- Rolls-Royce Motor Cars presents Arcadia, the third Coachbuild Droptail fee
- Celebration of the shape: uniquely pure reflection of Droptail’s principal design
- Features most advanced clock face in Rolls-Royce historical past. Assembly alone took 5 months
- Wood sections took 8,000 hours to create
- Commission named after Arcadia, a spot identified in Ancient Greek mythology as ‘Heaven on Earth’
- Droptail is the primary roadster physique model in Rolls-Royce’s trendy historical past
- Coachbuilt masterpiece introduced to commissioning consumer at personal 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 current Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail, an beautiful coachbuilt expression of tranquillity. Arcadia Droptail is the epitome of quiet irreverence, celebrating purity of type and pure supplies whereas serving as a daring assertion of the consumer’s private style. Commissioned by a person who possesses a definite affinity for structure and design, Arcadia Droptail is a sworn statement to the patron’s sensibilities and private codes of luxurious, outlined by purity and refined restraint, reflecting their agency perception in distilling complexity to disclose the inherent, basic essence.
This coachbuilt fee takes its identify from the legendary realm of Arcadia, a spot depicted in Ancient Greek mythology as ‘Heaven on Earth’ – a land famend for its extraordinary pure magnificence and ideal concord. Like the haven that evokes its identify, Arcadia Droptail was envisioned by the consumer as a serene house characterised by discount, materials depth and tactility that will function a refuge from the complexities of their enterprise life.
In capturing the theme of tranquillity, Coachbuild designers launched into an exploration of design, sculpture and structure from the consumer’s favorite areas all over the world. This included the precision and richness of modernist tropical sky gardens seen in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam in addition to British ‘Biomimetic’ structure, the place natural types and materials honesty are celebrated.
In addition to those references, the consumer was additionally impressed by the motor automobile itself and the purity of the Droptail design idea. The commissioning consumer insisted that their Coachbuild motor automobile ought to be completely devoted to the earliest hand-drawn sketch they have been first introduced with in 2019.
It was the profile of this extremely modern projection of the roadster physique sort that resonated so strongly with the commissioning consumer. They have been significantly compelled by the motor automobile’s daring, low stance, ensconcing cabin design and dramatic physique strains. They additionally instantly recognised the nautical inspiration behind Droptail’s ‘sail cowls’: named after their resemblance to a yacht’s jib, these sharp, angular types rise behind the doorways and curve gently inwards, subtly directing the attention to the motor automobile’s occupants.
EXTERIOR: A TRIBUTE TO DROPTAIL
In order to fulfil the consumer’s ambition to honour Droptail’s type, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers developed a peaceful, pure duotone colourway for the motor automobile’s coachwork. The consumer’s aspiration was to outline a timeless white, showing as a stable color at first look, however making a stage of intrigue upon additional examine beneath pure mild. To obtain this, the primary physique color is a stable white infused with aluminium and glass particles. This not solely creates an effervescent shimmer when the sunshine strikes the coachwork however, upon shut inspection, creates the phantasm of never-ending depth within the paint. Rolls-Royce specialists developed a extra faceted, hanging metallic utilizing bigger sizing of aluminium particles. The consumer was very explicit and concerned of their request for the Bespoke silver to distinction towards the white, not solely in color, but additionally by way of depth.
In a key departure from the opposite three coachbuilt Droptails on this sequence, the carbon fibre used to assemble the decrease sections of Droptail is painted within the stable Bespoke silver color fairly than left totally or partially uncovered, visually ‘lifting’ the motor automobile in profile to accentuate its lithe, dynamic intent.
In tribute to the sensible mirror end of brightwork on historic Rolls-Royces, which significantly fascinate the consumer, the outside grille encompass, ‘kinked’ vane items and 22-inch alloy wheels have been totally mirror-polished.
