You probably remember reading about the Rolls-Royce Droptail last year; it was showcased in two flavors: La Rose Noire Droptail and Amethyst Droptail. The original plan was to create four variants, and what we’re seeing here is 3 of 4, the Arcadia Droptail.
The name ‘Arcadia’ comes from Greek mythology, a place depicted as Heaven on Earth. But how do you depict that on a car? Well, the coachbuild team developed calm tones for the car’s coachwork: the main body is painted in white but is infused with aluminum and glass particles—offering a shimmering effect and an illusion of depth. Adding a bit of contrast on the sides are the carbon fibre lower sections of the car—painted in a bespoke silver—rather than left fully or partially exposed. The exterior grille surround, ‘kinked’ vane pieces and 22-inch alloy wheels have been fully mirror-polished.
For the interiors, Santos Straight Grain wood has been used generously, despite challenges working with the delicate material. If not handled with great care, the wood tears when machined and checks (a crack that appears parallel to the grain) during the drying process. The wood has been used on the rear deck as well, where the grain of the veneer is laid at a perfect 55° angle. To achieve a perfect composition over complex geometry, Rolls-Royce artisans used a total of 233 wood pieces throughout Arcadia Droptail, with 76 pieces applied to the rear deck alone. The team spent a tremendous amount of time developing the Arcadia Droptail. In total, the wood pieces and protective coating required more than 8,000 hours of development, the company said.
As we learned from the previous Droptail variants, the Droptail is built around a new monocoque chassis. It is powered by a 6.6-litre (6,592 cc) twin-turbo V12 engine, tuned to deliver 471.5 kW (632 bhp/641 metric hp) and 840 Nm (619.5 lb-ft) of torque.
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