Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail Shows "World's Only Wooden Surface That Produces Downforce"

For rich people, talking directly to the car manufacturer for bespoke creations is the way to go. And it's this second approach we're here to take a look at now thanks to British luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce.

Just a few days ago the Brits pulled the wraps off the La Rose Noire, a unique Droptail with a price tag estimated at $30 million. A visual insanity by trade, it was shown in all its glamorousness during the Monterey Car Week.

Little did we know back then that the second car in the series – which, by the way, will eventually comprise a total of four unique Droptails – will be presented shortly after. And here it is, something called the Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail.

Just like its sibling, the Amethyst was made at the request of a Rolls customer, an unnamed individual who apparently does business in the gemstone industry, among other things. Hence the name of the build, and the many references to the crystalline quartz seen throughout the car.

Like with all bespoke (or coachbuilt, as Rolls calls them) builds, the Amethyst is not at all about technical specifications and road capabilities, but about luxury and what it means to its owner. Somehow though Rolls' people managed to squeeze in some very exciting attributes, making the car one to include in the history books.

We'll start at the exterior, where from afar the Droptail seems to have adopted a sort of purple hue. It's a color inspired by the Globe Amaranth, a wildflower native to Central America but presently grown globally. But it's also a lot more than a simple shade of purple.

The exterior of the Rolls actually comes in two tones, meant to capture the many stages of the flower's life – purple with a silver undertone on most of the body, and a deeper purple contrast paint on the upper side.

The body was peppered with powdered aluminum to give the ride an iridescent finish, and traces of red, blue and violet mica flakes can be seen all over the place.

The lower part of the luxury car is dressed in carbon fiber, but not in the way you usually see the stuff on cars. The material is lacquered and comes in Amethyst pigment – that allows it, most of the time, to be indistinguishable from the rest of the build, and can only be seen for what it is when looked at from up close.

Because the car's wheels are always an integral part of the design, Rolls did not leave those to chance either. When looked at in the correct light, the 22-inch pieces of metal give out a touch of mauve paint that perfectly integrates with the rest of the body.

At the front, on the lower air intake, 202 hand-polished stainless-steel ingots have been fitted (unclear if the number is supposed to mean something), all of them finished in the same Globe Amaranth as the rest of the body.

The car is in profane words a convertible, but it does have a hardtop. When installed, it shows electrochromic glass that changes color and transparency at the push of a button. When colored, it takes on a hue to match the car's interior.

The interior of the Amethyst may look like brown leather from afar, but it naturally is a lot more than that. The official name of the leather's color is Sand Dunes, and it was chosen to be a perfect fit for the open-pore wood seen throughout.

Speaking of wood, Rolls-Royce says this car comes with the "most extensive wooden surface area" in the company's history. True, we're not given exact quantities, but it's obvious from a simple look that no corners were cut in making wood a central piece of the wood.

From the front fascia to the rear of the car, wood takes center stage, but it does more than that, as it's not simply decorative. The large chunk of the stuff at the rear actually covers the aerodynamically functional aft deck, and that makes the Amethyst Droptail "the world's only ‘raw' wooden surface that produces downforce" of any roadgoing car.

Most definitely rare and expensive (we're not told exactly what kind of wood we're dealing with), wood is not the only luxury highlight of the car. Taking that title are the rare amethyst gems used as decorations for the rotary dials, and the unique timepiece installed on a white-gold baseplate on the car's fascia.

The timepiece is the work of Swiss specialist Vacheron Constantin and it's called Les Cabinotiers Armillary Tourbillon. It too has wood in it, comes with a bi-retrograde display, and provides both instantaneous return of the hours and minutes as well as a bi-axial tourbillon.

Rolls-Royce does not reveal the identity of the car's owner, and it also doesn't say anything about its price either. But we can all easily imagine how expensive it can be.