While schlubs like you and me were worrying about more mundane stuff, like the second half of my dental bill, the people who breathe the rarified air of really big money have been doing their thing this weekend in rarified air indeed, the kind that envelops Lake Como in the reaches of the Italian Alps. That’s the backdrop selected by Rolls-Royce – specifically, this weekend’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on Lake Como, one of the Continent’s most exclusive automotive salons – to introduce the Boat Tail, the hyper-personalized custom coachbuilt open tourer, to a small group of meticulously selected – meaning very rich – potential buyers admiring the elegant display.
As the dual side-opening deck lids clearly imply, this is an automobile where nautical styling themes exist in abundance. The invitation-only rollout was administered by none other than Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös, and held on the Mosaic Lawn at the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este overlooking Lake Como, where the concours, which dates to 1929, concluded today. The Boat Tail was exhibited four years after the first edition in Rolls-Royce’s current coachbuilding history, the Sweptail, was introduced at the same location in 2017. What a Boat Tail cost? Are you kidding?
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 