Rolls-Royce Reviews

It's when you find yourself saying things like: “Beauty — a roundabout!” that you know the initial numbing awe of piloting the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe is passing. Even something so mundane as a circle of concrete assumes landmark significance when its being negotiated in 2.6 tonnes of lovingly handcrafted land yacht — one that just happens to have been sold already for a not altogether negligible $1.25 million.Bevin Clayton of Trivett Classic gave Carsguide an Australian first last week, allowing us access to the only Drophead in the country not already in private hands — although it soon will be.This pristine example with low double figures on the clock is being shipped to Adelaide where a gentleman will become the first in that quaint town to own this model Roller.If membership of the Australian Rolls-Royce owner's club is gradually expanding — Clayton expects to sell eight Phantom sedans, eight Dropheads and three of the new hard-top coupes due in September — it's hardly in danger of becoming less than exclusive. Certainly the sense of occasion on simply approaching the Drophead is unlikely to diminish in a hurry.The sheer blackness of this example, set off by the distinctive burnished silver bonnet, to some extent disguises the Roller's imposing lines. The fabric roof is the longest of any modern auto, a bespoke, five-layered lid that insulates the interior from noise of the madding crowd almost as effectively as the sedan's hard top. Indeed, as Clayton says, it's clear that the Drophead remains “in the Phantom family”.Notwithstanding one client who bought a sedan to complement his new Drophead — as one does — the Drophead's DNA is immediately evident on opening the rear-hinged door.It's a sea of Indian rosewood and the creamiest leather set off with polished, to the point of reflectiveness, stainless steel fittings. A singular ambience almost seduces you as you take hold of the skinny, old-world steering wheel.The Drophead is, of course, hand-crafted using top-drawer materials to Rolls's exacting standards and is modelled on the J-class racing yachts of the 1930s. Indeed, the rear deck is teak.The bonnet is machine-brushed before being hand-finished to ensure a uniform grain.A picnic boot has a split tail compartment that opens in two parts, giving easy access to 315 litres of space. The lower tailgate provides a comfortable seating platform for two adults when folded, revealing a luggage compartment that's more lushly upholstered than the cabins of certain luxury sedans Carsguide has tried.Unlike almost all of them, but very much like its sibling sedan, the Drophead contrasts the immense power of a 6.75-litre V12 with an aural note that's entirely in keeping with the Phantom moniker. Indeed, attempting to start the thing after pausing near Clovelly for pictures proved to be superfluous. The engine was, in fact, running.Roof down in a tunnel, you might be driving a hybrid, so subdued and refined is the note, for all its 338kW and 720Nm. Almost no Dropheads are chauffeur driven, but sitting in the rear pews is easily the most civilised such experience that can be had in a convertible.As we've said of the sedan, the Roller is simply too enjoyable to be left to Jeeves.Such is the alacrity with which it leaves the mark and immediacy of response to steering inputs that it's impossible to believe the thing outweighs all but the heaviest SUVs.Where a lesser luxury car — that would be all of them — might float seasickeningly, the Phantom “wafts” in that legendary, almost patented Rolls-Royce fashion.If the Drophead costs more than a million, driving it is a one in a million experience. 

