World’s Most Expensive Car: The Rolls-Royce Droptail

rolls royce la rose noire droptail The Rolls-Royce Droptail
The Rolls-Royce Droptail. Image source: Rolls-Royce

The Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail is the world’s most expensive car, retailing at a cool US$32 million. For South Africans, that’s a little shy of R600 million.

How much does the Rolls-Royce Droptail cost?

Each Droptail – this is the first of four cars – is commissioned by a buyer and handmade to order by Rolls-Royce’s Coachbuild team.

Coachbuild is the most exclusive, invitation-only division of Rolls-Royce. It consists of a team of highly skilled craftspeople and designers.

The Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail cost the commissioning family around US$32 million.

The Rolls-Royce Droptail
Image: Rolls-Royce

Features of the world’s most expensive car

Being such a high-end, one-of-a-kind car, La Rose Noire Droptail has an endless list of subtly designed bespoke features.

It is inspired by the Black Baccara rose, a velvet-like flower that originates in France and has a dark pomegranate colour. The rose is said to be the favourite flower of the matriarch of the commissioning family.

The car features a removable hard top, so it can transform from sleek coupé to an open-top roadster.

The Rolls-Royce Droptail interior
Image: Rolls-Royce

The cocooning two-seat interior features hand-crafted parquetry, the most complex ever featured in a Rolls-Royce, made from black sycamore sourced in France.

It took 1,603 pieces of wood – hand-finished and hand-placed over a two-year period – to complete this expression of the Droptail. The exterior paint took 150 iterations to perfect.

Why is the La Rose Noire Droptail so expensive?

Quite simply, there is only one Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail in the world and it represents the pinnacle of bespoke luxury.

Coachbuild allows patrons to collaborate directly with the team to create an entirely bespoke car that meets their every desire, from the red leather seats to an integrated one-off timepiece by Audemars Piguet. It took four years to complete.

The Rolls-Royce Droptail features
Image: Rolls-Royce

How many Rolls-Royce Droptail cars are there?

The La Rose Noire is the first of only four unique expressions of the Rolls-Royce Droptail.

There are currently two other Droptail commissions, the Amethyst and the Arcadia, which are the second and third commissions.

The Rolls-Royce arcadia Droptail
The Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail. Image: Rolls-Royce

The fourth – and final – expression has yet to be commissioned. Rolls-Royce has stated, “There will only ever be four expressions of Droptail.”

Who owns the Rolls-Royce Droptail?

Rolls-Royce has not revealed who owns the Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail, but it is rumoured to be a billionaire with close ties to France.

It was commissioned in Pebble Beach, California and handed over to the owner in a private ceremony.

The owner of the Rolls-Royce Arcadia Droptail is also a mystery, but is thought to be a Singaporean billionaire.

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At Pawn My Car, we don’t build or sell the world’s most expensive car, but we do offer fast, discreet loans against the value of vehicles, including luxury cars.

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