New Rolls-Royce Sweptail is the realisation of a customer's coach-built dream

When Rolls-Royce presented the 103EX Vision Vehicle to the world, it invoked its coachbuilding heritage to inspire its future clientele. This Vision Vehicle envisaged a world of completely personal luxury mobility where new technologies would allow every Rolls-Royce to be designed in their owners' image, should they wish. Such a Rolls-Royce would represent the truest meaning of luxury - a personal, Bespoke motor car like no other for each individual commissioning patron.

The idea of a future coachbuilt Rolls-Royce was not enough for one Rolls-Royce connoisseur however. This individual approached the marque with his own idea of a two-seat Rolls-Royce that he wanted to be created in the here and now. That motor car is here, now, and is christened the Sweptail. In a nod to the swept-tail of certain Rolls-Royces from the 1920s, admired by the client so much, he asked Rolls-Royce to reimagine this feature on his one-off motor car.

Presenting the car to the media at the Concorso d'Eleganza at Villa d'Este on Saturday 27^th May 2017, Torsten Muller-Otvos, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars said, "The Sweptail is a truly magnificent car. It exudes the romance of travel for its own sake, and immediately places the Sweptail in the pantheon of the world's great intercontinental tourers. Rolls-Royce's history as the world's leading coachbuilder is at the very core of its identity as the world's leading luxury brand."

The Sweptail is without question a Rolls-Royce that fits to the marque's DNA. One's attention is first attracted by the confident and solid character of the front profile, centred on a new treatment of the iconic Rolls-Royce Pantheon grille. The largest of any modern era Rolls-Royce, the grille is milled from solid aluminium before being painstakingly polished by hand to a mirror finish. The periphery of the front face of the Sweptail is framed in brushed aluminium.

The scale and grandeur of this regal-looking coupe is evident. From the leading edge of the windscreen, the roofline accelerates as it fires backwards towards the rear of the motor car, overshooting the boot lid edge to emphasise its length. The coup de gras of the rear is the ultimate homage to the world of racing yachts that inspired the client, with its raked stern.

The cleanliness and grandeur of the bodywork from the side view, the lengthened side windows and the panoramic glass roof combine to illuminate the two singular occupants of this most singular Rolls-Royce and its modern, minimalistic handcrafted interior. The interior is ruled by a philosophy of simplicity and minimalism leading to a distillation of componentry and a purification of clutter.

True to the spirit of a transcontinental GT that Rolls-Royce established in the 20s and 30s, in place of the rear seats is a vast expanse of wood creating a mid-shelf with an illuminated glass lip. Sitting under the rear opening backlight through which it can be accessed, the hat shelf is in itself a thing of beauty, highly polished and inset with luggage rails. Behind the occupants, a feature named the Passarelle flows from the rear edge of the windscreen to resolve in a teardrop as it connects to the hat shelf to join all interior volumes.