A romantic journey through “la vie en rose.”

AT AN ELEGANT RECEPTION HIGH IN THE HILLS OVERLOOKING the Pacific Ocean and Pebble Beach Golf Links, La Rose Noire glided up the driveway to take its place in front of a wall of gorgeous dark red roses featuring a gold ‘RR” emblem in the middle, while Torsten Müller-Otvös, Rolls-Royce’s CEO, introduced the brand’s latest creation.

Many ultra-luxury car makers and hypercar manufacturers will personalize your new ride. Though they may use different names to do so, they allow the buyer to choose the paint color, interior color, materials, seat and dash stitching, wheels, options packages, and, in some cases, enough options so that the purchase price of the fully-loaded car can go up to 100 percent more than the base car. But then, there is the concept of “coachbuilt.” This is how many luxury cars were created around the world starting at the end of the horse-drawn coach period, which declined after the late 1920s.

During those years, a buyer would purchase a “rolling chassis” (frame, wheels, motor, transmission, etc.) from the builder and then commission a separate company to design the perfect body and interior for the car, making this a time-consuming and expensive process. Yet when it was completed, the owner would have a unique car that couldn’t be owned by anyone else.

Some vintage coachbuilt cars have received extremely high bids at auction, despite it being almost impossible to determine their value. Yet, I doubt that people purchasing coachbuilt cars today are as concerned about their resale value, considering they’re mostly looking for a car that is a reflection of their taste while showing their passion for design.

Starting in 2017, Rolls-Royce returned to its roots by introducing commissioned roadgoing art with its Sweptail – a two-door coachbuilt embodying the company’s wish to create never-before-seen cars. The design was intended to create an intimate and cosseting interior, wrapping the occupants in comfort and luxury while also providing a smooth and powerful ride and scenic views with a full-length glass roof.

The 2021 Boat Tail continued that design language. It is the car of an extrovert, one who enjoys driving with what Rolls-Royce calls a “highly social open top.”

Let me now introduce you to La Rose Noire, the first of four coachbuilt “droptails” to be built, which was unveiled on the eve of the 2023 Pebble Beach Concours ‘Elegance in California. The open two-seater (it has a removable roof is the first roadster body style in Rolls-Royce’s modern history. It was inspired by the allure of the Black Baccara rose, a flower grown in France with velvet like petals, beloved by the doyenne of the commissioning family.

Photos do not do the color of the car justice. The incredibly luminescent and jewel-like red paint required some 150 iterations to perfect – a finish so dynamic that, while on display on a perfectly clear, sunny day, it shone with many different shades of red. The red colorway is a lovely counterpoint to the black-mist chrome accoutrements that adorn the body, as well as the bumpers, grille work, and Spirit of Ecstasy adorning the top of the Pantheon grille.

Inside the car, the woodwork was created by combining hundreds of wooden shapes, while the parquetry is comprised of an extraordinary 1,602 pieces of wood sourced from France. The latter is the most complex project ever undertaken by Rolls-Royce. It provides the perfect canvas on which to illustrate the flow of red rose petals that float from fore to aft, even when the car is not in motion.
Rolls-Royce director of design Anders Warming and head of coachbuild design Alex Innes were both in attendance, pointing out the innumerable design touches that were put together to make La Rose Noire one-of-a-kind, yet recognizable.

Starting in 2017, Rolls-Royce returned to its roots insofar as initiating roadgoing art with the “Sweptail,” a two-door coachbuild that reflected on the company’s mandate to create stunning cars which looked like nothing theretofore. The design was intended to create an intimate and cosseting interior, wrapping the occupants in comfort and luxury while also providing a smooth and powerful ride. Sweptail also thrills with its full-length glass roof.

The 2021 Boat Tail continued that design language as the car of an extrovert, one who enjoys driving with what Rolls calls a “highly-social open top.”

With that background in mind, let me introduce you to La Rose Noire, the first of four coachbuilt “droptails” to be built that was unveiled on the eve of the 2023 Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, California. The open two-seater (it does have a roof that can be put in place by the owner or left on a trapeze in the garage) is the first roadster body style in Rolls-Royce’s modern history. This amazing car was inspired by the allure of the Black Baccara rose, a flower grown in France which has petal possessing a velvet-like quality and which is beloved by the mother of the commissioning family.

At an elegant reception high in the hills overlooking Pebble Beach Golf Links and the beautiful blue Monterrey Bay and the Pacific Ocean, La Rose Noire glided up the driveway and took its rightful place in the center of a wall of gorgeous dark red roses, with a gold “RR” emblem in the middle, while Rolls CEO, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, introduced Rolls’ latest creation to a small selection of global journalists. The contrast between the blood-red roses with the gleaming Rolls was stunning in its splendor. Photos do not do the color of this car justice. The incredibly luminescent and jewel-like red paint required some 150 iterations to perfect, a finish so dynamic that, while on display on a perfectly clear and sunny day, it shone with many shades of red just depending upon from which angle one viewed it. The sumptuous red body was in lovely counterpoint to the black-mist chrome accouterments which adorn the body, and that same metal hue was used in the bumpers and grille work as well as in creating the Spirit of Ecstasy adorning the top of the Pantheon grille.

The designers also collaborated with Audemars Piguet to create a special one-off timepiece that can be placed into its dash receptable as an in-car clock or which can be worn by the car owners. The 43mm Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date runs on a unique self-winding Calibre 4407 movement, with a flyback chronograph and split-seconds mechanism. It has red counters and a red inner bezel that both stand out against the black openworked dial that is highlighted with rhodium-toned bevels.

The company’s return to the coachbuilt era has been terrific for both the special customers who commission these beautiful vehicles—some of which can be seen at the most prestigious car shows in the world, such as Villa d’Este—and those of us who aren’t buyers yet still enjoy the gorgeous styling and workmanship emblematic of these exclusive cars. This latest series – the quartet of Droptails each is to be produced in its own variant—harken back to the time when time and money were not as important in the creating of these cars: achieving extraordinary results was paramount.