Rolls-Royce Motor Cars officially introduces the Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail, an exquisite Coachbuild masterpiece that embodies elegant tranquility.
The Arcadia Droptail represents the silent boldness, honoring the pure beauty of form and natural materials, while also being a powerful statement of the owner’s personal aesthetic. Ordered by someone with a special passion for architecture and design, the Arcadia Droptail is a testament to the discerning taste and unique luxury standards of this customer.
The car defines luxury with its discreet elegance, reflecting the owner’s firm belief in eliminating complex details to reveal the essence of pure, original beauty.
This Coachbuild car is named after the legendary land of Arcadia, described in Greek mythology as the “Paradise on Earth” – a place known for its marvelous natural beauty and perfect harmony. Like the inspiring sanctuary its name evokes, the Arcadia Droptail is imagined by its owner as a serene space characterized by a reduction in detail, the depth of materials, and exquisite craftsmanship, where it will become the ideal retreat after the complexities of the business world.
To fully grasp the theme of a tranquil paradise, the Coachbuild designers embarked on a journey of exploration in design, sculpture, and architecture from the owner’s favorite locations around the world, including designs with high precision and the rich beauty of high-rise gardens in a modern tropical style in Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam, as well as “Biomimetic” architecture in England, where the original forms and authenticity of materials are honored.
In addition to these reference materials, the owner was also inspired by the car itself and the elegance in Droptail design. The customer emphasized that their Coachbuild car had to be completely faithful to the initial hand-drawn sketch they received in 2019.
The Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail, with its modern roadster design, has made a strong impression on the customer – someone who is particularly attracted to its powerful presence, low-slung design, tidy cockpit, and impressive body lines. The customer also immediately recognized the nautical inspiration behind the Droptail’s sail cowls. This detail is named after its similarity to the shape of a yacht’s front sail, with sharp, angular shapes that protrude beyond the doors and gently curve inward, gracefully directing the view towards the passengers seated inside the car.
EXTERIOR DESIGN: HONORING THE DROPTAIL LINEAGE
To realize the customer’s desire to honor the Droptail design, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild experts used two colors to develop a unique color palette, bringing a calm and natural tone to the exterior space of the car. The customer expressed a desire to create a timeless white color that appears the purest when viewed in passing, but sparks curiosity and fascination upon closer observation under natural light. To achieve this, the body color is pure white mixed with aluminum and glass flakes.
This color mixing technique not only creates a sparkling light effect when sunlight shines on the car’s surface, but also creates the illusion of the infinite depth of the paint layer when observed up close. Rolls-Royce experts developed an eye-catching metallic color with a multi-faceted shade by using larger aluminum particles. The owner was meticulous and thorough in the process of creating the Bespoke silver color to create contrast with the white color, not only in terms of hue but also in color intensity.
This Droptail coachbuild car differs from the other three Droptail cars in that carbon fiber is used to construct the lower section of the Droptail, which is painted in Bespoke silver instead of being fully or partially exposed. This creates a visual effect of “lifting” the car off the ground when viewed from the side, highlighting the agile and dynamic design intent of the car.
In order to honor the polished finish on the historic metal details of the Rolls-Royce, which the owner is fond of, the entire outer grille, sail cowls, and 22-inch alloy wheels have been coated with a polished paint.
The exterior color palette of the Arcadia Droptail is rich in exquisite details, but its main purpose is to honor the shape and proportion of the car body. The owner was particularly drawn to the seamless, monolithic surface and the bold application of deep details on the Droptail – all of which are accentuated by the subtle color of the car body, reflecting sunlight and creating an impressive shadow effect, enhancing the many elegant design features of the Droptail.
INTERIOR SPACE: THE FOCUS IS ON WOOD MATERIALS
While the exterior of the Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail celebrates the shape of the car, the interior is a deep reflection of the owner’s personal aesthetic, reminiscent of the style of their mansions and business spaces around the world. The interior color scheme and material treatment of the Arcadia Droptail are imagined as a true declaration of individuality and the customer’s identity.
Wood details play a central role in the interior of the Arcadia Droptail and are highly favored by the owner. The customer had specific expectations, focusing on the structure, grain, color, and richness of wood materials. The customer shared many reference materials, as well as inspirations from architectural design, homes, and classic cars, during discussions with Rolls-Royce Coachbuild’s material experts and designers.
Finally, straight Santos veneer was chosen as the most modern statement, thanks to its rich texture and visual appeal, created by unique wood grains intertwined.
The use of this hard, dense wood material on the interior of the Droptail poses a significant challenge for the brand’s craftsmen. Santos veneer has one of the finest grains of all the woods ever used on a Rolls-Royce – if not processed carefully, these grains can easily tear during machining and crack during the drying process. Despite the challenges of working with this exquisite material, straight Santos veneer is used throughout the Droptail, including the rear hood with aerodynamic function, where the wood grain of the hollow veneer is arranged at a perfect 55° angle. To achieve a perfect combination on the complex body shape, Rolls-Royce craftsmen used a total of 233 wood pieces on the Arcadia Droptail, with the rear hood alone being covered with 76 pieces.
As the Arcadia Droptail will be used to travel around the world, including some tropical climate areas, special attention was given to the development of a protection system and testing process for the exterior wood surface. Initially, coatings used on super yachts were considered, but this option was eliminated because they required regular maintenance and repainting. Finally, a special Bespoke polishing paint, only needing one coat throughout the car’s lifetime, was developed.
To test this coating, Rolls-Royce experts designed a unique testing process, in which the veneer pieces went through a rigorous cycle inside a dedicated machine, simulating adverse weather conditions worldwide. This test included spraying water on the wood samples in cycles, alternating between drying periods in the dark and periods of exposure to heat and intense light.
This testing process was repeated for 1,000 hours on 18 different material samples until the brand’s experts were satisfied with the durability of the wood pieces. In total, it took the experts over 8,000 hours to develop these veneer pieces and protective coating.
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