2024 年 2 月 29 日
劳斯莱斯汽车公司很高兴推出劳斯莱斯 Arcadia Droptail，这是一款精致的车身设计，体现了宁静的氛围。Arcadia Droptail 是安静不羁的缩影，颂扬形式的纯粹性和天然材料，同时大胆表达客户的个人品味。
- 劳斯莱斯汽车推出第三个 Coachbuild Droptail 委员会 Arcadia
- 形式的颂扬：Droptail 主要设计的独特纯粹反映
- 拥有劳斯莱斯历史上最复杂的钟面。仅组装就花费了五个月的时间
- 木剖面制作耗时 8,000 小时
- 委员会以阿卡迪亚命名，阿卡迪亚在古希腊神话中被称为“人间天堂”
- Droptail 是劳斯莱斯现代历史上第一种敞篷跑车车身风格
- 在新加坡的私人仪式上向委托客户展示了车身打造的杰作
“劳斯莱斯车身制造是这个令人难以置信的品牌的巅峰表现，也是豪华车领域无与伦比的概念。在这个部门，世界上最有影响力的人士与我们的设计师、工程师和工匠合作，将全新的想法变为现实。他们共同创造出精美的汽车，这些汽车不仅成为委托客户个人故事中珍贵的一部分，而且还为劳斯莱斯汽车的光荣历史增添了色彩。客户策划这些杰作的各个方面，这些杰作是由我认为是奢侈品行业最有才华的专家团队打造的。Arcadia Droptail 就是这种方法的例证。这款汽车与客户的个性和偏好密切相关，在捕捉他们的个性的过程中，我们有能力做出鼓舞人心的设计、工艺和工程声明，向世界展示我们的雄心和无与伦比的能力。”
克里斯·布朗里奇 (Chris Brownridge)，劳斯莱斯汽车首席执行官
每个 Droptail 委托都反映了对基础设计的深刻的个人理解和解释。通过 Arcadia Droptail，我们见证了极简主义中的大胆和微妙，这些都源自对英国奢华有着独特欣赏的个人的生活方式。在创造这款历史性汽车的过程中，我们再次证明了我们在最高水平上综合和执行定制设计的无与伦比的能力。” Anders Warming，劳斯莱斯汽车设计总监“劳斯莱斯 Arcadia Droptail 的意义在于其微妙之处。它是一个在生活各个领域都重视清晰和精确的个人的投射——从他们对美食的热情、他们精心策划的个人和专业空间以及对当代设计的亲和力。这辆汽车是我们在车身制造部门创造的最忠实地表达个人风格和情感的汽车之一。在捕捉他们的精神时，我们展现出对简单、宁静和美丽内敛优雅的独特欣赏——我很荣幸能够成为其中的一员。” Alex Innes，劳斯莱斯汽车车身设计主管
劳斯莱斯汽车公司很高兴推出劳斯莱斯 Arcadia Droptail，这是一款精致的车身设计，体现了宁静的氛围。Arcadia Droptail 是安静不羁的缩影，颂扬形式的纯粹性和天然材料，同时大胆表达客户的个人品味。Arcadia Droptail 受一位对建筑和设计有着独特喜爱的个人委托，见证了顾客的情感和个人奢华准则，以纯粹和微妙的克制为定义，反映了他们对提炼复杂性以揭示内在的基本本质的坚定信念。
这个客车建造项目的名字来源于阿卡迪亚的神话王国，这个地方在古希腊神话中被描述为“人间天堂”——这片土地以其非凡的自然美景和完美的和谐而闻名。就像其名字的灵感来源一样，Arcadia Droptail 被客户设想为一个宁静的空间，其特点是简约、材料深度和触感，可以作为他们远离复杂商业生活的避难所。
为了捕捉宁静的主题，Coachbuild 设计师开始探索客户最喜欢的世界各地的设计、雕塑和建筑。其中包括新加坡、印度尼西亚和越南的现代主义热带空中花园的精确性和丰富性，以及英国的“仿生”建筑，其中庆祝有机形式和材料诚实。
除了这些参考之外，客户还受到汽车本身和 Droptail 设计理念的纯粹性的启发。委托客户坚持认为，他们的 Coachbuild 汽车应该绝对忠实于他们在 2019 年首次看到的最早的手绘草图。
正是这种高度现代的跑车车身类型投影轮廓引起了委托客户的强烈共鸣。 。他们尤其被这款汽车大胆、低姿态、隐蔽的驾驶室设计和引人注目的车身线条所吸引。他们还立即认识到了 Droptail 的“帆罩”背后的航海灵感：这些尖锐、棱角分明的形状因类似于游艇的三角帆而得名，它们在车门后面升起，并轻轻向内弯曲，巧妙地将目光引向汽车乘员。
外观：向 Droptail 致敬
