Back in the 1920s and 1930s, luxury cars such as a new Rolls-Royce were not sold as a complete car. From Rolls, one would buy a rolling chassis and engine, and would then take that to a coachbuilder, who would create for you a bespoke bodywork with its own unique signature. Hence why, when you look at adverts for cars from that period, they will often say that the bodywork is by such as Hooper, or Mulliner Park Ward, or even Van den Plas.
Truly bespoke bodywork
Well, Rolls-Royce is now bringing some of that golden age magic back to its modern machines, with the twist that now you will be able to order your unique, bespoke bodywork right from the factory. Well, it's kind of tricky to get hold of a rolling Rolls chassis these days...
The new programme is called Coachbuild and it goes rather further than the existing Bespoke setup, which lets you choose leather and paint colours, trims and wood veneers. Coachbuild will allow you, with a sufficient depth of pocket, to create a Rolls-Royce that's unique to you.
The first such product from Coachbuild is this, the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail. "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" said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce. "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."
Inspired by racing yachts
So what is the Boat Tail? Well, just as with the whole idea of coachbuilding, the name harks back to Rolls-Royces of the 1920s and 1930s, when coachbuilders would design bodywork that mimicked the sweeping lines of racing yachts. Three of these new Boat Tails will be built, and all three have already been sold. Indeed, they were sold before they were created, as all three clients worked closely with Rolls-Royce's designers and engineers to help define the finished product.
The Boat Tail is based on the same 'Architecture of Luxury' chassis that also underpins the current Rolls range of Phantom, Ghost, and Cullinan, and uses the same 565hp 6.75-litre turbocharged V12 petrol engine. The style, at least at the front, is very much like that of the Phantom, albeit with new, incredibly slim, headlights and a touch of the sleekness of the Ghost's grille arrangement. Rolls refers to the design at the front as 'an intense brow' and we can see what they mean.
Despite that relationship with the Phantom et al, Rolls-Royce says that the Boat Tail uses 1,813 completely new parts, so it essentially counts as a new model line. It certainly demonstrates the versatility of the underlying architecture. "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" said Alex Innes, Head of Rolls-Royce Coachbuild Design.
Innes' best work, though, has been saved for the rear of the car. Taking some inspiration from the one-off 2017 Rolls-Royce Sweeptail concept, the Boat Tail has, well, a boat-like tail, one that sweeps down from the removable 'canopy' hard-top roof and which comes almost to a sharp point around the rear lights.
That's not a conventional boot, either, but rather a 'butterfly' tail (Rolls refers to it as a 'rear deck'), with panels that open from a central spine hinge, and which reveal a 'hosting suite' underneath. The deck itself is made with Caleidolegno veneer, usually used on the inside, but specially made and treated so that it will survive exposure to the elements.
That hosting suite includes, as the company puts it; "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." There's a fridge, filled with bottles of Armand de Brignac champagne mounted in special cradles so that they don't roll around. The bottles are also cooled to a precise temperature of six degrees Celsius, which is apparently the perfect temperature at which to serve this particular vintage. Two cocktail tables rotate out from the opened deck, and there are also two fold-out stools, suitably made by Italian furniture maker Promemoria and which feature some of the same leather trim as the car's interior. There's even a fold-out parasol umbrella, and some rather more practical rain-proof brollies stored in the front doors.
Dashboard clocks that are also watches
Inside, the dashboard is largely familiar from the current Rolls-Royce lineup, but with new dials that get a machined alloy finish. There's bespoke blue leather upholstery, to match the specially created exterior blue paint (and the hand-painted bonnet, which has a graduated colour moving from lighter to darker blue as you look along it). There's special stitching, and because the owner of this car is a collector of antique pens, a special Mont Blanc pen in a bespoke case mounted inside the glove-box. Ideal for signing your credit card stub at the local Circle K...
Oh, and the Boat Tail doesn't just get a dashboard clock - it gets two dashboard clocks. And they're not clocks, they're specially made his-and-hers tourbillon (originally a term that meant a more precise watch movement, but which now more usually means a watch where the movement is visible through the dial) watches, made by Swiss company Bovet, and designed so that they can be detached from their straps and mounted to the dashboard.
Other special equipment includes a modified version of the Bespoke Rolls-Royce Audio System, which has been redesigned to take advantage of the Boat Tail's body shape, and five new electronic control units (ECUs) which had to be incorporated just for the rear of the car, to control the food-and-wine storage, the opening of the rear deck, and the parasol. Indeed, Rolls claims that the champagne cooler and food storage has been "rigorously and successfully tested to 80 degrees Celsius and -20 degrees Celsius." The car has even been fully performance tested, to ensure that the food and booze remains secure even when being hurled around a test track.
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."