- Customers Are Hand-Picked For Bespoke Builds
- How Custom Ideas Are Formed And Developed
- The Sky Is Not The Limit
- The Customer Spends A Fortune On Flights
- How Long Does A Rolls-Royce Coachbuild Take?
- Pricing: More Than You Can Afford, Monsieur
- More Coachbuilt Projects Are Coming
The process involves more than simply handing over a large stack of cash and waiting to see what Goodwood comes up with.
Read in this article:
- Customers Are Hand-Picked For Bespoke Builds
- How Custom Ideas Are Formed And Developed
- The Sky Is Not The Limit
- The Customer Spends A Fortune On Flights
- How Long Does A Rolls-Royce Coachbuild Take?
- Pricing: More Than You Can Afford, Monsieur
- More Coachbuilt Projects Are Coming
Over the years, anyone with even a passing interest in cars will have discovered the work of Rolls-Royce, and in whatever way one experiences one of Goodwood's products, it's always apparent that the British automaker goes above and beyond to furnish its cars with the most exquisite materials and with the finest attention to detail.
Others like Maybach have tried to capture the same sense of luxury evoked by a Rolls-Royce, but none come close, including Bentley. This is true of every car that rolls (sorry) out of the factory.
However, there are some cars that transcend the levels of opulence and luxury provided by the average Rolls-Royce. Unfortunately for rivals, these cars are made in Goodwood too. They're the boutique manufacturer's Coachbuild models, and they take excellence to even loftier heights.
If you ever happen to be lucky enough to be afforded the opportunity of commissioning one of these builds, what can you expect? Let's take a look at the process, thanks to the insight of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos, who enlightened us at Lake Como last month.
Customers Are Hand-Picked For Bespoke Builds
There is a somewhat common misconception that anybody with enough money can buy anything they want. But just as Ferrari is very sensitive about its carefully curated image, other boutique automakers fear the image that certain buyers may convey. Bugatti didn't sell La Voiture Noire to whoever had eight figures lying around. You get hypercars, and then you get Bugattis.
The same is true of Rolls-Royce. You get luxury limos, and then you get Rolls-Royces.
“Only our best clients are getting that offer to build a coachbuilt car with us,” said Muller-Otvos. “We have so many clients who would love to do it.”
If it's true that Jay-Z and Beyonce commissioned the Boat Tail, they must have shown RR a lot of loyalty over the years, and prior requests they made can't have been too gaudy.
Hip-hop artist Drake has modified several Rollers, but these conversions are carried out by third parties. Rolls-Royce would never replace its signature Spirit of Ecstasy with a solid gold owl figurine, so Drake has to tap into the aftermarket.
How Custom Ideas Are Formed And Developed
Do new Coachbuild projects come from a design studio that invents them for hand-selected customers to choose from? Does Rolls-Royce come up with some ideas of what it wants to do next to showcase its skill and then find a customer willing to pay for it? No. Not at all. Even the ideas behind these builds must be bespoke. We'll let Muller-Otvos explain in his own words:
“We are in close contact with our clients worldwide. I know many of them [personally]; my organization knows every client worldwide. So we know who might be in favor of [a Rolls-Royce Coachbuild car], and we also want to reward a client for being super loyal for many, many years; for being one of our best clients. From there, the idea comes from the client; the idea is not from us.”
The CEO went on to explain that the client explains what they have in mind and how it should look, “and then they start sketching it together with our designers. And from there, we go.”
The Sky Is Not The Limit
“Obviously, the reason why we also hand-pick our clients is that you need to have a certain understanding of what it means to build a car,” continued Muller-Otvos. “Fantasy is great, but you also have, from time to time, certain technical limits, where you would say, 'Sorry, this is not possible.'” Rolls-Royce learned not to be too ambitious a long time ago.
In 2017, following the reveal of the one-off Sweptail, Rolls-Royce started considering the idea of creating custom builds ahead of time and then selling the one-offs to loyal customers because the aforementioned project was just too intensive.
“We will probably never repeat the level of involvement we had with a customer for this car ever again, not because we don't want to, but because it's always fraught with risk that someone may misinterpret the end goal,” said the brand's then design director Giles Taylor. “It's a risk you might end up with something that doesn't fit the brand or suit the customer.”
