Future Portfolio Of Rolls-Royce

The recent unveiling of Boat Tail confirms coachbuilding as a permanent fixture within the future portfolio of Rolls-Royce. Alex Innes, head of Coachbuild Design, explains to François Oosthuizen why this is such a seminal moment for the prestigious marque.

- François Oosthuizen

“Show me something I have never seen before.” Alex Innes, head of Coachbuild Design at Rolls-Royce, remembers these words as if they were spoken yesterday, even though it was nearly four years ago. The occasion was his very first meeting with the commissioning client of Boat Tail who, together with his wife, saw a coach-built Rolls-Royce as the ultimate expression of their successes and accomplishments. The briefing session followed shortly after Rolls-Royce revealed Sweptail, its previous coachbuilding commission, in 2017.

Is the four years that it has taken to follow Sweptail up with Boat Tail, which (at the time) prompted the contemporary coachbuilding movement for Rolls-Royce, the average timeline for such a unique undertaking, I ask Innes. “Typically speaking, yes, but it’s also reliant on the complexity and the scope of the individual concept,” he explains. “With Boat Tail, it was directly linked to the unveiling of Sweptail as a starting point. The launch of Sweptail was somehow the catalyst in the mind of some of our most valued clients, as to just what can be achieved through this curation exercise, working together with Rolls-Royce.”

As such, Boat Tail represents a collaborative exploration of luxury, design, and culture between the marque and commissioning clients. Through Rolls-Royce Coachbuild – described by the brand as “contemporary patronage in its truest form” – these clients are empowered to create potent, evocative expressions of personal taste. They are intimately and personally involved at each step of the creative and engineering processes, working in harmony with Rolls-Royce to express the nuances of their character and personality.