为了满足客户尊重 Droptail 造型的雄心，劳斯莱斯车身设计设计师为汽车车身设计了一种平静、自然的双色调配色。客户的愿望是定义一种永恒的白色，乍一看是纯色，但在自然光下进一步研究后会产生一定程度的吸引力。为了实现这一目标，主体颜色是注入铝和玻璃颗粒的纯白色。这不仅在光线照射到车身上时产生一种令人兴奋的微光，而且在仔细观察时，还会在油漆中产生无尽深度的错觉。劳斯莱斯专家使用更大尺寸的铝颗粒开发了一种多面、引人注目的金属。客户非常挑剔，要求定制银与白色形成鲜明对比，不仅在颜色上，而且在强度上。
与该系列中其他三辆车身制造的 Droptail 的一个重要区别是，用于构造 Droptail 下部的碳纤维被涂成纯定制银色，而不是完全或部分暴露，在视觉上“提升”了汽车的轮廓强化其轻盈、动态的意图。
为了向历史悠久的劳斯莱斯上特别令客户着迷的亮丽镜面饰面致敬，外部格栅周围、“扭结”叶片件和 22 英寸合金轮毂均经过完全镜面抛光。
虽然阿卡迪亚 Droptail 的外部色调充满了微妙的细节，但其主要目的是庆祝车身的形式和比例。客户尤其被 Droptail 干净、整体的表面和负雕的大胆使用所吸引，这些特征被汽车柔和的油漆颜色放大，反射阳光并投射戏剧性的阴影，突出了 Droptail 的许多微妙的设计姿态。
内饰：以木材为中心
正如劳斯莱斯 Arcadia Droptail 的外观颂扬汽车的外形一样，内饰则深刻地反映了客户的个人审美，反映了他们在世界各地的住宅和商业空间中策划的风格。Arcadia Droptail 的调色板和材料处理被设想为真正的个人陈述，并且可以立即识别为委托客户的个人签名。
木材开发是 Arcadia Droptail 内饰的核心，也是客户关注的焦点，客户的具体期望集中在材料本身的纹理、纹理、颜色和丰富性上。客户分享了许多来自建筑、住宅和经典汽车的偏好和灵感的例子，为劳斯莱斯车身设计设计师和材料专家提供指导。
Santos Straight Grain 最终因其丰富的纹理和视觉吸引力而被选为最现代的宣言，而这源自其独特的互锁纹理图案。
在 Droptail 的内饰中使用这种高密度硬木对该品牌的工匠来说是一个巨大的挑战。桑托斯直纹木材是劳斯莱斯汽车中使用的所有木材品种中最细的纹理类型之一 – 如果处理不当，它在加工时很容易撕裂，并在加工过程中出现“裂纹”（与纹理平行的裂纹）。干燥过程。尽管使用这种精致材料存在挑战，但整个 Droptail 都采用了 Santos Straight Grain，包括具有空气动力学功能的后甲板部分，其中开孔饰面的纹理以完美的 55° 角铺设。为了在复杂的几何形状上实现完美的构图，劳斯莱斯工匠在整个 Arcadia Droptail 中总共使用了 233 块木块，其中仅后甲板就使用了 76 块木块。
鉴于 Arcadia Droptail 将在国际上使用，包括一些热带气候，因此特别关注开发外部木质表面的保护系统和测试过程。最初考虑在超级游艇上使用涂层，但由于需要定期维修和重新涂抹而被拒绝。相反，我们开发了一种定制漆，在汽车的整个使用寿命内只需要涂抹一次。
为了验证这种涂层，劳斯莱斯专家构思了一种独特的测试方案，其中单板件在模拟全球极端天气的专业机器中接受惩罚循环。这包括在将样品木片在黑暗中干燥和将它们暴露在热和强光下之间间歇性地用水喷洒。
该品牌的专家对 18 个不同的样品重复了 1,000 小时的测试，才对产品的耐用性感到满意。木片和保护涂层总共需要 8,000 多个小时的开发时间。
内饰：白色研究
皮革内饰采用两种完全定制的色调，以客户命名并专供客户使用。主要皮革颜色是定制白色色调，延续了外部油漆主题，而对比皮革是定制棕褐色，旨在与所选木材完美搭配。
内饰还包括精致的披肩面板，该面板将所有四辆 Droptail 汽车结合在一起，是劳斯莱斯汽车上见过的最大的连续木质部分。在 Arcadia Droptail 中，它采用与后甲板相同的 Santos Straight Grain 开孔单板制成，以相同的 55° 角进行书形匹配，单独形状的叶子条纹无缝地融入车门内衬。CAD 工具用于绘制每个木块的位置图，虽然它似乎仅由两个镜像的单板部分构成，但仅此面板就由 40 个部分组成，每个部分在固定到汽车上之前都进行了数字映射。
将木材应用于 Droptail 内部的复杂曲率需要劳斯莱斯工程师为多个组件开发全新的下部结构。仪表板、门衬和中央悬臂“底座”扶手的引人注目的几何形状必须非常坚固，以确保木件放置到位后的稳定性。工程师们利用一级方程式赛车中使用的碳纤维分层技术来开发出一种极其坚硬的底座，可以在其上应用木材，以确保无论汽车经历何种动态极限，底座都保持牢固。