Clearly, the Sweptail snowballed into something ridiculous, and even a $13 million price tag could not justify unnecessary complexity in the future. That said, things have changed since then, including what people are willing to pay.
The Customer Spends A Fortune On Flights
Rolls-Royce has since moved to an all-aluminum spaceframe, which has made technically challenging builds like the Boat Tail easier to produce. But when the subject of your spending has left a seven- or eight-figure dent in your budget that encourages you to spend this summer's vacation in Marseille rather than Monaco, you want something special. You don't want any miscommunication or confusion about what will put a smile on your face.
To that end, Muller-Otvos says that you “need a client who is prepared to invest lots of time because the client signs off on every single development. He flies in, signs it off, and flies out.”
Let's say you're the person who commissioned the second Boat Tail, which is finished in a sort of coppery-pink hue inspired by mother-of-pearl. There are thousands of ways such a paint description might be interpreted, so the person who specified it would have flown to Goodwood to ensure that the eventual mix of oyster and soft rose paint mixed with white and bronze mica flakes is precisely what was envisioned.
And that applies to more than just colors, finishes, and materials. To ensure satisfaction, “[the customer] is with us when we do all the clay modeling of the car,” says Muller-Otvos. “He is even allowed to shave off his piece of clay.”
How Long Does A Rolls-Royce Coachbuild Take?
While Rolls-Royce has a Bespoke division that handles highly intricate one-off finishes and options, these cars are still relatively basic alongside the custom-bodied Coachbuild creations that channel the spirit of old-school hand-formed artistry. The technically nightmarish Sweptail took four years to produce, and although many processes are simpler and more efficient now, it can still take that long to see your car completed.
“It depends very much on the delicacy of the project,” says RR's CEO. “It takes easily four years from the first design sketches to the final product.”
However, because of the company's current success, size, and balance sheet, it can work on multiple projects at various stages of completion concurrently. “The program is probably on a biannual kind of schedule,” reveals Muller-Otvos. “So every second year, you will see a coachbuilt car. It can also be one a year, then the next one maybe two or three years later.”
The first Boat Tail was revealed in May 2021, and the second arrived almost exactly a year later. That's because the two are very similar under the skin. Expect the third to arrive this year or next, but something we've never seen before may only arrive a couple of years after that.
Pricing: More Than You Can Afford, Monsieur
Rolls-Royce is always rather secretive about what these one-offs cost, but rumors and the state of the high-end market right now point to a base figure of $10 million, at the very least. The Boat Tails are rumored to have cost even more, with a figure of $28 million floating around.
If Goodwood made pricing public, it would risk the proletariat picketing on its perfectly manicured lawns, and social uprising is not good for business. Jokes aside, making pricing public would likely create a sort of jousting match between customers and rival automakers vying for the title of Most Expensive New Car Ever Sold, and Rolls-Royce is above such pettiness.
RR customers must specify their cars based on their tastes, not on what might steal headlines.
That said, we did glean some information. We asked Torsten Muller-Otvos at what stage the customer is presented with the bill and got told that “the bill comes in sequence,” likely meaning that a buyer will pay a deposit to begin the process, then another fee after the sketches are done, pay a further sum once agreeing to paint, and more in stages as other finishes, materials, features, and special requests are approved, similar in process to how large architectural designs are dealt with.
More Coachbuilt Projects Are Coming
CarBuzz exclusively uncovered the name of the next RR Coachbuild product in July 2022. It's called Droptail, which suggests one of two things: either it's part of the Boat Tail collection, or it's something new to succeed that. The design render below depicts our interpretation of what such a name may suggest.
Evidently, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild will be busy for a long time to come, and that will certainly not change as the company embraces electrification with its all-new Spectre. Rolls-Royce will soon be an all-electric company because effortless, silent motoring fits with the nature of its “post-opulence” defining principle (Rolls-Royce-speak for minimalism). In fact, co-founder Charles Royce prophesied the benefits of EVs for his brand way back in 1900.
With much simpler architecture and construction enabled by electric powertrains, we're quietly confident that we haven't seen the most visually arresting Rolls-Royce ever. Not yet.
Keyword: From Sketch To Showstopper: How Rolls-Royce Coachbuilds Come To Life