You don't arrive at your destination. That's too abrupt. Too common.One is delivered. One materialises. One emanates.Indeed, one finds oneself saying “one'' and employing generally more polished diction than is perhaps one's norm. The car (in so far as “car'' is an adequate noun) has that effect. Among others.Carsguide can say this with not a little smugness, having made our Rolls-Royce debut last week in an act of what can only be described as the most extraordinary noblesse oblige by Trivett Classic to we inky-fingered proles.For a Rolls-Royce is an everyday reality to those for whom dropping around $1 million on a car is of no more (possibly less) significance than a Mazda6 for most of the rest of us. John Laws has recently acquired yet another as has Lindsay Fox.Bevin Clayton of Trivett, the man who counts both the retired broadcaster and the trucking tycoon as clients, seldom considers requests to access his precious objets of auto art. Having sold six Rolls this month to celebrate the delivery of his 50th Phantom in Australia and New Zealand in four years, he really doesn't need to.Even so, having smiled upon us, Clayton says that we were going to climb aboard his Phantom demonstrator, “then this became available.''This is a Phantom Tungsten, the third model from the marque's Bespoke Collection. With barely two figures on the odometer it is the only one in the country.Derived from the 101EX Coupe shown at Geneva last year, the Tungsten with its deep metallic hue and contrasting brushed aluminium bonnet has an immediate impact, as do the new 21-inch, seven-spoke alloys. Subtle twin chrome exhaust tips further acknowledge the show car.With a flourish Clayton opens the front- and classic rear suicide doors (carbon fibre umbrellas sheathed within).It's madly opulent. Lush black, pile carpet and smoke and navy leather contrasts with straight-grained East Indian Rosewood (Rolls still poach their woodworkers from Southampton yacht builders) and metal fascia.No modern vulgarities spoil a traditional ambience typified by the skinny steering wheel. The voice activated multi-media screen and phone remain discreetly behind the old world veneer unless summoned.Clayton says, contrary to the cliche, that almost all the Rolls he sells are driven by those who paid for them: “why pay $1 million to let chauffeur have the fun?'' There's rather a lot to be said, however, for sitting in the two higher-set rear thrones.Aside from the digital screens that fold from the back of the front seat and play with stadium volume, there's the wholly unique Starlight Headlining above them. “Stunning yet elegant'' the Rolls blurb aptly calls a fixture in which 600 fibre optic lights embedded in black leather roof lining make for a heavenly display that also provides reading light.But Clayton's clients like to wrap their manicured mitts around that skinny tiller, so it's up front for us as he guides the 2.5 tonne colossus from through the agonisingly narrow lanes of East Sydney onto William St.At least it looks like William St — only the sharpest sound penetrates the double-glazed glass. Nor does the engine intrude. If the Phantom was not answering the throttle with such mass-belying promptness (5.9 seconds is the claimed 0-100km/h time), one (you, everyone) would swear power had been lost. This 6.75-litre V12 is more softly spoken and refined than a hybrid.It's when Clayton bids you take the wheel in your slightly sweaty hands (nails cut with the wife's clippers only last night) you can grasp why Laws et al leave Jeeves at home.Once the crippling nervousness has passed, the Phantom is in its rarefied fashion a jolly fun drive. From an almost SUV driving position, the steering is so light and so direct you could be piloting something a good tonne lighter. To get off the mark with extra dispatch, depress the L button located steering wheel right and this land yacht surges away.As Clayton says, “waftablity'' won't be found in a dictionary but remains in the Roll-Royce lexicon. That floating element of the ride is very much present, though not to a seasick making extent, the benefits of an air suspension that ownership by BMW has bought. Indeed, it's so cossetting that you'd never know that another BMW hallmark, run flat tyres, are in place.Another less quantifiable but very real Roller effect comes home as I choose to take it home from the photo shoot at the old Redfern Carriage Works through streets that realtors would have us believe are in Surry Hills. Perhaps if The Phantom were done-out in blue and white checks with a light atop it might have excited less comment, but I doubt it.The Tungsten still had double figures on the clock when I — by now emboldened — squeezed it into Trivett's garage, but this spin was enough to grasp why Rolls-Royces are, for the few, seriously habit forming.My most significant feat was using 39.5-litres of premium unleaded per 100km, a realisation that was the only deflating aspect of the experience. Never mind the seven-figure price tag, I could only seldom afford to fill the Roller's tank.ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOMPrice: $915,000 (EWB $1.095 million)Engine: 6.75L/V12; 338kW/720NmEconomy: 15.9L/100km (claimed)0-100km/h: 5.9 seconds

