Rolls-Royce has shown off the third in its series of bespoke Phantom-based convertible models, known collectively as Droptail. This one, finished in white and dark silver, is called 'Arcadia' after the Greek legend of Heaven on Earth.
Inspired by Asian architecture
The - doubtless incredibly wealthy - customer who commissioned this Droptail wanted it to reflect the traditions of architecture in parts of the world, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore.
The white paint covering the body's main parts is filled with aluminium and glass particles, which Rolls-Royce says gives a depthless shimmer to the colour. The dark silver sections are made of carbon fibre, but the paint is applied to a depth that disguises the natural weave of the material. Meanwhile the exterior chrome, including the famed grille (which in this Droptail gets slightly 'kinked' vanes) is all polished to a mirror shine.
Rolls-Royce says that the monochrome colour scheme "amplifies the Droptail's clean, monolithic surfacing and bold use of negative sculpture."
The interior features woodwork, drawing inspiration from the owners' favourite houses and some other classic cars. The wood used even has a particular name - Santos Straight Grain rosewood - which Rolls-Royce says: "makes the most modern statement, based upon its rich texture and visual intrigue, which is derived from its unique, interlocking grain pattern."
Delicate, breakable wood
Now, there's a hitch here - Santos Straight Grain is a notoriously difficult wood with which to work, tearing and cracking with terrifying ease. With that in mind, the interior of the Arcadia Droptail had to be assembled with incredible care, 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.
In spite of its delicacy, the wood is even used for the aerodynamically functional rear deck section, where the grain of the open pore veneer is laid at a perfect 55-degree angle. To achieve that geometry, Rolls-Royce artisans used a total of 233 wood pieces throughout Arcadia Droptail, with 76 pieces applied to the rear deck alone.
Most of the leather in the cabin has been dyed white to match the exterior, but there's a 'shawl' panel that runs around the upper part, which uses more of the stunning Santos wood. Again, the delicate nature of the wood means that it needs a stable platform to which it can be attached, so Rolls turned to F1 experts to create solid carbon-fibre plinths for the wood sections.
The astonishing clock
Then there's the dashboard clock. Forget the old green digital clock in your 20 year old Toyota Avensis, this is a serious piece of the horologer's art. According to Rolls-Royce, it uses 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 100 times."
The clock is so complex that it took Rolls' people two years to develop, and no less than five months to physically put together.
This Arcadia Droptail is the third of the series, and that leaves one more - doubtless spectacular - Droptail model to come.