From the official Press Release:
This coachbuilt commission takes its name from the mythical realm of Arcadia, a spot depicted in Ancient Greek mythology as ‘Heaven on Earth’ – a land renowned for its extraordinary natural beauty and excellent harmony.
Just like the haven that inspires its name, Arcadia Droptail was envisioned by the client as a serene space characterised by reduction, material depth and tactility that may function a refuge from the complexities of their business life.
In capturing the theme of tranquillity, Coachbuild designers launched into an exploration of design, sculpture and architecture from the client’s favourite regions all over the world. This included the precision and richness of modernist tropical sky gardens seen in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam in addition to British ‘Biomimetic’ architecture, where organic forms and material honesty are celebrated.
Along with these references, the client was also inspired by the motor automobile itself and the purity of the Droptail design concept.
The commissioning client insisted that their Coachbuild motor automobile ought to be absolutely faithful to the earliest hand-drawn sketch they were first presented with in 2019.
It was the profile of this contemporary projection of the roadster body type that resonated so strongly with the commissioning client. They were particularly compelled by the motor automobile’s daring, low stance, ensconcing cabin design and dramatic body lines.
Additionally they immediately recognised the nautical inspiration behind Droptail’s ‘sail cowls’: named after their resemblance to a yacht’s jib, these sharp, angular forms rise behind the doors and curve gently inwards, subtly directing the attention to the motor automobile’s occupants.
Exterior Design
In an effort to fulfil the client’s ambition to honour Droptail’s form, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers developed a relaxed, natural duotone colourway for the motor automobile’s coachwork.
The client’s aspiration was to define a timeless white, appearing as a solid color at first glance, but making a level of intrigue upon further study under natural light. To attain this, the foremost body color is a solid white infused with aluminium and glass particles.
This not only creates an effervescent shimmer when the sunshine strikes the coachwork but, upon close inspection, creates the illusion of unending depth within the paint. Rolls-Royce specialists developed a more faceted, striking metallic using larger sizing of aluminium particles. The client was very particular and involved of their request for the Bespoke silver to contrast against the white, not only in color, but in addition when it comes to intensity.
In a key departure from the opposite three coachbuilt Droptails on this series, the carbon fibre used to construct the lower sections of Droptail is painted within the solid Bespoke silver color somewhat than left fully or partially exposed, visually ‘lifting’ the motor automobile in profile to accentuate its lithe, dynamic intent.
In tribute to the good mirror finish of brightwork on historical Rolls-Royces, which particularly fascinate the client, the outside grille surround, ‘kinked’ vane pieces and 22-inch alloy wheels have been fully mirror-polished.
While Arcadia Droptail’s exterior palette is wealthy in subtle detail, its primary intention is to have a good time the shape and proportions of the coachwork. The client was particularly compelled by Droptail’s clean, monolithic surfacing and daring use of negative sculpture – features which might be amplified by the motor automobile’s muted paint colors, which reflect sunlight and solid dramatic shadows, highlighting Droptail’s many subtle design gestures.
Interior Design
As the outside of Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail celebrates the motor automobile’s form, the inside is a deeply personal reflection of the client’s individual aesthetic, reflective of the style they’ve curated of their residences and business spaces all over the world.
Arcadia Droptail’s color palette and material treatment was envisioned to be a really personal statement and immediately recognisable as a private signature of the commissioning client.
Wood development was central to Arcadia Droptail’s interior and the client’s focus, whose very specific expectations targeting the feel, grain, color and richness of the fabric itself. The client shared many examples of preferences and inspiration from architecture, residences and classic cars, to guide Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers and material specialists.
Santos Straight Grain was eventually chosen because the most up-to-date statement, based upon its wealthy texture and visual intrigue, which is derived from its unique, interlocking grain pattern.
Using this high-density hardwood on Droptail’s interior posed a big challenge for the marque’s craftspeople. Santos Straight Grain has certainly one of the best grain varieties of all of the wood species used inside a Rolls-Royce – if not handled with the best care, it easily tears when machined and ‘checks’ (a crack that appears parallel to the grain) through the drying process. Despite the challenges 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 ideal 55° angle. To attain an ideal composition over complex geometry, Rolls-Royce artisans used a complete of 233 wood pieces throughout Arcadia Droptail, with 76 pieces applied to the rear deck alone.
Provided that Arcadia Droptail will likely be used internationally, including some tropical climates, specific attention was paid to developing a protection system and testing process for the outside wood surfaces. Coatings used on superyachts were initially considered but rejected on condition that they require regular servicing and re-application. As an alternative, a Bespoke lacquer was developed that requires only one application for the lifetime of the motor automobile.
