The vision of sir henry royce one of our founding forefathers was to create the best rolling chassis
in the world the house of rolls-royce the company that we are today was built on this
bedrock of engineering excellence the bodywork which enveloped these chassis was the preserve
of coach builders who worked hand-in-hand with the commissioning petrol and these motor cars
reflected the character of that coach builder and also the personality and wishes of the client
today rolls royce continues to imbue its products with meaning our motor cars
serve as a canvas on which clients reflect their personal tastes express ambitions
and often define legacies the craftspeople at the home of rossois are experts experts in
interpreting the lifestyles of these remarkable women and men which has resulted in ever more
ambitious commissions reaching well beyond the existing scope of our bespoke competencies
and resources this has led us into the rarified realm of contemporary coach building
and the establishment of a permanent department within our company called rolls-royce coachbuilt
it all starts here in this room the utterly at the home of rolls-royce in goodwood in england here we
meet with our clients and discuss their thoughts their wishes about their coachbuild project
early sketches are drawn by our designers and formative conversations regarding materials colors
and other creative aspects of the project are determined
contemporary coach building at rolls-royce is the automotive equivalent of polka tool you know it
is the the opportunity to move beyond the usual constraints and bounds and create something truly
remarkable we are an historic brand and in many ways we are influenced by our
116 years legacy but we are not bound by it in 2017 we introduced swept tale which defined the
dawn of the contemporary coach building movement swept tale set a new water line of potential and
ignited a fascination among a small group of three clients who approached us to discover if they
too could collaborate on a unique coachbuild commission with us our designers had a long-held
ambition to create a contemporary expression of the boat tail typology where coach builders of old
would graft the whole forms of sailing boats onto the rolling chassis of rolls-royce when the idea
of this design direction was proposed the three patterns were of one mind they shared a single
demand show me something that i have never seen before and rolls-royce both tale was conceived
botel is a particularly special historic body style you know it it has this unique form
that has this tapering rear that really converges on center line
and there has never been a contemporary interpretation of this particular body
style and that's what we set out to achieve with the modern commission boattail these
three clients shared a deep appreciation of contemporary nautical design j-class yachts
regarded as one of the most beautiful boats ever made became a touchstone of the design
together with these clients an agreement was reached whereby three cars would share common
body shape but each would be highly personalized reflecting the character
of each of the individual commissioning patterns and the result is truly transformative an object
that makes a permanent statement and sets itself apart from anything that has gone before
we work sequentially so when we do sketch work we're in 2d that comes first you're working with
the overall line work of the car the key lines of the car let's say you know this very clean elegant
form very very graceful but at the same time daringly modern there is this wonderful sense of
taper inside you there is this beautiful feeling of reduction to the overall surfaces and forms
once together with the client we have concluded the design
on paper that we then create a full size sculpture of the car in clay
well the clay process i guess largely speaking you're working
within the last ten percent of the design
you're really working with the minutiae of detail and line refinement and surface control
and actually it's those two characteristics probably more so than anything that you are
optimizing you know quality of line but with it then the quality of surface
and clay is just it's a fantastic medium to do that in because it's malleable
and also because it's it's real time you're doing it there in front of you
you're moving and there's a certain latitude within which you're you're working with and
then as as you near the end of that phase you're sort of bringing it down to the
finer movements and the finer refinements
the foil or die knock as it's called in the industry replicates the real surface
of the calf so the painted surface of the car we judge it very much with with light
lighting in the room is always running in car line with the car and this gives us a you know
a theoretical mapping on the surface to see exactly what the surface is doing
you can see how it connects how that light moves over it our cars i think on first impression are
very very sober they're very very clean the surfaces are distilled of any kind of clutter
that purity requires a huge amount of focus and dedication to get the simplicity of line
and the simplicity of surface final stage it's really about understanding how we are how we
are living up to the quality of execution a living canvas is created by hand beating and honing metal
and the resulting aluminium body is created with a clarity of surface
and continuation of line that is unable to be achieved by machine alone
the car very purposefully projects a strong vision of modernity but the
real juxtaposition is that then this is paired with a very historic process of realization
the car starts its life with just sheet metal and first you have to create form to that metal
and that takes place through in this instance the hammer forming process
we are realizing a car by hand you would never through the process of industrialization
expect to find the creative hand of the team and indeed the clients still involved at this stage
building a car by hand allows the human soul to pass through the hands that are
charged with shaping the metal and into the car industrialization it's clinical it's carefully
controlled but it's also soulless and what we are doing here is is the complete opposite of that
i think true perfection can almost be seen as sterile the car
by way of its definition is never entirely perfect but somewhere in there is the perfect
imperfection
the metal is is formed and it's battled
it's checked and then it's re-fettled and it's rechecked until you arrive close to
the final definition of the exterior surface of the car and that is a an exhaustive process
relying on the intuition and the intervention of the human hand and the human eye and that's a
really incredible thing
the bonnet is sprayed by hand and it has this wonderful
transition from a dark color to a lighter shade of blue
it's a canvas that represents the human hand that created it
the first of three boat tales is a culmination of our patrons exceptional thoughts concepts and
items which form the perfect experience it truly personifies connoisseurship
the client couple who commissioned rolls-royce coach bill to fashion this boat tale
wish to create a celebration of life and success a statement of joyfulness a moving work of art
to enjoy with their family and friends and in response the rear deck is designed to house a
highly ambitious concept never seen before in the automotive world it opens in a butterfly gesture
to reveal the treasure chest of moving parts an intricate and generous hosting suit
this area becomes a celebratory focal point for shared occasions
and is appointed with the perfect accoutrements for a true al fresco rolls-royce dining experience
this particular client is an aficionado of watches and has commissioned two extraordinary timepieces
for his boattail at the client's request the house of rolls-royce and the house of bouvier
have worked hand-in-hand to create exquisite groundbreaking timepieces
that re-imagine rolls-royce's iconic centerpiece the dashboard clock
what is particularly special about this commission is that it is linking to our
heritage it tells a wonderful story of the historic boattail body style
but our modern interpretation is just that you know it's thoroughly contemporary but
at the same time it still evokes the qualities of the historic body style
we firmly believe that the future of luxury is about creating something singular
rolls-royce coachbuild is a highly distilled expression of rolls-royce bespoke
and is reserved for those who look to move beyond existing constraints when these cars go
live all eyes on us and for that reason i think they have a tremendous impact into the brand
they are addressing desires many people in the world might say one day i would love to own
such a coachable project myself it's technically a car in reality
when it comes to the heart of our clients it's an object of art it's luxury in its purest form
this kind of project is not a matter of money it's just about perfection
you