Rolls-Royce unveils one-off Sweptail

Bespoke is a word oft used by premium car-makers, but the Rolls-Royce Sweptail is more than just a sticker job, flash wheels and new floor mats.

Dubbed "The pinnacle of bespoke", if you thought the arresting Rolls-Royce Wraith Black Badge custom with its titanium stitching and carbon weave was a jaw-dropper, get a load of this!

It's understood the creation cost its owner around $US13 million, which is roughly A17.5 million at the time of writing. That would make it one of the world's most expensive new cars ever made.

Imagine how many Kia GT Stingers you could buy with that?

Revealed at the 2017 Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este on the picturesque shore of Lake Como in Italy, the one-off Rolls-Royce Sweptail creation was four years in the making. The two-seat intercontinental tourer has levels of personalisation that will make your brain melt… and your bank account too.

Take the hidden compartments located within the long front doors. Each conceals an automatically deploying attaché case made of carbon-fibre and wrapped in leather. Contained within is the owner's laptop, which is sealed securely via titanium and aluminium locks and clasps.

The special laptop cases come with hand-made luggage to match, naturally, which slot neatly into the rear shelf.

If that's not enough, the astonishing vehicle also houses a secret champagne dispensary. Rolls-Royce calls this hand-built mechanism the "coup de gras" of the Sweptail, which operates via button push to deploy a chilled bottle of bubbly and a pair of crystal champagne flutes.

Having witnessed the Rolls-Royce factory pumping out hand-built cars (many 'regular' vehicles take upwards of a year to put together), we can only imagine how this project came together.

If the cashed-up owner can tear himself away from the pared-back, minimalist interior of the car, the jaw-dropping rudiments continue.

Viewed from the front, the Sweptail has a familial modern-day Rolls-Royce appearance. Its trademark square grille the largest ever implemented by the British car brand. Oh, and it's milled from a solid lump of aluminium "before being painstakingly polished by hand to a mirror finish" according to the car maker. E-gads!!

When the Rolls-Royce Sweptail is seen from above or behind however, the visual gravitas begins to emerge… this is no ordinary car. The Sweptail rear end features a huge tapered glass roof, "...one of the largest and most complex ever seen on a motor car of any marque," insists Rolls-Royce.

The idea is to provide a tip of the hat to the Rolls-Royces of the 1920s and 1930s while incorporating a maritime theme inspired by the owner's super yacht collection. Why not eh?

Polished aluminium rails frame the roof's striking glass panels, which converge to a single point at the rear, which "accentuates the speed and elegance" of the car.

What would a multi-million dollar custom Rolls-Royce be without a custom number plate? This one features the "08" registration, which was also created by Rolls-Royce, the two digits hand polished milled aluminium.

It's all about the attention to detail, which also includes a rear timber hat shelf with an illuminated glass lip. You can bet there's a few other details the owner has kept secret too, such as its cost – and perhaps a few other hidden compartments.

But as Rolls-Royce director of design Giles Taylor explained, the company has a reputation to protect so didn't want to put its badge on a vehicle it wouldn't be happy showing off.

"Our job was to guide, edit and finely hone the lines that would ultimately give our client this most perfect of Rolls-Royces," he said.

"This customer came to the House of Rolls-Royce with an idea, shared in the creative process where we advised him on his cloth, and then we tailored that cloth to him. You might say we cut the cloth for the suit of clothes that he will be judged by."

The Sweptail could be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to multi-million-dollar one-off creations. Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös stated that his company is interested in expanding its already considerable bespoke program, epitomised by the stunning Atelier Room buried within the company's Goodwood headquarters.

"We are listening carefully to our most special customers and assessing their interest in investing in similar, completely exclusive coachbuilt masterpieces. At the same time we are looking into the resources which will allow us to offer this unique service to these discerning patrons of luxury."