To validate this coating, Rolls-Royce specialists conceived a novel testing protocol wherein veneer pieces were subject to a punishing cycle inside a specialist machine simulating global weather extremes. This involved spraying sample wood pieces with water intermittently, between periods of leaving them to dry in darkness and exposing them to heat and brilliant light.
This was repeated for 1,000 hours on 18 different samples before the marque’s specialists were satisfied with the endurance of the pieces. In total, the wood pieces and protective coating required greater than 8,000 hours of development.
White Leather
The leather interior is finished in two entirely Bespoke hues, named after the client and reserved exclusively for his or her use. The foremost leather color is a Bespoke White hue, continuing the outside paint theme, while the contrast leather is a Bespoke tan color, developed to perfectly complement the chosen wood.
The inside also includes the exquisite shawl panel that unites all 4 Droptail motor cars and is the most important continuous wood section ever seen on a Rolls-Royce motor automobile. In Arcadia Droptail, it’s made in the identical Santos Straight Grain open pore veneer because the rear deck, book-matched at the identical 55° angle, with individually shaped leave stripes running seamlessly into the door linings. CAD tools were used to map the position of every wood piece, and even though it appears to be constructed from just two mirrored sections of veneer, this panel alone is made up of 40 sections, each digitally mapped before being fixed to the motor automobile.
Applying wood to the complex curvatures of Droptail’s interior required Rolls-Royce engineers to develop a completely latest substructure for several components. The dramatic geometry of the dashboard, door linings and central cantilevered ‘plinth’ armrest needed to be incredibly rigid to make sure the steadiness of the wood pieces once they were laid in place. Engineers called on carbon fibre layering techniques utilized in Formula 1 motor racing to develop an incredibly stiff base onto which the wood could possibly be applied, ensuring that it remained secure whatever the dynamic extremes the motor automobile experienced.
The bespoke timepiece
The Santos Straight Grain veneer fascia incorporates a clock conceived and developed by Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers and craftspeople. This expression of haute horlogerie is probably the most complex Rolls-Royce clock face ever created: the assembly alone was a five-month process, which was preceded by greater than two years of development.
The clock incorporates an exquisite geometric guilloché pattern in raw metal with 119 facets. It is a symbolic nod to the marque’s heritage; because the client first saw a preview of the motor automobile in late 2023 – the yr when Rolls-Royce celebrated its 119-year anniversary. The specially designed clock face also includes partly polished, partly brushed hands and 12 ‘chaplets’ – or hour markers – each just 0.1mm thick. To make sure the readability of the timepiece, specialists gave each chaplet an infill bridge and painted them by hand using a camera able to magnifying a picture by as much as 100x.
While many haute horlogerie methods were used to develop the timepiece, the testing and validation standards at Rolls-Royce are higher than those of the watch world. This required the marque’s specialists to attract on an expansive palette of materials. For instance, as a substitute of anodizing the timepiece’s minute marker, which is common practice in watch manufacturing, it’s finished in a ceramic coating chosen due to its stability over time in addition to its aesthetic merits. Small areas of the coating were laser-etched away to disclose the mirror finish of the aluminium material beneath it. Like every bit inside the timepiece, including the Bespoke ‘double R’ monogram, they were individually machined from solid stainless-steel billet and polished by hand prior to assembly.
Themes from the clock are paired with the instrument dials, sharing materials, techniques and execution. They feature the identical repeated guilloché pattern, in addition to brushed and polished brightwork and frosted white inserts, recalling the colourway of the motor automobile.
Official Statements
“The Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail splendidly demonstrates the true nature of a Coachbuild proposition in completely transforming the character of a motor automobile. Each Droptail commission reflects a deeply personal understanding and interpretation of a foundational design. With Arcadia Droptail we witness daring in minimalism and subtlety, informed by the life-style of a person who has a novel appreciation for British luxury. In creating this historic motor automobile, we once more prove our peerless abilities in synthesising and executing Bespoke design at its highest level.”
Anders Warming, Design Director, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
“The importance of Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail lies in its subtlety. It’s a projection of a person who values clarity and precision in all areas of their life – from their passion for positive cuisine, their highly curated personal and skilled spaces and affinity with contemporary design. This motor automobile is one of the vital faithful expressions of a person’s personal style and sensibilities we now have ever created inside the Coachbuild department. In capturing their spirit, we reveal a novel appreciation for simplicity, serenity and beautifully restrained elegance – one which was a privilege for me to have been a component of.”
Alex Innes, Head of Coachbuild Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
(Source: Rolls-Royce)
This Article First Appeared At www.carbodydesign.com