They have not driven the latest and greatest from Rolls-Royce, and most haven't even seen the real thing, but they just know they have to have a Drophead Coupe. Even if it costs them a whacking $1.2 million.The Australian list price for the new ultra-luxury four-seat convertible is $1.19 million — before you go tripping into the sort of special toys and finishing touches that most Rolls-Royce owners will want for their new car.What does that buy you?Apart from the badge and the winged lady mascot on top of the best-known grille on the road, it buys one of the most outrageously rewarding cars in the world in 2007.The Drophead Coupe is a glorious way to go open-air cruising and would be the best way to make a jaw-dropping arrival at any five-star hotel or invitation-only event anywhere in Australia, even if the other invitees made their entrances in a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, or even a Bentley.It will also power to 100km/h in 5.7 seconds and has a top speed of 240km/h — as if those numbers really matter.“There has always been a pinnacle of the motor industry, and we have responded by positioning this car back at that pinnacle,” says Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chairman Ian Robertson. “I am sure there are many sceptics who said, `Rolls-Royce, made by BMW, we'll see', and now they can see.”Typical buyers are likely to have around $15million in play money, five to eight cars in the garage and could be aged anywhere from 17 to their 70s. Robertson mentions the two Saudi princes who recently bought Phantoms for their 17th birthdays, as well as high-profile Australian Phantom owners John Laws and Lindsay Fox.He also has numbers on the number of dot.com millionaires, Chinese entrepreneurs, Australian resource barons and even the 1000-plus money-market successes who received bonuses of more than $2.5 million in London last year. Robertson says about half of Drophead Coupe owners will be new to the Rolls-Royce brand, a big breakthrough for a company that is going through some of the most dramatic growth in its history.It built 805 cars last year, has a rash of new models in the works and is expecting to deliver more than $100 million worth of convertibles this year.“We're planning to do 100 to 120 (more) cars this year,” Robertson says. “Our total production this year will be an increase, although 900 might be stretching it a bit. So somewhere around 850 or a little above.”It is almost impossible to put the Drophead Coupe into any sort of realistic perspective, but it is a wonderful car that lives up to the Rolls-Royce tradition and also pushes the envelope. It all starts with an aluminium spaceframe chassis, which makes the Rolls-Royce convertible as rigid as anything in the world without a roof.The features climb through air-suspension and a 6.7-litre V12 engine and six-speed automatic, to the finishing touches of brushed steel, nautical teak, wood veneer, sumptuous leather and even a five-layer convertible top trimmed with cashmere.And there is lots of high-tech stuff, including electronic stability control, anti-skid brakes, a one-touch top that opens or closes in 25 seconds and the Rolls-Royce version of BMW's finicky iDrive.But buyers are more likely to be won by the analogue clock, the electric buttons to close the suicide doors (“We prefer to call them coach doors,” says Robertson), the custom-made umbrellas, a “picnic table” boot, which will hold 170kg, and 20-inch alloy wheels with centre caps which never turn, so as to keep the Rolls-Royce logo upright and central at all times.The Drophead is not the most beautiful car on the road, but it has a brutal elegance. The side-on view is more like a luxury motor boat and, for the first time in the company's history — the grille is tilted back slightly, for smoother airflow and pedestrian safety. But Rolls-Royce insists the Drophead Coupe is a still a car to be driven and enjoyed.On the road there is no denying it is a brilliant car, despite a nose which would look right at home on the front of a new Kenworth truck and the difficulty of parking with the top up.Rolls-Royce ran the global press preview in Tuscany, in gorgeous country with surprisingly challenging roads, which reflected the quality of the basic engineering and the incredible attention to detail you have to expect in a car with such a price tag.The Drophead is no sports car, yet it can be punted along surprisingly briskly and never turns unruly or ugly. The best way to drive is to conduct the car using a couple of fingers on the narrow-spoked wheel, easing it through turns and occasionally uncorking the 338kW for some fun on the straights. It is a giant — 5.6m long and 2620kg — but it can be nimble and has ideal suspension design and control for the worst road conditions.The Drophead is also quiet with the top down at 160km/h, has boot space for three sets of golf clubs and can easily hold four adults in exceptional comfort.Two things won me over. The first was a 10km run down a nasty gravel road, which would have made an ideal stage in the World Rally Championships. The second was a quick run in a BMW 760i.The dirt burst proved that the Drophead coupe is rock-solid, composed, dust-proof and relaxing on a road that would have had a Commodore or Falcon sliding, bumping and bucking. And the airconditioning and satnav was great. The BMW? It felt cramped, cheap and unrefined after the Rolls-Royce, yet it is still one of the world's very best cars.So the Drophead, despite the price, 18.8 litres per 100km consumption, outrageous styling and the sort of people who drive Rolls-Royces, is a great car at a time when the cars of the world have never been better. Fast factsRolls-Royce Phantom Drophead CoupePrice: $1.19 millionOn sale: nowBody: two-door convertible, four seatsEngine: 6.7-litre V12, 338kW@5350rpm, 720Nm@3500rpmTransmission: six-speed automatic, rear-wheel-driveWeight: 2620kgPerformance: 0-100km/h, 5.9sec; top speed, 240km/hFuel: 18.8L/100km (as tested)