Last week was an eventful one for Rolls-Royce, as the British car maker made the headlines around the world twice. First, they announced that coachbuilt cars are making a comeback under their umbrella. Then, just a day later, they unveiled yet another unique creation made for one of their customers: the Boat Tail. This is, apparently, the future of Rolls-Royce, the British car maker aiming to provide the ultimate luxury for its customers.
We all love seeing incredible combinations on cars like the Phantom or Cullinan, models that can be configured in truly unique ways. However, even so, they still have the same features and shape like any other Phantom or Cullinan out there. That’s not the case with coachbuilt cars like the Sweptail and Boat Tail. Both cars may be using the same platform underneath it all, but on the outside, they look unique.
In the case of the Boat Tail, the car was created after the unveil of the Sweptail. The latter showed the world what can be done and a number of customers came forward, asking for a similar exercise and a unique car to be commissioned. The company eventually agreed to do it and saw that out of the proposals that came forward, a theme was more common than others: a passion for 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 customers 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 personalized, reflecting the confluence between vision, capability and ambition of the marque and each of the individual commissioning patrons. Rolls-Royce Boat Tail was conceived this way and you can watch the videos below to learn more about the process.
