New £20m Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail is the ultimate in opulence
Arcadia is the third model in Rolls-Royce’s exclusive Droptail commission, and it doesn’t come cheap
The most expensive new car in the world has been revealed – this is the new Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail. It arrives as part of the British firm’s ‘Coachbuild’ Droptail programme, which follows on from its Boat Tail series; four bespoke models of the Droptail are planned, priced at around £20m each.
Like the other two Droptail cars revealed so far – the Amethyst and the La Rose Noire – Rolls-Royce has already found a buyer for the new Arcadia and says the car matches the client’s “sensibilities and personal codes of luxury, defined by purity and subtle restraint”. When it came to the design of the Arcadia, the client insisted the car should stay faithful to the earliest sketches of the Droptail concept.
The new Roller is named after the mythical realm of Arcadia, which in Ancient Greek mythology means ‘Heaven on Earth’. It gets a solid white paint finish to the exterior – but to make it extra special it’s infused with aluminium and glass particles to create a deeper shimmer. Instead of exposed carbon fibre in the lower section of the body (like the other Droptails), the Arcadia has this painted in silver. The 22-inch alloys and Pantheon grille are mirror-polished.
Rolls-Royce says “wood development” was central to the Arcadia’s interior design. A total of 233 wood pieces of wood were used, with 76 pieces just for the rear deck. The Arcadia’s owner will apparently use the car “internationally” and in “tropical climates” so the wood was coated in a bespoke lacquer that’ll survive the lifetime of the car. Over 8,000 hours went into developing the wood and its protective coating.
The clock on the dashboard of the Arcadia is also bespoke, and took Rolls-Royce two years to research and develop, before five months of assembly time.
Each of the four Droptail Coachbuild Roadsters features a revised chassis. Still made from aluminium, they’re reworked with carbon fibre for extra rigidity. Power comes from a twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre V12 with 593bhp and 840Nm of torque, for a 0-62mph time of around five seconds. Of course, we don’t expect the Arcadia will be driven in such a manner at any point.
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