In the world of hyper-expensive cars no name is as synonymous with luxury as Rolls Royce is. With base models of newer cars starting at about half a million dollars with room for almost Pimp My Ride levels of customisation made available to customers who can flash the cash to make it happen, virtually all cosmetic aspects of a Rolls Royce are bespoke. To the point even the paint job is both entirely unique and hand-finished by a single guy who’s only job is doing exactly that.
One thing worth noting before we get to the meat of the article is knowing exactly what any given Rolls Royce is worth is based on best guesses and estimation largely because Rolls Royce themselves absolutely refuse to even give prices for the base models of one of their cars. Adhering to the old adage that if you have to ask how much something costs, you probably can’t afford it. With the company telling prospective buyers to instead contact them directly to tell them exactly what they want so they can get a quote.
The benefit of this though is that there’s pretty much no limit to the amount of bullshit you can cram into a custom Roller and that virtually everything can be tailored to your most frivolous whim like you’re a punchable teenager on My Super Sweet 16 who has watched one too many Fast and Furious movies.
As an idea of the how pedantic you can get just picking the colour of your Rolls begins with trawling through a sample book of about 40,000 options to use as the baseline. After that, you can tweak it to your exact preference or even just give the painters any random object you happen to like the colour of and they’ll match it exactly. According to Rolls Royce, for an example of how annoying you can be with this, they’ve gone as far as to colour match a car to someone’s dog.
But it doesn’t stop there though because once you’ve picked a colour it’ll be immediately retired (after being named after you) and anybody else wanting to use it will have to get your express permission to do so.
As for the car’s interior, this is also infinitely customisable and can be tweaked, adjusted and refined to fit your exact specifications, needs and idiosyncrasies. With everything from the stitching on the upholstery to the size of the steering wheel being something you can change.
What’s more all of this is done by hand and if any mistakes are made, they’ll throw it all out and start again. However, there’s one area where Rolls Royce cannot make a mistake without literally having the build the car all over again and it’s probably something most people wouldn’t even notice. The Coach Line.
This cosmetic flourish is considered a signature element of the Rolls Royce brand and it is, believe it or not, applied entirely by hand. Specifically the hands of Mark Court, a former pub sign writer who was hired on the spot when he was asked if he had steady enough hands to paint a perfectly straight, 8ft long line on a million pound car, freehand and his response was to simply say –
At the time of writing, Court is literally the only person on Earth allowed to even touch one of the impossibly well trimmed brushes he uses and he is reportedly on call 24/7. If you’re currently wondering why would a guy who paints a single line on a car be on call all the time? Well the answer is that while the Coach Line is considered a signature of the Rolls Royce brand, it isn’t a requirement to have one on a car. However if a customer changes their mind about this for whatever reason, Rolls Royce will fly Court to wherever they are in the world to add it.
The same is reportedly true of all repairs and and additional tweaks a customer may request, with Rolls Royce priding itself on fixing any issues at the customer’s home to minimise the amount of time they are without car. Which, yeah, is to be expected when you spend the equivalent of a house on one.
