Rolls-Royce revives coachbuilding operations

Luxury marque brand Rolls-Royce has announced that it has re-established its Coachbuild department. This department will allow prospective clients the chance to commission bespoke body styles while keeping within the company’s time-honoured design principles.

• Re-established Coachbuild department to allow customers to create completely individualised cars
• All coachbuilt cars to follow company’s fundamental design parameters

“We have formally re-established our Coachbuild department for those patrons who wish to go beyond the existing restraints and explore the almost limitless possibilities this opens up for them. We are able to offer our customers the opportunity to create a motor car in which every single element is hand-built to their precise individual requirements, as befits our status as a true luxury house,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, chief executive officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

The carmaker’s most recent and renowned coachbuilt creation was the one-off Sweptail that was revealed back in 2017.

All cars to follow Rolls-Royce’s fundamental design parameters

Rolls-Royce says that its coachbuilt offerings will continue to follow the brand’s design tenets that have been incorporated in the brand’s cars to this date. These design principles have included a body to wheel-size ratio of 2:1 – established by the 1907 Silver Ghost – and a body shape defined by three fluid lines running the length of the car. Each car, as with all current Rolls-Royces, will wear the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine.

Current scalable platform allows greater scope for coachbuilding

The carmaker says that its current all-aluminium spaceframe chassis, which debuted in the current eighth-gen Phantom, was designed from the ground up to be scalable for a range of the manufacturer’s models – it also underpins the new Ghost and the Cullinan.

Talking about the platform, the company says “In essence, it creates four fixed points at each corner of the motor car. The distance between them can be whatever the designers and engineers want it to be: bulkhead, floor, crossmember and sill panels can all be stretched or shrunk or increased in height according to the product.”

This the carmaker says that this flexibility will allow for “new possibilities for coachbuilding” allowing its clientele to commission cars to their tastes.

Rolls Royce in India

Rolls-Royce launched the new eighth-gen Phantom in India in 2018, replacing the seventh-gen model, following it up with the brand’s first SUV, the Cullinan, later in the year. The carmaker debuted the all-new Ghost globally last year, along with announcing prices for the luxury sedan for the Indian market. The carmaker also offers the two-door Wraith coupe and Dawn convertibles – models based around the previous-gen Ghost.

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