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In your head, you tell yourself that Rolls-Royce might as
well be a brand new car company, doing business at the very
top of the high end. BMW has taken over, injected millions
of dollar and legions of talent, and all is now well at
Goodwood. A combined German-British management and
creative team have spawned the new Phantom sedan and
limousine, and now they’ve produced the first convertible
under the new regime.
But, you say to yourself, temper your enthusiasm. The
new Phantom Drophead Coupe may have BMW behind it,
but it is a Rolls-Royce convertible, not an M3 convertible. A
big, wide, long and heavy barge with two doors and a folding
cloth top, a car so big and ungainly, you think that you
may need a small fleet of tugboats to maneuver it out of a
parallel-parking space and then give it a healthy push to get
it going. I found out within the first few minutes behind that
natty, nautical steering wheel that I was as wrong as wrong
can be.
I have driven Rolls-Royce convertibles for short periods
here and there, in Europe and America, since 1975, and
have never, ever had as much driving fun in a Rolls as I had
driving the new convertible. It is vastly different from any
previous Corniche, which is what Rolls-Royce used to call
convertibles; it’s quicker, faster, more agile and more satisfying
overall than any of those old dears.
The test car I drove in the beautiful, serene surroundings
of the Maremma region of Tuscany was a deep, deep sexy
red, with the optional stainless-steel hood, optional stainless-
steel windshield surround, and optional teak decking on
the convertible top cover, with a gorgeous creamy leather
interior and burl wood interior trim. The normal run of
Phantom Drophead Coupes will come to the customer in a
single paint color, with a painted hood, a painted convertible
top cover, and a painted windshield surround, but mine carried
this $17,000 package of extras.
Up to now, every Rolls-Royce ever built has arrived with
a Parthenon grille that goes straight up and down, with
square corners. You don’t want to mess with a tradition that
goes all the way back to 1904. Or do you? If you’re the new
Rolls-Royce design team, you do. You actually make a grille
shell that’s laid back from the vertical, with rounded corners
and edges, so it looks more like a car and less like a building.
The grille is hinged at the top so it can be pushed back
and will then return in a low-speed impact. The Spirit of
Ecstasy statue has been remodeled, and to foil souvenir
hunters, she can be hidden under a flat plate and made to
reappear at the touch of a button.
The massive front bucket seats are slimmer than those of
the sedan, but still offer the kind of long-distance comfort
found only in your mother’s lap. Integrated seatbelts mount
directly to the seats, with active head restraints and seatmounted
airbags. The driving position is deliberately high to
give a commanding view of the road over the long hood, and
the unusual curved rear seats offer generous space for passengers.
Rear legroom is also generous, making it a four-
seater that even NBA players could love.
Fall into the huge leather driver’s seat through that huge
door opening, buckle up, push the large key into its place on
the left of the dash, press the engine start button, select D,
press the electronic parking brake switch on the dash to
release, and you’re off.
The Phantom Drophead Coupe (PDC) accelerates its
considerable mass, almost 5,800 pounds, like a Holland &
Holland .700 Nitro Express—another British brute, in this
case, an elephant gun. The big 412-cu-in. V-12 is tuned to
give 75 percent of its torque at just above idle speed—1000
rpm—and the remainder of its 531 lb-ft at a mere 3500, so
you never have to push into the upper rpm ranges to get
truly rewarding performance. Rolls-Royce claims a 0-to-60
mph time of well under six seconds, which, at this weight,
is remarkable.
Part of that magical acceleration is the gearing in the
6-speed automatic, which provides—with the 3.46:1 rear
axle—an overall ratio of 4.171:1 in first gear to get those
massive 20-inch tires moving. The double-overdrive sixth
gear has a ratio of 3.460:1, where things quiet down to a traditional
Rolls-Royce whisper. It all works extremely well.
Transmission upshifts are quick, and while the downshifts
are a bit on the lazy side, the power and propulsion never
wane, right up to 150 mph, where the electronic meanies
shut off the flow of fun.
On deceleration, the PDC is equally awesome, sporting
extremely large and powerful disc brakes, almost 15 inches
in diameter, with ABS. The brakes just don’t seem to care
how much the car weighs.
The engine may be the same as the one in the Phantom
sedan and limo, but everything around the engine is different—
very different. For starters, the Phantom Drophead
Coupe has been deliberately and comprehensively downsized
from the original Phantom’s generous proportions.
Every exterior panel on the car is new, made in the
Phantom’s style, but with proportions more suited to the 10-
inch-shorter wheelbase and body.
For more on this article and much more grab a copy of Auto Aficionado Magazine on newsstands nationwide!
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