Rolls-Royce Boat Tail is possibly the world's most expensive new car

Rolls-Royce has revealed a new ultra-exclusive bespoke model, the Boat Tail, which also heralds the establishment of its coachbuilding service as a permanent fixture in the company's portfolio. The Rolls-Royce Coachbuild program will allow the marque's most elite customers to commission a car of their own.

Boat Tail is the culmination of a four-year collaboration with three of Rolls-Royce's "most special clients", with name taken from a series of coachbuilt Rolls-Royces in the 1920s and 1930s.

Rumoured to cost around £20 million (Dh104 million), each of the three Boat Tail cars has been custom-built as an open-air four-seater with a rear portion designed to evoke the deck of a J Class yacht, a single-masted racing boat like those used in the Americas Cup.

The first of the modern Boat Tails, in a blue hue whose specific nomenclature is known only to the client and Rolls-Royce, has a back deck that opens like butterfly wings to reveal small picnic tables and a parasol.

Each car is unique in the colours used, trimlines, and interior appointments, while other details includee a refrigerator to hold bottles cooled to precisely six degrees Celsius, and an aluminium-and-leather glove box sized to hold a special pen.

Rolls-Royce says building the three cars required four years of planning, with the execution requiring 1,813 completely new components.

The Rolls-Royce Boat Tails have the same 6.75-litre V12 engine that powers the Rolls-Royce Phantom, Cullinan and Ghost.

“Boat Tail is the culmination of collaboration, ambition, endeavour, and time. It was born from a desire to celebrate success and create a lasting legacy. In its remarkable realisation, Rolls-Royce Boat Tail forges a pivotal moment in our marque’s history and in the contemporary luxury landscape,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.