World's most expensive new car: Rolls-Royce's £20m Boat Tail

 

Rolls Royce recently announced that it had formally revived its famed coach building operations, allowing its clients to commission entirely bespoke models, with an almost limitless degree of customization. The extent of customization in these commissions encompasses all-new bodywork and styling, in keeping with the company’s design principles.

The one-off Rolls Royce Sweptail that was revealed back in 2017, gave us our first look at what a coach built model in the modern era would look like. Carrying on from there, the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail is a completely bespoke and coach built model that has been commissioned by three of the luxury carmaker’s clients.

The first of the three Boat Tail’s was recently revealed, showcasing the client’s personal tastes as well as the extent to which the bodywork has been customized. While all three models will share the same body style, each of them has unique appearances and features.

The Exterior

Inspiration for the new Boat Tail has been derived from J-Class yachts as well as the original 1932 Rolls-Royce Boat Tail. The first of the new Boat Tails has been built for a couple that owns a restored original Boat Tail in their private collection.

One of the first thing that stands out when looking at the new car, is its massive proportions, as the Boat Tail measures nearly 5.9 metres in length. Upfront, there is Rolls-Royce’s pantheon grille that is flanked by wide and deep-set daytime running lights with classical round headlamps positioned below.

Viewed from the side, is when the nautical theme is the most apparent. The main talking points are the wraparound windscreen resembling the visor present on boats, the gently downward sloping waistline with the well incorporated wooden deck at the rear (reminiscent of decks seen on classic boats and yachts) and the unconventional and unique fixed-canopy roof.

The Boat Tail’s rear features a set of bold horizontally mounted taillights that have been positioned relatively low, in order to evoke the appearance of a dipped stern of a boat. Additionally, Rolls Royce has used carbon fiber throughout the lower sections of the car including the side sills and front and rear bumpers.

This particular Boat Tail has been finished in a two-tone color combination comprising a bright blue and a deeper, dark blue shade that is embedded with both metallic and crystal flakes. The dual-tone color scheme also carries over to the wheels that are wrapped in white-wall tires.

All Aboard

While the interior layout might not be very different to that seen on other Rolls Royce models, there are plenty of unique touches made to the Boat Tail. The most visible is the color scheme, as the front seats adopt the dark blue exterior color, while the rear seats sport the light blue shade.

Since the clients are avid pen collectors, the glove box also houses a special Montblanc pen that is placed in a hand-crafted aluminum and leather case. Even the timepieces in the dashboard are custom made for this Boat Tail by BOVET 1822, and are designed to be removable — they can be worn as wrist watches too.

The Boat Tail uses Rolls Royce’s new luxury platform architecture — the same platform as the Phantom. The carmaker says the all-aluminum architecture offers the scope and flexibility required to work for a low-volume basis. With the Phantom underpinning, the bespoke models will feature similar mechanicals and come equipped with the same 6.75-litre, twin-turbo V12 engine producing 570hp and 900Nm.

While Rolls-Royce have not disclosed the exact price of the Boat Tail, the model is said to cost somewhere in the region of £20 million. This makes it significantly more expensive than the Sweptail, which was reported to be around £10 million.