Today, personalizing a car usually means picking a special paint color or interior trim. But in the 1920s and 1930s, the world’s wealthiest buyers went a lot further than that. In those prewar years, it was the norm for luxury cars to be decked out in completely custom bodywork. Now, Rolls-Royce is trying to bring that back.
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Unveiled at the 2017 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the Rolls-Royce Sweptail is a one-off commission created for a customer with very specific tastes, and very deep pockets. Said customer approached Rolls in 2013 about building a one-off car, and the automaker’s design department spent several years bringing the idea to reality.
The “Sweptail” name and design reference swept-tail Rolls-Royce designs from the 1920s. The car, which appears to be based on features a fastback roof that ends in a pointed tail, a design flourish rarely seen today. Virtually all of that roof is covered in glass, which should make for quite a view, but also ensures the air conditioning will be running on full blast on sunny days.Despite being a very large car, the Sweptail only seats two. The space behind the rear seats is taken up by a wood-covered luggage shelf, which looks like someone inserted a section of deck from a yacht into the cabin. As with all Rolls cars, the interior is trimmed in high-end wood and leather. Designers also tried to eliminate as much switchgear as possible from the dashboard to create a cleaner look, and found space in the door sills for attaché cases, each designed to hold a laptop. The finishing touch is a champagne cooler in the center console. Drinking and driving is still illegal in most places, of course