Rolls-Royce's coachbuilt Boat Tail may be the most expensive new car ever

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Rolls-Royce wants to revive the long lost art of the coachbuilt luxury car, after getting a taste doing a one-off model four years ago, and to show it’s serious, revealed late May its first new bespoke vehicle, the Boat Tail, which may be the most expensive new car ever built.

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The Boat Tail is the first effort out of the iconic British marque’s new Coachbuild wing, but isn’t exactly a one-off. Indeed, three customers signed on to have their own unique variations on this new body style assembled, with the metallic blue example unveiled May 27 being the first.

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Like its method of construction, the Boat Tail’s aesthetic draws inspiration from Rolls-Royce’s past and the nautical, half-literally boat-tailed bodies of some coachbuilt cars of the ’30s—indeed, the customer who commissioned the first car owns a 1932 Rolls-Royce boattail restored so its delivery date would line up with the new car’s.

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The cantilever-ing wood-paneled deck of the car, which borrows its feel from J-class yachts, is obviously the most radical feature of the Boat Tail; its halves fold open to reveal a “hosting suite,” replete with refrigerator, champagne flutes, towels, a built-in sun shade, and fold-out chairs.

But changes have been made all around the car, from a new slightly softened take on the iconic Pantheon grille; to a new horizontal taillight element, which contrasts with the marque’s typically vertical graphics. In total, the bodywork on the Boat Tail stretches to 228 inches in length.

While the price tag has not been officially revealed, blogger Mr JWW, who was given a tour of the Boat Tail firsthand , relays that the commission apparently cost around £20 million, or $34.2 million in Canadian funds (US$28 million).

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It’s definitely a fitting car to herald the marque’s return to coachbuilding. See, historically, some of the brand’s most important models were ones not found on the showroom floor, but instead paid for by customers who fitted a bespoke body to a Rolls chassis.

It all (re-)started back in 2017, when the one-off Rolls-Royce Sweptail was revealed, a completely bespoke design built on an existing Rolls platform. Now, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös says this new division will open up within the company to handle the creation of a variety of unique vehicles for (extremely) wealthy buyers.

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“We are able to offer our customers the opportunity to create a motor car in which every single element is hand-built to their precise individual requirements,” he said.

The division, aptly named “Rolls-Royce Coachbuild,” will assist customers in bringing their dreams to reality. In the past, coachbuilding was a relatively simple process for automakers, as the chassis for the vehicles could basically run separate from a body anyway.

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These days, most vehicles that aren’t trucks employ unibody construction and feature specially designed crumple zones, making it much more difficult to change the exterior design. Rolls’ new aluminum space frame, which underpins the Cullinan and Phantom, should be a little easier to adapt, though.

The Sweptail was a litmus test, to find out if there was enough demand to warrant offshooting an entire division, and considering the interest it spurred and its alleged price tag, an estimated US$12.8 million – never mind the reportedly twice as high price of the Boat Tail – odds are good the carmaker saw significant economic incentive to proceed.

Brace yourself — we’re about to enter an age of the most obscene vehicles built by the most tasteless millionaires from around the world.