WATCH: The world’s most expensive car will set you back R400 mil

If you have Bill Gates-type money and enjoy pulling over to the side of the road to enjoy the sunset while sipping on a glass of champagne from your ‘car bar’, the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail is the car for you.

Having earned the official title of the most expensive car in the world, you would expect nothing less than pure luxury. And that’s exactly what you’ll get if you can afford the price tag, and convince the manufacturers that you are worthy of one of these hand-made beauties.

Who designed the most expensive car in the world? 

The Boat Tail is a specially commissioned version of the Phantom, that forms part of Rolls-Royce’s new Coachbuild division.

Following an approach similar to the Sweptail four years ago, the Boat Tail, while sharing its mechanicals and underpinnings with the Phantom, boasts a completely unique body with the bow-shaped rear being the centrepiece.

Taking its name from a Rolls model originally built in 1932, an example of which is owned by an unnamed customer who commissioned it, the Boat Tail is said to have been the result of the buyer wanting something “purposefully self-indulgent” with the added desire of owning a vehicle that responds “to a life of hard work, success achieved, and celebration”.

Based on the extended wheelbase Phantom and measuring 5.8 m in overall length, the Boat Tail is finished in a custom-made blue hue with embedded crystal flakes, with the alloy wheels themselves sporting the same colour said to be the customer’s favourite.

What makes this the most expensive car in the world?

As indicated though, and as per its name, the redesigned rear-end sports a tapering surface meant to resemble that of a yacht, while the decklid itself is trimmed in Caleidolegno wood and opens in a butterfly like fashion at 15 degrees.

Called a “hosting suite”, the hinged deck hides “an abundance of surprises executed to the highest quality surprises and delights all who come to experience it”. These include two fridges to cool the owners’ Armand de Brignac Champagne, a Boat Tail engraved cutlery and crockery set by Christofle in Paris, and two carbon fibre stools made by Promemoria in Italy.

Unique features to the new Rolls-Royce

Unique to the Boat Tail though is the canopy-like roof which can be removed entirely. Supplied is a tonneau cover claimed by Rolls-Royce to provide “static transitory shelter if inclement weather is encountered while the roof is removed”.

Sporting a graded bonnet finished in a deeper blue hue than the rest of the exterior, the Boat Tail’s nautical theme continues inside, with the inclusion of a Bovet 1822 timepiece at the buyer’s request, an anthracite Caleidolegno wood veneer, dark blue leather seats with blue piping and woven technical blue fibres, and an instrument panel finished in a design method called guilloché used by jewellers and watchmakers.

Completing the interior is an aluminium/leather case located in the glovebox that contains a hand-crafted Montblanc pen in response to the owner’s passion for collecting pens, and two Bovet 1822 wrist watches for the owner and his wife.

An area where the Boat Tail has not been changed is the drivetrain where the Phantom’s 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 continues to produce 420kW/850Nm fed to all four wheels via a satellite-linked ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic gearbox. In typical Rolls-Royce fashion, and somewhat unsurprisingly, no performance figures of the Boat Tail was revealed.

Only three cars will be made 

In a turnaround from conventional bespoke models, a total of three Boat Tails will be made, following interest from two other customers.

According to Rolls-Royce, “an agreement was reached whereby three cars would share a common body, but each would then be individually, highly personalised, reflecting the confluence between vision, capability and ambition of the marque and each of the individual commissioning patrons”.

While it didn’t report on the final price, reports have confirmed a sticker of $28-million or R387-million when directly converted, a figure that makes the Boat Tail the most expensive car in the world.