While Arcadia Droptail’s exterior palette is wealthy in refined element, its major intention is to have a good time the shape and proportions of the coachwork. The consumer was significantly compelled by Droptail’s clear, monolithic surfacing and daring use of destructive sculpture – options which can be amplified by the motor automobile’s muted paint colors, which replicate daylight and forged dramatic shadows, highlighting Droptail’s many refined design gestures.
INTERIOR: THE CENTRALITY OF WOOD
As the outside of Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail celebrates the motor automobile’s type, the inside is a deeply private reflection of the consumer’s particular person aesthetic, reflective of the model they’ve curated of their residences and enterprise areas all over the world. Arcadia Droptail’s color palette and materials remedy was envisioned to be a very private assertion and immediately recognisable as a private signature of the commissioning consumer.
Wood growth was central to Arcadia Droptail’s inside and the consumer’s focus, whose very particular expectations focused on the feel, grain, color and richness of the fabric itself. The consumer shared many examples of preferences and inspiration from structure, residences and traditional automobiles, to information Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers and materials specialists.
Santos Straight Grain was ultimately chosen as essentially the most trendy assertion, based mostly upon its wealthy texture and visible intrigue, which is derived from its distinctive, interlocking grain sample.
Using this high-density hardwood on Droptail’s inside posed a big problem for the marque’s craftspeople. Santos Straight Grain has one of many best grain kinds of all of the wooden species used inside a Rolls-Royce – if not dealt with with the best care, it simply tears when machined and ‘checks’ (a crack that seems parallel to the grain) in the course of the drying course of. Despite the challenges of working with this delicate materials, Santos Straight Grain is used all through Droptail, together with the aerodynamically purposeful rear deck part, the place the grain of the open pore veneer is laid at an ideal 55° angle. To obtain an ideal composition over advanced geometry, Rolls-Royce artisans used a complete of 233 wooden items all through Arcadia Droptail, with 76 items utilized to the rear deck alone.
Given that Arcadia Droptail can be used internationally, together with some tropical climates, particular consideration was paid to growing a safety system and testing course of for the outside wooden surfaces. Coatings used on superyachts have been initially thought-about however rejected provided that they require common servicing and re-application. Instead, a Bespoke lacquer was developed that requires only one utility for the lifetime of the motor automobile.
To validate this coating, Rolls-Royce specialists conceived a singular testing protocol whereby veneer items have been topic to a punishing cycle inside a specialist machine simulating world climate extremes. This concerned spraying pattern wooden items with water intermittently, between durations of leaving them to dry in darkness and exposing them to warmth and vibrant mild.
This was repeated for 1,000 hours on 18 completely different samples earlier than the marque’s specialists have been happy with the endurance of the items. In whole, the wooden items and protecting coating required greater than 8,000 hours of growth.
INTERIOR: A STUDY IN WHITE
The leather-based inside is completed in two completely Bespoke hues, named after the consumer and reserved solely for his or her use. The most important leather-based color is a Bespoke White hue, persevering with the outside paint theme, whereas the distinction leather-based is a Bespoke tan color, developed to completely complement the chosen wooden.
The inside additionally contains the beautiful scarf panel that unites all 4 Droptail motor automobiles and is the most important steady wooden part ever seen on a Rolls-Royce motor automobile. In Arcadia Droptail, it’s made in the identical Santos Straight Grain open pore veneer because the rear deck, book-matched on the similar 55° angle, with individually formed go away stripes operating seamlessly into the door linings. CAD instruments have been used to map the location of every wooden piece, and though it seems to be constructed from simply two mirrored sections of veneer, this panel alone is made up of 40 sections, every digitally mapped earlier than being fastened to the motor automobile.
Applying wooden to the advanced curvatures of Droptail’s inside required Rolls-Royce engineers to develop a wholly new substructure for a number of parts. The dramatic geometry of the dashboard, door linings and central cantilevered ‘plinth’ armrest needed to be extremely inflexible to make sure the soundness of the wooden items as soon as they have been laid in place. Engineers known as on carbon fibre layering methods utilized in Formula 1 motor racing to develop an extremely stiff base onto which the wooden may very well be utilized, making certain that it remained safe whatever the dynamic extremes the motor automobile skilled.
