.

Regal but modern interior
The cleanliness and grandeur of the bodywork from the side view, the lengthened side windows and the panoramic glass roof combine to illuminate the two singular occupants of this most singular Rolls-Royce and its modern, minimalistic handcrafted interior. The provision of only two seats in a motor car of this size exudes the romance of travel for its own sake, and immediately places ‘Sweptail’ in the pantheon of the world’s great intercontinental tourers. This is furthered by the overall design of the interior, which has been conceived in a classic two-seat GT configuration, echoing the touring nature of its exterior body lines.

And what a place to be as one watches the world slip by through the vast windows and roof, detached from the outside world in a cocoon of luxury whilst feeling one is part of that passing landscape.

The interior is ruled by a philosophy of simplicity and minimalism leading to a distillation of componentry and a purification of clutter. The value of beautiful materials takes precedence here, resulting in a fastidious suppression of switchgear to the absolute minimum to make way for the richest of materials applied in the most honest of fashions. An uninterrupted and harmonious visual experience of every surface inside the cabin is ensured.

Generous quantities of polished Macassar Ebony and open-pore Paldao adorn the interior, creating visual and tactile contrasts for the owner, both classical and contemporary. All their forms however are thoroughly modern as they echo the exterior lines of ‘Sweptail’, hand-formed to encircle the occupants with some of the most beautiful natural materials in the world. This choice of dark and light, Ebony and Paldao, is set off by contrasting light Moccasin and Dark Spice leathers that adorn the seats, armrests and dashboard top.

But it is what those materials have been made to do that is the most fascinating aspect of this one-off cabin. True to the spirit of a transcontinental GT that Rolls-Royce established in the 20s and 30s, in place of the rear seats is a vast expanse of wood creating a mid-shelf with an illuminated glass lip, and a hat shelf which flows to the outer limits of the interior volume. Sitting under the rear opening backlight through which it can be accessed, the hat shelf is in itself a thing of beauty, highly polished and inset with luggage rails.

Behind the occupants, a feature named the Passarelle flows from the rear edge of the windscreen to resolve in a teardrop as it connects to the hat shelf to join all interior volumes. This element also includes the only visible presence of this singular motor car’s name as ‘Sweptail’ is discreetly debossed into the surface, exactly on the centre line.

Other modern materials and modern uses of those materials feature. The Macassar Ebony veneer seen around the cabin has been handcrafted to adorn the dashboard in the most modern way. The cleanest Rolls-Royce dashboard to date, the minimalist ethic not only dictates that only one control now appears on it whilst all other switchgear is discreetly relocated, but that the clock blends seamlessly too. In a world first, the face of this singular Rolls-Royce clock is also handmade of the thinnest Macassar veneer, visually embedding the clock into the fascia.

The delicacy of this particular piece of veneer allows for its rear illumination to pass through to show the hour marks, meaning the only physical elements on the clock are its hands that are precision machined from titanium. This use of titanium then extends to the faces, numbers and hands on all three hand-assembled instrument dials.

Two final surprise and delight features have been secreted inside ‘Sweptail’ to the stringent standards of the client.

Concealed in the outboard walls on either side of the motor car, behind the opening of the coach doors, are two identical panniers. Each pannier, when activated, deploys forward to present the owner’s bespoke made attaché case which has been carefully packaged to exactly house his personal laptop device. The cases themselves have been hand-constructed from lightweight carbon fibre, wrapped in the finest leather that matches the interior of ‘Sweptail’ and detailed with machined aluminium and titanium clasps and locks.

These attaché cases are twinned with the full set of luggage also developed by Rolls-Royce Bespoke for ‘Sweptail’. The luggage resides in the trunk of the motor car, a trunk beautifully clad in the same wood as the hat shelf and inset with polished aluminium luggage rails.

The coup de gras of this one-off masterpiece is as personal to the owner as every other feature of ‘Sweptail’. The entire centre console now houses a one-off hand-built mechanism that, at the touch of a button, will deploy a bottle of the client’s favourite vintage champagne – the year of his birth – and two crystal champagne flutes. As the lid of the chiller opens, the mechanical action articulates the bottle to the perfect position for the owner to pick up.

A most personal, coachbuilt Rolls-Royce for a specific customer, every aspect of the material treatment of ‘Sweptail’ exudes handcrafted quality and exacting attention to detail. In short, it is a Rolls-Royce – but like no other before.