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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.

Check out Rolls-Royce's totally awesome AWD mule

No, this isn't just a super badass Phantom. The car you see here – codenamed Project Cullinan – is an early development mule for the new all-wheel-drive suspension system that will eventually be found in Rolls-Royce's upcoming SUV. It's made up of a shortened Phantom body, looks totally murdered out, and has a huge freaking wing on the back. We love it. Of course, Rolls-Royce properly poo-poos any similarities between this mule and the eventual production model. "The body may hint at the size of the new car, but it features no design aspects of the eventual high-sided, all-terrain motor car announced by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in February this year," the company said in a press release. The end goal of this mule is to create "a final all-wheel-drive system that delivers Rolls-Royce's hallmark 'magic-carpet' ride not only on the road, but off-road too." Screw the SUV. We'll take one as-is. PROJECT CULLINAN BEGINS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME AS ENGINEERING MULE APPEARS IN PUBLIC In its open letter on 18 February this year, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars gave an undertaking to inform stakeholders of the progress of Project Cullinan. Keeping this promise, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has today published photographs depicting the first key milestone in the vehicle's development programme. The photographs are of the first engineering mule, which will be seen on public roads this week. This early engineering mule, based on a shortened Phantom Series II body, has been created purely to begin the development of an all-wheel drive suspension system that will deliver a ride that will be Effortless ... Everywhere. The body may hint at the size of the new car, but it features no design aspects of the eventual high-sided, all-terrain motor car announced by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in February this year. The mule rides on the first iteration of an all-new suspension that will assist Rolls-Royce engineers in developing a final all-wheel drive system that delivers Rolls-Royce's hallmark "magic-carpet" ride not only on the road, but off-road too. The first series of tests will focus on Project Cullinan's on-road behaviour from suspension throw to high-bodied stability, and will test the new suspension across all types of international road surface specification at test facilities, as well as on public roads. Test surfaces will include; Belgian Pave, cobblestones, corrugated concrete, noise development and measurement surfaces, resonance road, and acceleration bumps.

Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan 'Blue Shadow' straddles Earth and space

Rolls-Royce has another special edition for stargazing types who might not have the schedules to stay up all night stargazing. Called the Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan "Blue Shadow" Private Collection, its design honors the nebulous area where Earth's atmosphere ends and so-called "outer space" begins. Since the edges of our planetary terrarium blend into space, there's no useful coloring-book-like boundary. The International Aeronautics Federation uses an arbitrary height called the Karman line, which Hungarian engineer and physicist Theodore von Karman decided would be 100 kilometers above Earth because that's around where the last traces of aerodynamic lift petered out, giving way to "astronautics." The Cullinan Blue Shadow is a canvas for artistic representation of the Karman line and what lies beyond. The deep blue exterior color signifies the atmosphere's upper layers where the blackness of space suffuses the blue of our daytime skies. Contrasting satin jewelry in the front fascia suggests the silica and aluminum oxide whitewash applied to the thermal protection tiles on craft like NASA's Space Shuttle. The Spirit of Ecstasy was produced in 3D-printed titanium coated in a blue-tinted lacquer, the base inscribed with "Blue Shadow Private Collection." The Cullinan's 22-inch wheels are also dressed in a lacquer layer for dark translucence. Inside, the starlight headliner's been decorated with an embroidered moon composed of five colors, each color sewn in with a different technique and texture. The headliner's 799 white LEDs and 384 blue LEDs create a field of stars for Luna, Rolls-Royce engineers tweaking the twinkling effect in the LEDs "for an even more enchanting glow." The painted instrument panel and door cards transition from black up high to dark and then light blue below. Six layers of colors combine five blues with a black, providing another kind of twinkle thanks to blue and clear glass particles in the clearcoat. The Private Collection clock comes with blue anodized details and an engraved "Blue Shadow." The artwork created in the seats is a first for Rolls-Royce. Each seat's been perforated more than 75,000 times in a pattern representing the Earth as seen from space.