定制时计：精密仪器
Santos 直纹饰面板采用劳斯莱斯 Coachbuild 设计师和工匠构思和开发的时钟。这种高级钟表的表达是劳斯莱斯有史以来最复杂的钟面：仅组装过程就花费了五个月的时间，在此之前经过了两年多的开发。
该时钟采用原金属制成，具有 119 个刻面的精美几何扭索图案。这是对该品牌传统的象征性认可。客户在 2023 年末首次看到该车的预览，这一年劳斯莱斯庆祝了其 119 周年纪念日。特别设计的钟面还包括部分抛光、部分拉丝的指针和 12 个“串珠”（或时标），每个厚度仅为 0.1 毫米。为了确保腕表的可读性，专家们为每个花环配备了填充桥，并使用能够将图像放大高达 100 倍的相机手工绘制。
虽然这款腕表采用了许多高级钟表方法来开发，但劳斯莱斯的测试和验证标准高于钟表界的标准。这需要该品牌的专家利用广泛的材料。例如，手表的分钟标记不是采用阳极氧化处理（这是手表制造中的常见做法），而是采用陶瓷涂层进行表面处理，因为陶瓷涂层具有随时间推移的稳定性以及美观性。涂层的小区域被激光蚀刻掉，露出其下方铝材料的镜面光洁度。与腕表中的每一件作品一样，包括定制的“双 R”字母图案，它们均由实心不锈钢坯料单独加工而成，并在组装前经过手工抛光。
时钟的主题与仪表盘相搭配，共享材料、技术和执行。它们具有相同的重复扭索饰纹图案，以及拉丝和抛光亮饰和磨砂白色嵌件，让人想起汽车的色彩设计。
国际化生活方式的宣言
该汽车设计为左舵驾驶，方便其在世界各地使用，反映了顾客的国际生活方式。这种国际化维度对于调试客户来说非常重要，以至于 Coachbuild Collective 希望他们在汽车制造之前在世界各地的多个地点体验汽车。Coachbuild 设计师使用该品牌的“全息甲板”来实现这一目标，这是一种独特的虚拟 3D 环境，客户可以在其中使用先进的虚拟现实 (VR) 耳机来查看汽车出现在世界各地特定地点的情况。
ARCADIA DROPTAIL：DROPTAIL 经典中的优雅空间
虽然每位劳斯莱斯客户都是不同的，但他们每个人都拥有强大的信念，而每个人的要求从一开始就得到了明确的说明。然而，将这些复杂的、高度个人化的情感转化为连贯的、可行的设计是大量工作的成果。正是在这里，Coachbuild 流程投入了前所未有的时间（总共超过四年），以及客户和品牌之间独特的密切关系，带来了无法估量的红利。
Coachbuild 设计师花费了数月的时间来检查和询问客户对从服装和家具到食品和旅行目的地等各个方面的品味。由此，他们定义并编纂了一种植根于客户的真实和经验的美学；以设计团队自身的洞察力、理解力和专业判断的确定性和权威性为支撑，对他们的内心世界和外部环境进行客观的描绘。其他家庭成员，特别是客户的女儿，也参与了这个过程。当最终设计完成后，客户的更多家庭被邀请进行审查：所有人都认为它完美地体现了客户的审美和性格。
客户的品味和身份如此清晰地合理化并投射回他们身上，从而获得了巨大的乐趣。事实上，这个过程揭示了客户比他们想象的更现代的观点，即轻盈、天然材料的使用和对精确的明确热情。此后，Arcadia Droptail 已成为客户接受其他豪华品牌和建筑师委托的参考点。
劳斯莱斯 Droptail 的独特表现体现了这位杰出客户的信心、清晰的愿景以及与劳斯莱斯汽车的长期合作关系。其意义不仅在于其精致简约的执行力，还在于劳斯莱斯车身设计设计师在捕捉个人情感和灵魂方面的独特技巧。
ROLLS-ROYCE UNVEILS ARCADIA DROPTAIL: A COACHBUILT HAVEN OF TRANQUILLITY
29.02.2024
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, celebrating purity of form and natural materials while serving as a bold statement of the client’s personal taste.
- 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, 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.
