2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe
A glorious, winding strip of asphalt stretches ahead of the Spirit of Ecstasy ornament on the nose of the 2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe. Ecstasy’s wings spread and point the way, not unlike the figurehead of a seagoing vessel as she almost tugs. She is anxious for the car to lurch forward; its massive presence is poised to jump.
That anticipation is echoed by the driver who sits behind the long, stainless-steel hood.
More than any other Rolls you’ve known for a while, this convertible is prepared to be driven with gusto. Its wheelbase is shorter than that of the Phantom sedan, and its quick reaction on these valley roads belies its heft. The best analogy might be that if it were an athlete, it would be a basketball power forward: oversized in comparison with other, lesser humans yet able to perform feats of strength and speed that seem impossible. Is it fair to call the Drophead Coupe agile? No. It is better to say it has power with a dynamic sensibility. Few Rollers have ever been agile.
The massive horsepower and torque that come from the whisper-quiet V12 are available with the throttle’s slightest tickle. Indeed, you must check to make sure the car is running; watch the tachometer to see the needle’s gentle bob. You won’t hear the purr for a calculated reason: Engineers have built in whisper valves, baffles and sound-deadening chambers, an elaborate mechanical marvel, to give this Rolls (as well as its sister sedan) the quietest voice possible.
It is, after all, a Rolls-Royce. And with 800 worldwide sales of Phantom sedans a year you would expect this car should be seen and not heard.
That makes the notion of a driver’s Roller an anomaly. Rolls-Royce owners, more than those of any other marque, are passive participants in the act of driving. Rolls owners pay people to drive for them. Now, before the wails come from the owner-operators, can you think of any other brand bred for a chauffeur? No, I didn’t think so. And yes, plenty of owners do gladly take the wheels of their Phantom sedans.
That number will increase to almost 100 percent in the Phantom Drophead Coupe. Its purpose is to be a fun cruiser that will fit four adults—no basketball players, though—in four seats. And if challenged, it is up to the task of spirited driving. It will go from a standstill to 60 mph in a scant 5.6 seconds, and 75 percent of its power is available at 1000 rpm.
Let’s put this into perspective: Rolls-Royce will build a four-seat, 2.5-ton, open-top coupe for $412,000. That’s the entry price, minus the teak decking ($7,000), the stainless-steel hood ($8,000), 21-inch chrome wheels ($6,250 per set) or any other options you can heap on it. So say you’re into it for $500,000, with destination, tax, license, gas-guzzler and title . . . something royal, perhaps. Roughly 200 Drophead Coupes per year will be built, 40 percent of them coming to the United States. You have to make cubic dollars and have a specific taste to want to own this car. And they are sold out through 2008.
Who would own one? Longtime Rolls-Royce aficionados; those who want to have a full-sized convertible for the beach home; an athlete, to go with the fleet; a hip-hop star whose bling needs L.A. sunshine. There is not a specific group, just lovers of the marque and what it says about their station in life. One certainly arrives in this car.
The interior is as you would expect. Some 15 cow hides go into making each car; 450 separate pieces are handsewn for the tailored look that is demanded. Tooled aluminum sheets are pressed with a handsome pattern for the instrument panel; should you choose, wood veneer can take its place ($1,000). Sisal rugs give the car an outdoorsy feel. And that optional teak works its way through the doorsills and through the back. It is a special place, this compartment, that few will have the pleasure of enjoying.
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May 25th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
The Rolls-Royce plant there should, all being well, soon be ready to recruit new staff. There’s talk of a new shift, maybe even a second line. Rolls is on a roll, you might say.
Chairman and chief executive Ian Roberts thinks aloud about new models to follow the vast, stately Phantom limo launched four years ago. Baby (by its standards) Rolls-Royces, to perhaps go head-to-head with the Bentley Continental family, should boost production volumes.
The remarkable creation that you see here, the Phantom Drophead Coupé, will also be doing its small part (say, 200 units a year) to keep things rolling along
Rolls-Royce knows its customers but there are only about 85 000 of them worldwide
.
OK, I’ll quit with the “rolling” puns now and tell you why this new car is a worthy successor to the “proper” Rolls-Royces built in the days when the company was unequivocally British.
Rolls-Royce knows its customers. They’re what it calls “ultra high-net-worth individuals” and what I call the filthy rich. They’re worth in excess of $30-million (about R210-million, excluding property) and there are 85 400 of these fortunate people worldwide.
Exposure to them – those whose toughest decision is whether to buy a second yacht, a substantial property in Thailand or that new Rolls-Royce convertible (possibly all three) is usually enough to turn me into a socialist. Best not go there, eh? (Apparently, the number of Chinese super-rich folk is growing at 20 percent a year, another sign of the times
They’re also ‘impervious’ to normal marketin techniques
.)
Anyway, the reborn Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the company rebuilt by BMW out of the old Rolls-Royce/Bentley combine (VW made off with Bentley) has gone to huge effort to find out what 21st-century plutocrats want. And this, apparently, is it.
Rolls-Royce’s would-be customers, apparently “impervious” to traditional marketing techniques, prefer intimate get-togethers at boutique hotels and to be asked what they think and their views are acted upon. So I can only hold them responsible for the Drophead’s unhappy front end, sadly reminiscent of its Phantom big brother.
They obviously also asked for this new car’s nautical necessities; a real teak cover for the canvas roof on the rear “deck”; sisal for the floor covering; and, most remarkably of all, a stainless-steel bonnet that has given the car a vaguely vintage two-tone look.
As usual, Rolls-Royce is all about choice, so those eccentricities can be replaced with more conventional items, but it’s refreshing to see such audacity. Luggage is stored in a picnic boot, Range Rover style, a split-tail compartment that opens in two parts, and the lower tailgate provides a comfortable seating platform for two adults when lowered. Ideal for polo, I imagine.
They’ll even do you a car in yellow, for which nod to a great old movie I’ll forgive a lot.
Stout sills
So, it’s quite the land yacht. That’s the unpredictable bit of this Rolls-Royce story. The rest is as you’d expect. It’s very strong: the aluminium space frame under those beguiling panels has been braced and beefed up to make up for the absence of a roof. At 2.5 tons, it’s even heavier than the Phantom limo.
The chunky look of the Drophead is partly down to that – the sills are particularly stout so there’s quite a step up to get in, though access through those wide rear-hinged doors, even to the rear bench of this four seater, is fairly easy.
A little button tell an electric motor to shut the door. Nice.
The Drophead Coupé wafts, as every Rolls-Royce should, thanks to air suspension, and a 6.75- litre V12 engine, though you’re more buffeted than in many a lesser convertible. And the Drophead retains the delightfully slim steering wheel found in the Phantom, which older customers will recall from bygone Silver Shadows and Spirits and Spurs.
If rain threatens your tranquillity, your hood will be up in 25 seconds and you’d hardly think you were in a soft-top. You’re quite insulated from the world in your £300 000 plutotoy. Until the revolution, that is.- The Indepenent, London