SWEPTAIL by ROLLS-ROYCE

SWEPTAIL by ROLLS-ROYCE

“What would you like?” Sounds like a simple question, but when you truly think about it, it’s actually one of the hardest questions to answer. If there were no limit to your options, what would you actually like? Many think they know until the question is asked and then they break into a cacophony of “Errrs” and “Ummms” as the reality they coveted now falls upon them.

It’s also an answer made made all the more difficult depending on the permanence and longevity of the decision. With something so frivolous as a meal, rest assured, it’s only a few hours before you get to rectify said mistake, but what of things more permanent, such as a car? Or a house? What of a car the price of a (big) house…? Then the question becomes all the more serious; not only will you have to wait months to see the gravity of your decision, but it’s a decision that will live with you for a long time.

We’re used to having our options simplified for us by menu choices, choices which themselves prove sufficient obstacles for us when making decisions. For me, that’s what makes this SWEPTAIL one-off client edition Rolls-Royce all the more spectacular. The client waited four years for his masterpiece to be brought to life, and at great expense too – SWEPTAIL is the world’s most expensive Rolls-Royce and is said to be worth a reported $13million.

Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com
Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com
Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com
Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com
Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com

 

To create something so remarkable distinct yet so in tune with the Rolls-Royce takes someone familiar with the brand and in the design references are exactly that. Inspired by the beautiful coachbuilt Rolls-Royces of the 1920s and 1930s, the SWEPTAIL is the realisation of the client’s desire for a coachbuilt two seater coupe featuring a large panoramic glass roof.


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From the flamboyance and drama of the 1925 Phantom I Round Door built by Jonckheere, to the svelte tapering glasshouse and dramatic dash to axle proportion and up-sweep of the rear departure angle of the 1934 Phantom II Streamline Saloon by Park Ward, SWEPTAIL incorporates a variety of classic references and features and reinterprets them in a current, yet futuristic way.

Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com
Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com

 

Even the registration plate is a one off; the number ‘08’, two individual digits milled from ingots of aluminium and hand polished. The coup de gras of this one-off masterpiece is as personal to the owner as every other feature of Sweptail. The entire centre console now houses a one-off hand-built mechanism that, at the touch of a button, will deploy a bottle of the client’s favourite vintage champagne – the year of his birth – and two crystal champagne flutes. As the lid of the chiller opens, the mechanical action articulates the bottle to the perfect position for the owner to pick up.

Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com
Rolls-Royce Torpedo
Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com
Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com

 

It’s not often I will say this, but there is pretty much no chance of you owning this car – and not only because of the price, it’s quite simply a ‘one of a kind’. In this case that’s actually a good thing. What the Rolls-Royce SWEPTAIL shows is just how far the imagination can be stretched yet still made into reality, so now when the time comes for you to commission your Rolls-Royce Bespoke, you know the level of audacity to start from.

ROLLS-ROYCEMOTORCARS.com

Photo: James Lipman / jameslipman.com
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