Rolls- Royce Boat Tail, the world's most expensive car, is going bust
Rolls-Royce now joins a host of other luxury car makers, along with Bentley and Porsche, who work with a limited number of wealthy customers to build very expensive, personalized vehicles. (Both Bentley and Porsche are part of the Volkswagen Group, while Rolls-Royce is owned by BMW.)
On Thursday, Rolls-Royce unveiled a brand new program known as Rolls-Royce Coachbuild. This division will work with special customers to help them design and build vehicles specifically for them.
The luxury automaker will only work on one of these vehicles every few years, Rolls-Royce officials said. Rolls-Royce would not say how much the vehicles will cost, but it seems clear that they will cost many millions of dollars.
" Rolls-Royce Coachbuild customers are closely and personally involved in every step of the creative and technical process," Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said.
Sonderwunsch" is what Porsche calls its department for individualized vehicles. The program, which existed from Porsche's earliest days until the 1980s, has only recently been revived. Now Porsche offers absolutely personalized new vehicles, as well as special designs based on basic Porsches, such as the 356 and early 911s.
Porsche's program was responsible for the introduction of such improvements as the rear window wiper, in addition to Porsche's first car radio on the Porsche 356 sports car.
"Listening to our customers has always been a source of innovation for our company," said Christian Heck, director of product management for the Porsche program.
Last year, Bentley unveiled the Bacalar, a completely roofless car of which 12 examples will be produced at a cost of $2 million each. With the unveiling of this car, Bentley additionally introduced its personal return to "coachbuilding."
A really expensive picnic basket
To launch its new Coachbuild division, Rolls-Royce unveiled a brand new car named Boat Tail, of which solely three will be made. These cars were commissioned by three completely different customers - Rolls-Royce wouldn't name them - all of whom were fascinated by boating and yachts and needed something that conveyed a nautical feel.
Rolls-Royce won't say how much each of these vehicles cost, but the estimated value is around $25 million each.
The Boat Tail's physique model is back to basic vehicles from the Nineteen Twenties and '30s. Back then, luxury vehicles were usually designed with a tapered tail, much like the tail fin on a ship. Much like tail fins on cars in the '50s, which conveyed speed and elegance by reminiscent of airplanes, boat tails gave vehicles a fast, aerodynamic look. They were often covered with wooden planks to resemble a wooden boat of the time.
The storage space in the back of the Boat Tail is refrigerated to protect food and keep drinks at the right temperature.
Instead of a fold-up roof like most convertibles, the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail has a completely removable roof that comes off the car one at a time. This frees up storage space behind the car, which in this case has become a really expensive picnic basket.
Two lids open along the edges. Inside are elaborately embossed silverware, glasses of various kinds, napkins and plates. There is a double champagne cooler that matches and color-coordinates with the buyer's most popular bottle. The cocktail tables also fold out and there are two Italian-designed stools. Shade is provided by a parasol stored in the middle between the double doors.
In today's world, it is a little more difficult to create this kind of custom design than it was in the first half of the 20th century. Century. Today, there are strict safety laws that apply even to vehicles in thin air like these. These laws could make it exhausting to design even mass-produced cars, let alone cater to the whims of a single buyer.
Also, the way modern automobiles are constructed makes it more durable to create wildly totally different bodies. The frame and body are typically built into today's cars rather than separated, so significant changes to the body can have a far greater impact on the rest of the car. - Published by The Beyond News (Technology).