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 essentially the most advanced Rolls-Royce clock face ever created: the meeting alone was a five-month course of, which was preceded by greater than two years of growth.
The clock incorporates an beautiful geometric guilloché sample in uncooked steel with 119 aspects. This is a symbolic nod to the marque’s heritage; because the consumer first noticed a preview of the motor automobile in late 2023 – the 12 months when Rolls-Royce celebrated its 119-year anniversary. The specifically designed clock face additionally contains partly polished, partly brushed fingers and 12 ‘chaplets’ – or hour markers – every simply 0.1mm thick. To make sure the readability of the timepiece, specialists gave every chaplet an infill bridge and painted them by hand utilizing a digicam able to magnifying a picture by as much as 100x.
While many haute horlogerie strategies have been used to develop the timepiece, the testing and validation requirements at Rolls-Royce are greater than these of the watch world. This required the marque’s specialists to attract on an expansive palette of supplies. For instance, as a substitute of anodizing the timepiece’s minute marker, which is frequent follow in watch manufacturing, it’s completed in a ceramic coating chosen due to its stability over time in addition to its aesthetic deserves. Small areas of the coating have been laser-etched away to disclose the mirror end of the aluminium materials beneath it. Like each piece throughout the timepiece, together with the Bespoke ‘double R’ monogram, they have been individually machined from stable stainless-steel billet and polished by hand previous to meeting.
Themes from the clock are paired with the instrument dials, sharing supplies, methods and execution. They characteristic the identical repeated guilloché sample, in addition to brushed and polished brightwork and frosted white inserts, recalling the colourway of the motor automobile.
STATEMENT OF A COSMOPOLITAN LIFESTYLE
Reflecting the patron’s worldwide way of life, the motor automobile is specified with left-hand drive to facilitate its use all over the world. This worldwide dimension was so vital to the commissioning consumer that the Coachbuild Collective needed them to expertise the motor automobile in a number of places all over the world earlier than it was constructed. Coachbuild designers used the marque’s ‘holodeck’ to facilitate this – a singular digital 3D atmosphere wherein the consumer makes use of a complicated digital actuality (VR) headset to view the motor automobile as it might seem in particular places all over the world.
ARCADIA DROPTAIL: AN ELEGANT SPACE IN THE DROPTAIL CANON
While each Rolls-Royce consumer is completely different, they every share a robust power of conviction, and this particular person’s necessities have been clearly acknowledged from the outset. However, translating these advanced, extremely private sensibilities right into a coherent, workable design was the product of a big physique of labor. It was right here that the Coachbuild course of, with its unprecedented funding of time – over 4 years in whole – and uniquely shut relationship between the consumer and the marque, paid incalculable dividends.
Coachbuild designers invested many months analyzing and interrogating the consumer’s tastes in all the pieces from garments and furnishings to meals and journey locations. From this, they outlined and codified an aesthetic rooted within the consumer’s fact and expertise; an goal portrait of their inner world and exterior environment, backed by the understanding and authority of the design group’s personal discernment, understanding {and professional} judgment. Other relations, notably the consumer’s daughter, additionally turn out to be engaged with the method. When the ultimate design was prepared, the consumer’s wider household have been invited to evaluation it: all agreed that it completely captured the consumer’s aesthetic and character.
The consumer derived monumental pleasure from having their tastes and identification so clearly rationalised and projected again to them. Indeed, the method revealed the consumer had a much more trendy outlook than they realised, outlined by lightness, using pure supplies and a transparent ardour for precision. Arcadia Droptail has since turn out to be a reference level for the consumer’s commissions from different luxurious homes and designers.
This distinctive expression of Rolls-Royce Droptail displays this exceptional consumer’s confidence, readability of imaginative and prescient and long-term relationship with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Its significance lies each in its exquisitely minimal execution and the distinctive ability of Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers in capturing the sensibilities and soul of a person.
