A modern interpretation of the roadster body style, Droptail represents the next chapter of?Rolls-Royce Coachbuild. Only four expressions of the motor car will ever be made, each the result of remarkable collaborations between Coachbuild artisans and ambitious, visionary clients. The first commission, Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail, embodies the allure of the Black Baccara rose.
Dark, daring, and dramatic, La Rose Noire Droptail is an extraordinary achievement symbolising one family’s distillation of experiences, significant moments, and cherished objets d’art. Crafted over four years, its central inspiration is the Black Baccara rose — an intense, velvet-like flower bred in France and adored by the family’s matriarch.
La Rose Noire Droptail represents the return of the roadster body type. With a cocooning two-seat interior, it diverges from Rolls-Royce's traditional four-seat convention — a first in the marque’s modern history.
The clients may drive in two distinct styles. The first, with the roof removed, creates a thrilling open-air experience characteristic of the roadster. The second, with the hard roof installed, transforms the car into an exhilarating coupé.
The curved shawl panel, fascia, and doors present the single most complex expression of parquetry ever created by Rolls-Royce. Formed from 1,603 pieces of Black Sycamore veneer, symmetrical triangles are punctuated by asymmetrical red segments, creating an abstract artwork of falling rose petals that cosset the driver and passenger. The grey pieces retain the wood’s natural colour and were crafted from several logs to achieve tonal variation.??Its assembly required such intense concentration that the single craftsperson tasked with creating it would only work in one-hour sessions for no more than five hours per day, ensuring they possessed the concentration required for perfect execution. Weeks were spent working in absolute silence in a sound-insulated space, mitigating any distractions. In total, the parquetry required nearly two years of development and over nine months of flawless craftsmanship.
The abstract petal motif cascades across the aft deck, mirroring the interior parquetry. Resembling a yacht’s jib, two angular sail cowls frame the geometric artwork, gently rising behind the doors and curving towards the occupants.
In shade, the petals of the Black Baccara rose read as dark pomegranate — but direct light?exposes a rich red with a pearlescent shimmer. The flower’s colours form the commission’s?primary colour palette.
The exterior coachwork is finished in a lustrous and complex red tone, True Love, that captures the infinitely changing colours of the Black Baccara rose. To achieve this rich variation, a base coat was followed by five layers of clear lacquer, each blended with a slightly different tone of red. This completely new paint process was developed over 150 careful iterations.
The essence of the Black Baccara rose extends to the exterior brightwork. A dark finish named Hydroshade — developed specifically for La Rose Noire Droptail — emboldens the iconic Pantheon Grille, which boasts kinked rather than straight vanes. Named for its liquid essence, Hydroshade draws inspiration from the motor car’s noire character and possesses a reflective quality that mirrors natural light.
In a discreet flourish, the reverse surface of the grille’s vanes are painted in True Love — a subtle detail that is only visible by way of indirect reflection.