One-Off Rolls-Royce Phantom Hyperion by Pininfarina Is a Coachbuilt Wallflower

Since money is definitely no issue, then why does no one want to buy the Rolls-Royce Hyperion by Pininfarina? The model was shown to the world back in 2008, at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and it is still a showstopper more than 13 years later.

Commissioned by Roland Hall from Pininfarina, he only enjoyed it for one year, as in 2009, the bespoke car changed hands for a reported £4 million or a little over $5.5 million at the current exchange rates. You might expect it to be worth at least that much today, but it’s not.

You see, AL Ain Class Motors has been struggling to find a new home for it for quite a few years now, and at the time of writing, we found it on Mobile for €2,780,000, equaling to $3,225,280. So, why does no one want it? Your guess is as good as ours, though it might have something to do with the price, because even if it’s not as valuable as it once was, wealthy petrolheads might be tempted to get something else for that sum.

For well over $3 million, you could buy a low-mileage Ferrari LaFerrari, Pagani Huayra, Koenigsegg Agera, or Bugatti Veyron, but we’re only scratching the surface here. Add a few more Benjamins, and you might even get a Bugatti Chiron or an Aston Martin Vulcan. Heck, you could even get an armored Rolls-Royce Cullinan too, and we don’t know about you, but it’s hard to beat getting a LaFerrari or a Chiron over the one-off Phantom.

The first time we saw it on the used car market was way back in 2012, and the same Dubai-based used car dealer was behind the ad. Four years later, we wrote about it again, and guess who was advertising it then? That’s right, AL Ain Class Motors, who currently has some extremely fine rides in their portfolio, yet the one signed by Pininfarina is also the most expensive.

We’re tempted to say that it has been sitting under the spotlight, trying to look pretty for a wealthy new owner for about a decade now. Nevertheless, very few people know if this is true, and it is possible that all of them work for AL Ain Class Motors. Don’t get us wrong, $3+ million is an insane amount of money that most of us will never get to see, let alone touch, but it is still weird how absolutely no one seems to be interested in it.

It may have been based on the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, but the Phantom Hyperion by Pininfarina features a lot of novelties, including a custom body. The Italian coachbuilder moved the driving position further back, shortened the rear end, extended the roof, and removed the rear seats altogether. The deck is also new, and keeping the passenger compartment safe from the elements is a dark blue ragtop that contrasts the light blue bodywork decorated by lots of chrome.

The controversial design (we won’t say that it looks like a Chinese knockoff, but it kind of does) was topped by a tan leather interior, typical of that day and age. The rest of the cabin looks more luxurious than ever, especially with the big screen trend that most of the automotive industry is following these days. Unsurprisingly, Pininfarina chose to retain the standard powertrain, namely the 6.75-liter V12, which we reckon that it hasn’t seen much action.

So, care to guess why nobody wants it?