Rolls-Royce Maharaja Phantom Drophead Coupe Curries Favor

Roughly 100 years ago, when India was still very much a British territory, the Subcontinent’s indigenous rulers – the Maharajas – started purchasing and traveling around in opulent, highly-customized Rolls-Royce automobiles. Over the ensuing years and decades, some 840 Rollers were shipped to Indian heads-of-state, many decorated in vibrant colors and furnished with the finest materials available. Say what you will about pre-independence, pre-democracy India, but it’s hard to argue that it didn’t result in the construction of some sweet rides.

Now Rolls-Royce wants to recapture some of that aura in the form of a series of one-off modern models inspired by those Maharaja-commissioned classics. The first one – the Phantom Drophead Coupe you see here – features a Carrera White exterior with green striping (plus little green peacocks drawn in the same shade), a green convertible top, green carpeting, steering wheel rim and other interior accents, Crème Light leather seats with custom embroidery and stitching, and a peacock design (Factoid time: The peacock is India’s national bird.) inlay on the wood-decked convertible top boot. But lest you assume this regal ragtop Rolls is bound of the land of the Maharajas, guess again: Its buyer is based in Dubai, a place where, to be fair, a lot of folks seem to live like this century’s Maharajas.

Source: Rolls-Royce