Rolls-Royce Drops the Top on the Special Edition Drophead Waterspeed

Roll-Royce has revealed its special edition Phantom Drophead Waterspeed.

Images via Rolls-Royce

Special edition luxury cars are little more than a way to bump the price and move more models, and generally they look heart-wrenchingly pretty in the process. This one is no different.

Rolls-Royce has announced the Drophead Coupe Waterspeed Collection, a group of Phantoms that pay tribute to Sir Malcolm Campbell and his successful pursuit of the waterspeed world record in 1937.

In typical Rolls-Royce fashion, the car has seen more work than an aging supermodel. The exterior is finished in nine layers of paint – ‘Maggiore Blue’ in this case – and has been given a hand-painted coachline that takes a master painter four hours to apply.

Other seemingly minor details have been obsessed over as well, including the individually hand-beaten rear decking that takes 70 hours to build and hand-engraved arm rests (eight hours), which complement the bespoke grey leather interior.

Buyers still get the Phantom’s enormous 6.8L V12, ushering out 453-horsepower, but expect the price to jump a bit from its completely affordable $474,600 base price. Luxury isn’t cheap.

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