Rolls-Royce debuts yacht-inspired car with shock $30 million price tag
Rolls-Royce unveiled an open-topped, 1930s yacht-inspired extremely limited-edition model on Monday with a price tag to match a large and luxurious pleasure craft.
The Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail reimagines the carmaker’s typical four-seat sedan as a two-seat roadster — and is expected to run auto aficionados more than $30 million.
Though an exact price isn’t listed, other cars in Rolls-Royce’s coachbuilt line sell for about $28 million. However, the Droptail — of which there will be just four created — costs more to make, a company spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg.
The Droptail features a low-slung exterior and a crimson interior that draws inspiration from the French Black Baccara rose, which the commissioning owners — thought to be a husband-and-wife duo heading up a prominent family — said is “beloved by the mother,” hence its “La Rose Noire” name.
Inside, the car’s dashboard utilizes over 1,600 pieces of black sycamore wood trim veneer cut into symmetrical triangles and arranged with pops of red designed to mimic rose petals scattering in the wind.
There’s also a champagne storage compartment that stores a bottle of bubbly from the commissioning family’s own vineyard, and a custom Audemars Piguet watch is mounted into the dash but also can be removed and worn.
A timepiece by the Swiss watchmaker alone could cost tens of thousands of dollars. It’s most popular model, the Royal Oak, runs for about $26,200 on Audemars Piguet’s website.
There’s just three buttons on the dashboard, which is minimalist compared to its other vehicles, along with control hazard lights and other quick-control tasks.
The rest of the car’s controls are hidden away in the center console.
The Black Baccara rose also inspires the car’s exterior, which comes in a decadent red hue dubbed “True Love” that Rolls-Royce said took 150 iterations to perfect.
The Droptail’s silhouette comes in at 17 feet long by 6.5 feet wide, smaller that Rolls-Royce’s highly-anticipated, first-ever electric vehicle, which is set to debut by the end of this year for $420,000.
From the back, the Droptail’s lower-to-the-ground construction evokes the figure of a sailing yacht, while the front of the car boasts Rolls-Royce’s well-known Pantheon-style grille.
However, “in a discreet flourish, the reverse surface of the grille’s vanes are painted in ‘True Love’ — a subtle detail that is only visible by way of indirect reflection,” according to the British carmaker.
Aside from the fact that the Droptail is Rolls-Royce’s first two-seater in 100 years, the company said the new model has the most complex construction the luxury carmaker has had since its founding in 1906.
“Its assembly required such intense concentration that the single craftsperson tasked with creating it would only work in one-hour sessions for no more than five hours per day, ensuring they possessed the concentration required for perfect execution,” the company explained.
In total, one Droptail takes “nine months of flawless craftsmanship” to complete, it added.
Rolls-Royce has not revealed any of the Droptail’s performance figures, though it’s powered by the 6.75-Liter V12 engine that’s also under the hood of Rolls-Royce’s Ghost and Phantom models, which can each accelerate to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds.
Representatives for Rolls-Royce did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
