The Rolls Royce Hyperion, that we introduced to you two montgs ago, made its world debut last week at the Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach.

The car was designed and built by Pininfarina, commissioned by car collector Roland Hall who wanted a unique Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe.

The private client who already owned a Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe, asked them to create a custom-built car that would evoke the appeal of the sumptuous cars of the 1930s.

‘It is not the first time that the Pininfarina Special Projects Division has designed a unique car from a standard production model,’ said Andrea Pininfarina, Chairman and CEO of Pininfarina SpA. ‘In the recent past we have reinterpreted Ferrari engineering, as in the case of the Pininfarina Ferrari P4/5 of collector Jim Glickenhaus, or Peter Kalikow’s Scaglietti ‘K’.

The Rolls Royce Hyperion is based on the chassis of the Drophead Coupe but numerous changes have been implemented : the rear seats of the model are removed leaving enough area to nudge the driving position back an extra 400mm.

To accurately depict the styling of the pre-war cars, Pininfarina had to extend the roof which simultaneously shorten the rear end whilst keeping a beautiful array of soft flowing design lines.

The body of the car has been completely redesigned and is made of carbon fibre, although the doors which have been designed by craftsmen that usually focus on luxury boats are made of solid wood.

The interior remains largely unchanged except for the Rolls Royce dashboard clock has now been replaced with a custom made Girard Perregaux Tourbillon which fits onto a special mount on the dashboard and can be detached for Mr. Hall’s personal use.