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Following la rose noire and Amethyst cars that were shown last summer, Rolls-Royce recently unveiled its third of four Coachbuilt Droptail Model, The new Droptail is called Arcadia, named after the “heaven on Earth” region of ancient Greek mythology, and while its exterior design is more subtle than other Droptails, its interior shares a few features. jaw dropping touch,
The Arcadia Droptail was commissioned by a customer in Singapore who is a fan of architecture and design, and wanted his car to display “purity and subtle restraint, which reflects his ability to strip away complexity to reveal the underlying, fundamental essence.” Shows strong faith.” To that end, it is finished in a seemingly solid white color that sparkles when it hits the light due to the aluminum and glass particles beneath the clearcoat, which Rolls-Royce Says, “Creates the illusion of infinite depth in paint”. A custom dark metallic silver paint has been applied to its hood which is also used for the lower bodywork; On the other two droptails, the sills, front splitter and diffuser are finished in exposed carbon fiber. The 22-inch wheels, grille surround and other trim pieces have a mirror-polished finish.
The inside of the Arcadia Droptail uses special white and brown leather, both of which were created for and named after the customer. It's a surprising combination, and although I still wish the Droptail's dashboard was more distinctive than other “regular” Rolls-Royces, the distinctive center console and door panels make up for it. While cars in Singapore are mostly right-hand drive, the customer chose to go with a left-hand drive configuration as the Arcadia would be regularly driven around the world.
Like every other Rolls-Royce the Arcadia has a droptail A clock set in the dashboard, but it is the most complex watch ever made by Rolls – the company says it took more than two years to develop, and five months for assembly alone. In celebration of the brand's 119th anniversary last year (that's when customers first saw the car), the watch features a cast metal face with a guilloché pattern made up of 119 facets. The hands are partly brushed and partly polished, and the chapels, or hour markers, are only 0.1 mm thick and hand-painted using a camera that can magnify up to 100x .
Don't think this watch is like any other fancy timepiece – Rolls-Royce says its testing and verification standards are higher than those of traditional watch manufacturers. Normally the minute markers of a watch are anodized, but the Arcadia is finished in a ceramic coating that looks better and is more durable, with parts of the coating laser-etched to expose the mirror finish of the aluminum. Is given. Each piece of the watch was individually machined from stainless-steel billet and polished by hand, and the gauges have the same guilloché pattern.
But the real showpiece on the Arcadia Droptail is its wood trim, which covers the entire rear deck and is found on the dashboard, center console, and the “shawl panels” that connect the seats and wrap over the doors. After much deliberation, the client and team decided on Santos Straight Grain, a high-density hardwood that the company says has one of the finest grain types of any wood used. There is one. It was chosen because of the interlocking grain pattern, but it also proved to be a major challenge as this type of wood can easily split when machined and crack when dried.
A total of 233 pieces of lumber were used, 76 of which were just for the rear deck, and the grain had to be laid at a 55-degree angle. Rolls' designers used CAD to lay out each piece of wood, and while the curved shawl panel appears to be made of two mirrored pieces, it's actually made of 40 separate sections of wood. To apply wood to such complex curved surfaces, Rolls-Royce took inspiration from the carbon-fibre layering techniques used by Formula 1 cars, creating new layers for the center armrest, dash and doors to ensure the stability and stiffness of the wood. Sub-structures had to be developed.
Because Arcadia will be operated in a variety of climates around the world, including some tropical, it was important to use the right protective coating for the exposed wood. Coatings used on superyachts were considered, but ultimately rejected because they would have to be regularly reapplied, so Rolls-Royce developed its own special varnish that could be applied only once over the lifetime of the car. bar was to be implemented. The sample pieces were subjected to rigorous testing that simulated different weather extremes, with the pieces being sprayed with water, left to dry in the dark and then exposed to heat and bright light. – This was repeated for 1,000 hours on 18 different samples until the engineers were satisfied with the results. In total, the wood trim took over 8,000 hours to develop and complete.
Coachbuild Division of Rolls-Royce Spent over four years on Arcadia, which included “several months investigating and interrogating customer tastes in everything from clothing and furnishings to food and travel destinations.” The owner's daughter and other family members also got involved, and apparently once the car was ready, everyone agreed that it “perfectly reflects[his]aesthetic and character.” ” With a price ticket of practically $30 million, I actually hope so.
