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Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail unveiled as the third in a four-car series

If you're wealthy, you buy a new Rolls-Royce. If you're extremely wealthy, you work directly with the brand to design a one-of-a-kind car from the ground up. The firm has revealed its latest one-off, a convertible named Arcadia Droptail, and detailed the long development process. Built for an anonymous client in Singapore, the Arcadia Droptail borrows the first part of its name from a place known as "heaven on Earth" in Greek mythology. Rolls-Royce explains that the design perfectly reflects the customer's tastes and personality, including a passion for architecture and a subtle, restrained take on the concept of luxury. This likely explains why there's not much in the way of bright trim on the outside; instead, the Arcadia Droptail is characterized by a soft and almost organic design while remaining recognizable as a Rolls-Royce. Working directly with the customer, the brand put a great deal of thought into picking a color: the shade of white chosen is infused with aluminum and glass particles for a pearl-like effect that adds depth. These details help the Arcadia stand out from the two existing Droptail models unveiled in 2023. The overall design remains largely unchanged with an upright grille, thin rear lights, and a rounded back end. Santos Straight Grain wood trim dominates the interior and creates another link between cars and boats. Rolls-Royce explains that this was one of the most challenging parts of the project: Santos Straight Grain is difficult to work with, and the client plans to use the car all around the world so the trim needs to withstand wildly different temperatures and humidity levels. The brand initially considered applying the type of coating used in yachts but ruled it out because it needs to be re-applied on a regular basis. Instead, it went through the trouble of developing a specific lacquer that lasts for the life of the car. It adds that this part of the build required over 8,000 hours of work, including testing. The clock embedded into the dashboard was created in-house as well; it took over two years to develop and five months to make. Referred to as "the most complex Rolls-Royce clock face ever created," it features a guilloche pattern with 119 facets and hand-polished parts. Rolls-Royce hasn't published technical specifications. We're guessing that power comes from a V12 engine. All told, designing the Arcadia Droptail took over four years. There's no word on how much the project cost.

Over 10 years of research went into the Rolls-Royce Spectre EV

Rolls-Royce's first series-produced electric model, the 577-horsepower Spectre, made its debut in October 2022. Electrification suits the British luxury brand well, as its clients primarily prefer a smooth and quiet ride over a deep exhaust note that sends chills down your spine. But the company's top executive told Autoblog that finding the right path to the EV segment required over a decade's worth of research. The electric 102EX prototype from 2011 helped blaze this path. It wasn't approved for production, but it showed Rolls-Royce what to do. "We never intended at that time that we would bring [the 102EX] to the market," company boss Torsten Muller-Otvos told me on the sidelines of the 2023 Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance. "I joined Rolls-Royce in 2010, and I was always in the belief that we need to look into alternative propulsions for the brand." Rolls-Royce is part of the BMW Group, and this practice is common throughout the company: BMW and Mini experimented with electric prototypes at that time as well, and the iX5 presented in 2023 will bolster the firm's hydrogen research. Rolls-Royce learned several lessons from the 102EX project. One was to simply keep on keeping on. "One clear learning from all of our clients worldwide is to make sure that it is a Rolls-Royce first and an electric car second, not the other way around. [The Spectre] smells like a Rolls-Royce, it feels like a Rolls-Royce, and it sounds like a Rolls-Royce — [that means that] there is no sound, obviously. [There is] no funky dashboard, huge screen, or whatever. That would not be us," he continued. Customers also told Rolls-Royce not to make a car defined by superlatives. These buyers aren't concerned about having the longest driving range or the quickest acceleration time, largely because they already have a variety of different cars in their fleet plus access to private jets. This also explains why many Rolls-Royce models aren't used as long-distance cars in spite of a powerful V12 engine and a spacious interior. "It was clear that we don't need to be number one with outrageous range; a range of [about 310 miles] is totally sufficient for our clients. [The EX project] also gave us the right logic behind battery size, what we need to do in terms of body shape, and what the car should look like. It's a very fine balance between range, the size of the battery, and what kind of compromises you suddenly get into the entire design of the car. I'm going to say we learned a lot.

Rolls-Royce Serenity takes luxury to a new level in Geneva [w/video]

Rolls-Royce is known for cosseting occupants in the lap of luxury, but the brand is taking opulence to a whole new level at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show with the Serenity. The company's Bespoke Design team starts with the already lavish Phantom Extended Wheelbase and just keeps adding extravagant touches. The unique styling takes inspiration from Japanese royalty. For the exterior, the Serenity features a three-stage pearl-effect paint with 12 hours of hand polishing to make it really shine. There are also hand-painted flower blossoms in the coachline. The interior is where the grandeur truly shows, though. Rolls-Royce selected the highest grade of silk from China and then had it hand-woven in Britain into nearly 33 feet of fabric. From there artisans embroidered and hand-painted a delicate, design of trees and blossoms. Rolls-Royce used all of this special material to cover the rear seats, roof and door panels. For even more luxury, the company used a combination of Smoked Cherrywood, bamboo and mother of pearl for the trim. For a little extra embellishment, the designers even applied rubies to the clock. Despite all of the lavish design work, the Phantom Extended Wheelbase's mechanicals remain the same with a V12 engine and eight-speed automatic gearbox. Get a full look at the Serenity's luxurious styling in our gallery above from the Geneva show. Show full PR text ROLLS-ROYCE MOTOR CARS BRINGS SERENITY TO THE 2015 GENEVA INTERNATIONAL MOTOR SHOW 02/03/15 from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars "Celebrating the historical role played by silk as a symbol of ultimate elegance, the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Bespoke Design team has created a magnificent one-off Phantom which will set a new benchmark for luxury individualisation in the motor industry, and reaffirm that Bespoke is Rolls-Royce." Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has brought Serenity to this year's Geneva International Motor Show, unveiling the new standard in authentic, bespoke luxury motoring to the world's media.