“The ability to personalise almost every aspect of their motor car
is one of the main reasons our patrons come to us. But we know some
wish to go further still. In 2017, we stunned the world with our
first fully coachbuilt motor car of the modern era, the spectacular
Rolls-Royce Sweptail. This was, by definition, an entirely unique
commission; but in our minds, it was the start of a journey.
We have formally re-established our Coachbuild department for
those patrons who wish to go beyond the existing restraints, and
explore the almost limitless possibilities this opens up for them.
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, as befits our status as a true luxury house.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce
Motor Cars
INTRODUCTION
Coachbuilding is the art and science of creating bespoke
bodywork on a pre-assembled chassis. It is as old as the motor car
itself. All but extinguished by mass production, coachbuilding
nonetheless lives on with Rolls-Royce at the forefront of its rejuvenation.
Drawing on more than a century of experience, and its unique
Bespoke capabilities developed in the modern era, the marque has
defined a new coachbuilding movement. Long accustomed to being able to
commission every aspect of their motor cars’ appearance and
specification, Rolls-Royce clients are increasingly seeking
opportunities to reach beyond Bespoke and determine the motor car's
physical form.
Ahead of an official statement to be made imminently, we invite media
to reflect on the marque’s rich coachbuilding heritage.
THE GENESIS OF COACHBUILDING
When Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first met in 1904, there were
only around 8,000 registered motor cars in Great Britain, compared
with around half a million horse-drawn vehicles. Yet within 20 years,
the carriages and coaches that had ruled the roads unchallenged for
more than a century had all but vanished. No longer a novelty or a
plaything for the wealthy, the motor car ascended to become the
universal means of private travel.
In those early days, car manufacturers generally produced only
the mechanical components: a ‘rolling chassis’ was sent to specialist
coachbuilders, who then added bodywork to the client’s specification.
Some coachbuilders had simply switched from making horse-drawn
vehicles; others had begun capitalising on the new opportunities the
motor car presented.
These pre-Edwardian car bodies were built in much the same way
as their horse-drawn predecessors had been. It quickly became apparent
that materials and methods perfectly suited to the pace of horses were
less amenable to the hitherto undreamt-of speeds of 30 to 40 miles per
hour now attained by the motor car. The art of coachbuilding would
have to become altogether more scientific.
COACHBUILDING AND ROLLS-ROYCE: A BRIEF HISTORY
As the 1920s dawned, mass-market car makers were bringing
coachbuilding in-house, where engineers could address new issues
presented by automotive use such as vibration and torsional stress.
Luxury marques like Rolls-Royce, however, continued to outsource
coachwork to specialist houses for several more decades. A Rolls-Royce
customer could still have a rolling chassis delivered to their chosen
coachbuilder, who would design and build a car body to the client’s
specific requirements – similar to ordering a suit from a Savile Row
tailor, or a dress from a Paris couturier.
Until the 1930s, most coachbuilders remained true to
long-established practice, which involved assembling a wooden frame,
usually in ash, onto which aluminium or steel body panels were either
pinned or welded. This allowed almost any shape to be created, with
designs based around the interior space and fittings requested by the
customer. As their experience grew, materials improved and motor cars’
speeds increased, coachbuilders adapted their methods, with later
frames made from metal tubing or angle-iron.
This essentially traditional form of coachbuilding continued
until the separate chassis was replaced by semi-monocoque
construction, with sub-frames for the mechanical components. This
process made all but the simplest of adaptations to the body design
itself impossible. In the case of Rolls-Royce, this shift occurred in
October 1965, when the Silver Cloud series was replaced by the Silver Shadow.
Contrary to popular belief, however, this did not mark the end
of coachbuilding at Rolls-Royce. The Phantom VI, built on a separate
chassis, remained in production, albeit in small numbers, until 1993,
with coachwork supplied by Rolls-Royce subsidiary H. J. Mulliner, Park
Ward Ltd.
