ROLLS-ROYCE PRESENTS ARCADIA DROPTAIL, A COACHBUILT HAVEN OF TRANQUILITY

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unveils Arcadia, its third Coachbuild Droptail commission.

ROLLS-ROYCE

EXTERIOR

To meet the client’s desire to honor Droptail’s form, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers created a calm, natural duotone color scheme for the car’s coachwork. The client’s goal was to create a timeless white that appeared solid at first glance but created a sense of intrigue upon further examination under natural light.

To accomplish this, the main body color is a solid white mixed with aluminum and glass particles. This not only produces an effervescent shimmer when light strikes the coachwork, but it also gives the impression of infinite depth in the paint.

Rolls-Royce engineers created a more faceted, striking metallic by increasing the size of aluminum particles. The client was very specific and involved in their request for the Bespoke silver to contrast against the white, not only in color, but also in intensity.

In a significant departure from the other three coach-built Droptails in this series, the carbon fiber used to construct the lower sections of Droptail is painted in the solid Bespoke silver color rather than left fully or partially exposed, visually ‘lifting’ the car in profile to emphasize its lithe, dynamic intent.

The exterior grille surround, ‘kinked’ vane pieces, and 22-inch alloy wheels have all been fully mirror-polished to pay homage to the brilliant mirror finish of brightwork on historical Rolls-Royces, which fascinates the client.

While Arcadia Droptail’s exterior palette is rich in subtle detail, the primary goal is to highlight the coachwork’s shape and proportions.

The client was particularly drawn to Droptail’s clean, monolithic surfacing and bold use of negative sculpture, which are accentuated by the motor car’s muted paint colors, which reflect sunlight and cast dramatic shadows, emphasizing Droptail’s many subtle design gestures.

INTERIOR

The exterior of the Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail celebrates the shape of the automobile, while the interior is a deeply personal reflection of the client’s individual aesthetic, reflecting the style they have curated in their residences and business spaces around the world.

Arcadia Droptail’s color palette and material treatment were designed to be a truly personal statement that could be instantly recognized as the commissioning client’s signature.

Wood development was central to Arcadia Droptail’s interior design and the client’s expectations, which focused on the texture, grain, colour, and richness of the material. The client provided numerous examples of preferences and inspiration from architecture, residences, and classic automobiles to guide Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers and material specialists.

Santos Straight Grain was eventually chosen as the most modern statement due to its rich texture and visual intrigue, which stem from its distinctive, interlocking grain pattern.

Using this high-density hardwood on Droptail’s interior presented a significant challenge to the marque’s craftspeople. Santos Straight Grain has one of the finest grain types of any wood species used in a Rolls-Royce; however, if not handled with extreme care, it easily tears when machined and ‘checks’ (a crack that appears parallel to the grain) during drying.

Despite the difficulties of working with this delicate material, Santos Straight Grain is used throughout Droptail, including the aerodynamically functional rear deck section, where the grain of the open pore veneer is laid at an exact 55° angle. Rolls-Royce artisans used a total of 233 wood pieces to achieve a perfect composition over complex geometry in Arcadia Droptail, with 76 pieces applied solely to the rear deck.

Given that Arcadia Droptail will be used globally, including in some tropical climates, special care was taken to develop a protection system and testing process for the exterior wood surfaces. Coatings used on superyachts were initially considered but rejected due to the need for regular servicing and reapplication. Instead, a Bespoke lacquer was developed that requires only one application for the life of the automobile.

To validate this coating, Rolls-Royce engineers devised a novel testing protocol in which veneer pieces were subjected to a punishing cycle inside a specialist machine that simulates global weather extremes. This entailed spraying sample wood pieces with water intermittently, in between periods of allowing them to dry in darkness and exposing them to heat and bright light.

This was repeated for 1,000 hours on 18 different samples before the marque’s experts were satisfied with the pieces’ durability. More than 8,000 hours were spent developing the wood pieces and protective coating.

The leather interior is finished in two completely Bespoke colors, named after the client and reserved solely for their use. The main leather color is a Bespoke White, which continues the exterior paint theme, while the contrast leather is a Bespoke Tan, which was created to perfectly complement the chosen wood.

The interior also features the exquisite shawl panel, which connects all four Droptail motor cars and is the largest continuous wood section ever seen on a Rolls-Royce. The Arcadia Droptail is made of the same Santos Straight Grain open pore veneer as the rear deck, book-matched at the same 55° angle, and has individually shaped leave stripes that run seamlessly into the door lining. CAD tools were used to map the placement of each wood piece, and while it appears to be made up of only two mirrored sections of veneer, this panel is actually made up of 40 sections, each of which was digitally mapped before being fixed to the car.

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While many haute horlogerie methods were used to create the timepiece, Rolls-Royce’s testing and validation standards are higher than those in the watch industry. This required the marque’s specialists to work with a wide range of materials. For example, instead of anodizing the timepiece’s minute marker, which is common in watch manufacturing, it is finished with a ceramic coating chosen for its long-term stability as well as its aesthetic appeal. Small sections of the coating were laser-etched away, revealing the mirror finish of the aluminum material beneath it. Each piece of the timepiece, including the Bespoke ‘double R’ monogram, was individually machined from solid stainless steel billet and hand polished before assembly.

For more information on the Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail Visit : https://www.press.rolls-roycemotorcars.com

A Coachbuilt Legacy

The Arcadia Droptail is the third installment in Rolls-Royce’s Droptail coachbuilt commissions. This program allows discerning clients to collaborate with Rolls-Royce designers to create a car that embodies their unique vision of luxury and automotive excellence.

The Arcadia Droptail is a remarkable achievement, pushing the boundaries of design and craftsmanship. It’s a powerful statement piece that will undoubtedly become a coveted collector’s item.