Somewhere within Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, there exists the Department of Outrageous Customer Requests, although the company prefers to simply call it Coachbuild. This secretive division is staffed by master craftsmen and frequented by ultra-rich petrolheads in search of the ultimate in automotive luxury.
Atop the tree of motorized decadence sits no gold star but the spirit of ecstasy, or a whole Rolls-Royce built to the specifications of a client, to be precise. The luxury barge maker has just unveiled two more of these outlandish creations with the Amethyst Droptail and the La Rose Noire.
Both cars are bespoke creations painstakingly built to the exacting specifications of their mega rich new owners, and each car is filled with its own set of out-of-this-world features.
Let’s start with the Amethyst Droptail, a convertible that was inspired by the birthstone of the owner’s son. To call this opulent drop-top a barge would not be disrespectful, seeing as it clearly has a bit of a maritime theme going on.
The rear, for example, is adorned by the largest wooden surface the company has ever fitted to a car, and just like on a yacht, it is referred to as the aft deck.
The wood was designed to a sample supplied by the client, and in the usual over-the-top style that the Brits are known for, they didn’t just slap it onto the car, but instead developed a completely new laminating process to make it all nice and shiny.
Part of the wooden surface also acts as an aerodynamic aid, meaning this über-cruiser has a wooden spoiler.
The duotone paint was inspired by the growing cycles of the Globe Amaranth wildflower that grows near one of the homes of the owner, and consists of a soft purple hue with silver undertones on the bottom half and a deeper amethyst purple applied on the top bits.
Big 22-inch rims underline the stately appearance, and the cabin is fitted with specially created two-tone leather that matches the Calamander Light open-pore wood veneers surrounding it.
When we say “matches” here, we don’t just mean the wood is roughly the same color as the seats. Oh, no. Someone spent six months looking through over 100 logs to find the perfect piece of wood that best matched the cowhide.
If you think that’s insane, then wait until you see the second dream machine the firm just unveiled. Called the Rolls-Royce Droptail La Rose Noire, it was inspired by the Black Baccara rose and celebrates the love of the husband-and-wife couple who now call it their own.
Painted in two specially developed hues called True Love and Mystery, the car seems to change color depending on the angle of the light. To achieve this finish, craftsmen developed a new painting process that took over 150 iterations to perfect. The brightwork was also specially created for this car, and uses a new chrome plating process that gives it a dark and shimmering finish.
Instead of a fabric roof, this dark rose comes complete with a specially made hardtop that turns it from a sun-seeking cruiser into a sleek and winter-ready coupe. The pièce de résistance on this machine comes in the shape of a complex artwork designed to resemble falling rose petals. The red triangles you see in these pictures aren’t just painted on. That would be way too simple.
Instead, one single Rolls-Royce craftsman worked in a sound-insulated space to create the most complex piece of parquetry ever fitted to a Roller. This elaborate woodwork took two years to create, and consists of 1,603 pieces of wood veneer in total: 1,070 symmetrical ones form the background, and the 533 asymmetrically placed red ones represent the rose petals.
The plush cabin not only features sumptuous leather seats, but also a one-off Audemars Piguet timepiece that can be removed and worn on the owner’s wrist. To round things off, the ultra-wealthy lovebirds who commissioned this car also asked for a special champagne cabinet to be made in the same style as the car, so they could enjoy their favorite bubbly in a fitting way.
Naturally, Rolls-Royce won’t say how much each of these machines cost, but a figure of £20 million (P1.36 billion) was floated for a similar commission not long ago, and we imagine it’s probably in the same ballpark. To some, that’s an insane amount of money to spend on an automobile. To others, it’s the fulfillment of their fantasies. Lucky sods.
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