SOVEREIGNTY OF DESIGN
Although in theory a coachbuilt Rolls-Royce could be any shape
the customer desired, in practice there were constraints. Rolls-Royce
motor cars were designed on proven technical principles that were, in
the minds of the Company’s founders, unarguable and inviolable. By
insisting on fixed dimensions for the bulkhead behind the radiator,
they were able to ensure the bodywork maintained the essential
proportions that visually identified it as a 'true' Rolls‑Royce.
Those proportions remain enshrined in the marque's design tenets
to this day. Examine any contemporary Rolls-Royce and it exhibits the
2:1 ratio of body height to wheel diameter first established with the
Silver Ghost in 1907. The body shape is defined by three fluid lines
running the length of the car: the ‘waft line’ that gives the car its
sense of movement; the ‘waist line’ that lends it purpose and
presence; and the silhouette, which expresses its individual character.
These basic principals allow considerable scope, as evidenced by
the highly distinctive forms of Phantom, Ghost, Wraith, Dawn and
Cullinan. Patrons and designers therefore enjoy considerable creative
freedom in a coachbuilding project, within these fundamental design
parameters. It will, after all, bear the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine
above the grille – another immutable principle – so must be a genuine
Rolls‑Royce worthy of the name, and recognisably so.
COACHBUILDING AT THE HOME OF ROLLS-ROYCE
Bespoke IS Rolls-Royce and has been central to the marque's
offering and experience since production began at Goodwood in 2003. It
has proved phenomenally successful, with commissions increasing
year-on-year. The first quarter of 2021 saw the landmark moment when,
for the first time, every single motor car built at the Home of
Rolls-Royce, across the entire model family, included Bespoke
elements. It is the unique vision and capabilities of the Bespoke
Collective that makes Rolls-Royce a true luxury house, not merely an
automotive manufacturer.
Patrons have always been able to personalise their motor car's
appearance in myriad different ways – beginning with a choice of
44,000 paint colours. But their options for altering its overall
outline have historically been limited by the underlying structure.
For this reason, fully coachbuilt Rolls-Royce motor cars have been
rarities in the modern era; much of the sensation around Sweptail
arose precisely because it was such a unique event.
It was made possible by a seismic change in the marque's
manufacturing process, which was first deployed to magnificent effect,
and global acclaim, in the eighth-generation incarnation of its
pinnacle product, Phantom.
THE FOUNDATION OF A MODERN COACHBUILDING MOVEMENT
The current Phantom was the first car to be built on the
marque's proprietary structure. This is an all-aluminium spaceframe
chassis, designed and engineered from the ground up to be scalable for
a range of different Rolls-Royce models. In essence, it creates four
fixed points at each corner of the motor car. The distance between
them can be whatever the designers and engineers want it to be:
bulkhead, floor, crossmember and sill panels can all be stretched or
shrunk or increased in height according to the product. The concept
has proved brilliantly successful, forming the basis for the Cullinan
SUV launched in 2019, and in 2020, the new Ghost.
Crucially, this flexibility opens up new possibilities for
coachbuilding. By moving away from monocoque construction to something
closer to a traditional rolling chassis, Rolls-Royce has reacquired
the freedom to construct almost any body shape its patrons can
imagine, constrained only by fundamental design and engineering requirements.
This means that Rolls-Royce and its patrons can now look beyond
Bespoke and build the car itself, to commission. In this way, it is
perfectly aligned with a lifestyle in which the client's investments
in luxury, from property, clothing and jewellery to works of art,
yachts or private aircraft are personal, individual and unique.
With the Architecture of Luxury, the marque has ushered in a new
coachbuilding movement that encompasses both highly sophisticated
21st Century technology and materials, and a tradition
extending back more than 100 years. It is both evolutionary and revolutionary.
GREAT COACHBUILT ROLLS-ROYCE MOTOR CARS OF THE PAST
40/50HP Phantom I Brougham De Ville (1926)
The
great coachbuilders paid as much attention to the interior as the
exterior of the cars they created. Among the key elements were the
instrument dials, which frequently transcended merely displaying
essential information to become miniature works of art in their own right.
