Inside the most outrageous car Rolls-Royce has ever built
Even By Rolls-Royce’s standards, this ultra-bespoke Coachbuild Collection car – a dramatic drop-top – is something else
Known as Project Nightingale, the car will be offered to 100 specially selected Rolls-Royce customers. Each buyer is then invited to become immersed in the design and production process.
Styling inspiration comes from classic Rolls-Royce vehicles, paying particular tribute to the high-speed experimental ‘EX’ cars from the 1920s.
Beneath its Art Deco era styling, however, Project Nightingale makes use of a thoroughly modern, Spectre-derived electric powertrain, which should provide a smooth and near-silent driving experience.
The car’s name is taken from Le Rossignol, French for ‘the nightingale’, also the name of a designers’ house near Henry Royce’s winter home on the Côte d’Azur.
‘A landmark Rolls-Royce’
Domagoj Dukec, director of design at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said: “Project Nightingale is built on the design principles that define this marque at its most compelling: grand proportions, absolute surface discipline, and a clarity of line that rewards the closest attention. And yet, it takes them somewhere entirely new.
“For me, this landmark motor car feels both inevitable and completely unexpected, and it will shape everything that follows.”
Project Nightingale is an imposing two-seat convertible. At 5.76 metres, it is almost exactly the same length as Rolls-Royce’s flagship Phantom saloon.
The design team has retained the classic ‘Pantheon Grille’, but the electric powertrain has allowed for a bold reinterpretation of it. Almost a metre wide, and seeming to be carved from a solid block of aluminium, the grille is topped by a Spirit of Ecstasy that appears to be gliding through water.
Art Deco nautical design from Rolls-Royce
Project Nightingale will be fully homologated and road-legal, yet Rolls-Royce has sought to push boundaries in terms of its design.
Ultra-slim vertical LED headlights continue the 1930s Art Deco theme, while a polished stainless-steel band runs the full length of the car, from beneath the front grille to the tail lights.
In profile, Project Nightingale is described as having a ‘torpedo-shaped central fuselage’. More nautical inspiration comes from the 24-inch alloy wheels, the largest ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce. These are said to appear like the propellers of a yacht when viewed from beneath the waterline.
The rear deck features a dramatic luggage compartment lid that cantilevers open like a grand piano. The absence of exhausts also allows for a full-width carbon fibre rear diffuser.
The drop-top Roller
On the inside, Project Nightingale looks equally opulent, with ‘Starlight Breeze’ ambient illumination that incorporates 10,500 individual LED lights. The design of the lighting was modelled on soundwave patterns from nightingale song.
Open the rear-hinged coach door and the armrest automatically slides rearwards to reveal a Spirit of Ecstasy rotary controller made from polished and glass-blasted aluminium.
Billet aluminium is used for a pair of hidden cupholders, plus there is a hidden storage shelf behind the front seats to accommodate small items of luggage.
Rolls-Royce ‘Nightingale production begins in 2028
The solid blue paint colour of the Project Nightingale seen here was inspired by the experimental Rolls-Royce 17EX of 1928. Within it are subtle red flakes, a nod to the red badges fitted to EX models.
Project Nightingale customers will have access to near-endless customisation, working closely with Rolls-Royce designers to shape their own vehicle.
Production gets underway at the marque’s Goodwood headquarters in 2028. Each of the 100 Project Nightingale cars will be hand-built. The price has not been disclosed, but is likely to stretch into seven figures.
John Redfern writes for Motoring Research