'La Rose Noire' is first of 4 new coachbuilt Rolls-Royce 'Droptails' (2024)

Rolls-Royce late August unveiled the first of four unique “Droptail” commissions, named La Rose Noire. The farthest thing possible from an assembly-line vehicle, it took almost two years just to hand-finish and place the 1,603 wood pieces in the car’s parquet trim so that they’d look like scattered rose petals.

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The car was delivered to its new owners – unidentified by the automaker, as is common with these lavish models, because who wants total strangers just dropping by to ask for a ride? – during a private event during Monterey Car Week in California. The price was also not divulged, but we expect it’s much more than was asked for each of the hand-built Boat Tails the company first offered in 2021, which were estimated at around US$28 million. We’ve heard US$31.2 million bantered about for this latest model, but of course Rolls-Royce will never let the actual MSRP slip from its lips.

This singular rose was created by Coachbuild, the highest level of Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke division. While Bespoke lets you come up with new finishes and features on an existing model – the automaker’s lineup currently consists of the Phantom, Cullinan, and Ghost, along with the upcoming electric Spectre – someone buying a Coachbuild basically works with Rolls-Royce’s designers, right from the initial sketches, to produce the entire vehicle.

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The Droptail is the third offering from the Coachbuild division, following the Sweptail in 2017; and then the Boat Tail in 2021. Each of the four Droptails will “have its own flavour,” the automaker said, and all of them are already spoken for by buyers who will work with the automaker on the commission of each.

The La Rose Noire Droptail is a two-seater roadster, with a removable hardtop that turns it into a coupe, complete with electrochromic glass section. Its theme is a Black Baccara rose, a favourite with the matron of the family that commissioned the car. The flower looks red in sunlight, but black in shade, and so those two colours – dubbed True Love and Mystery – are the primary shades for the car, which appear to change colour depending on the viewing angle. It required a new paint process and 150 tries to get it right.

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Components that might otherwise be bright chrome are a unique dark finish, called Hydroshade; it’s not paint but a specific electrolyte added during the plating process. The lower front air intake is 3D-printed and fitted with 202 stainless-steel ingots painted with the True Love colour, while the 22-inch wheels use the Mystery shade. The seats also use the True Love and Mystery shades in their leather, along with a copper shimmer.

After ordering the car, the owner went on even more of a commissioning spree. There’s a one-off Audemars Piguet watch that matches the car’s paint scheme and fits into a special compartment in the dash, which opens at the push of a button so the watch can be removed and worn — and when it’s gone, a titanium coin engraved with a rose fits in its place.

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And, of course, the car contains a wine refrigerator, but as well, there’s a commissioned champagne chest with rose-petal parquetry that matches the rest of the interior trim. It will be filled with an exclusive Champagne de Lossy created for the owner, “one of only a previous handful of vintages produced by the Chateau in its 160-year history.” The chest contains hand-blown crystal champagne flutes; its lid turns into a serving tray; and the sides open to access hammocks that hold the champagne.

This is just the first of four cars, as mentioned, and we expect that those who have commissioned the next three are looking at this one and thinking, “Well, we have to do better than that.” It should be interesting to see just how over-the-top – but tastefully over-the-top, mind you – the remaining three Droptails will be.