In 1926, the 40/50HP Phantom I Brougham De Ville, known as 'The
Phantom Of Love', was built by Charles Clark & Son Ltd of
Wolverhampton for Clarence Warren Gasque, an American businessman of
French ancestry living in London, as a gift for his heiress wife,
Maude. Gasque commissioned an interior to recreate the Rococo ambience
of a salon in the Palace of Versailles, with polished satinwood veneer
panelling, Aubusson tapestries and a painted ceiling inspired by a
sedan chair owned by Marie Antoinette. It also included this
remarkable French Ormolu clock, mounted on the partition between the
front and rear cabins – an extraordinary detail that represents the
pinnacle of the instrument maker’s art.
17EX (1928)
By 1925 Royce was concerned that the
weight and size of some of the coachwork fitted to its chassis was
affecting the cars’ performance – a fact its competitors gleefully
seized upon. In response, Henry Royce built an experimental Phantom
with an open, lightweight, highly streamlined body. Dubbed 10EX, this
was the foundation for a series of cars that provided crucial new
insights into overcoming air resistance and represented a giant leap
forward in automotive design.
The fifth in the series, 17EX, was completed in January 1928. It
was capable of speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour and, because
Royce was adamant that even his experimental cars should look as good
as any that bore his name, was finished in blue to the marque’s
exacting standards.
In modern colour psychology, blue is associated with
dependability, trust, stability and calm; it is also highly visible at
speed, as demonstrated by the record-breaking cars and boats of
Royce’s good friend, Sir Malcolm Campbell.
Phantom II Continental Drophead Coupé
(1934)
Co-creation has always been at the heart of
coachbuilding. Having commissioned a design for his or her perfect
motor car, the customer worked with the designers and manufacturing
specialists to produce a final design that was technically achievable.
The coachwork would then be completed to the customer’s satisfaction.
This 1934 Phantom II Continental Drophead Coupé, designed by A F
McNeil and built in London by Gurney Nutting & Co, is considered
one of the most exotic and beautifully balanced examples of boat-tail
coachwork ever created. The sweeping concave curves at the rear rise
upwards to the razor-edging of the varnished rear decking. A design
that has stood the test of time well, it remains a fine example of
sporting elegance.
As a historical sidenote, McNeil’s protégée and successor, John
Blatchley, was responsible for two of the most successful Rolls-Royce
models of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the Silver Cloud and Silver Shadow.
Phantom VI limousine (1972)
The Phantom VI was
the last Rolls-Royce model to be constructed with a separate chassis,
and was thus the swansong of the coachbuilder’s art. This example was
designed and built by H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward Ltd, then a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce. Much like a modern-day Bespoke
Collection car, it was based on the production model, but included
numerous additional features specified by the customer. Indeed, so
lavish and comprehensive were the enhancements that the marque
produced a special promotional brochure for prospective patrons based
on this motor car, highlighting the scope of its bespoke capabilities.
In addition to flower vases, a state-of-the-art sound and
television system and a refrigerator for cooling wines and picnic
food, the car was equipped with burled walnut picnic tables. Stored in
the boot, these could be fixed to the front wings for alfresco dining;
driver and passenger perched on a pair of ‘toadstool’ seats clipped to
the front overriders.
Sweptail (2017)
In 2013, Rolls-Royce was
commissioned to create a coachbuilt two-seater coupé featuring a large
panoramic glass roof, inspired by the beautiful coachbuilt motor cars
from the marque’s golden era in the 1920s and 1930s.
The first fully coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern era, the
car’s defining feature is the raked rear profile, the roof-line
tapering in a sweeping gesture to a ‘bullet-tip’ that houses the
centre brake light. The coachbuilt bodywork wraps under the car with
no visible boundary to the surfaces like the hull of a racing yacht.
The underside of the motor car describes a progressive upward arc at
the rear departure angle, producing the swept tail that gives the car
its name.
With its clean lines and grandeur, and contemporary, minimalist
handcrafted interior, Sweptail caused an international sensation when
it was revealed in 2017. Four years in the making, it is now regarded
as a true modern classic and the world’s greatest two-seater
intercontinental tourer.
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