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| Road Test: Rolls-Royce Phantom (2003-) |
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| Large Executive |
by: John Simister |
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Rolls-Royce Phantom Gallery
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| COMFORT AND EQUIPMENT RATING: |
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Here is the Phantom's key attribute. No other car in our experience moves with the silence of this one. The engine is barely inaudible most of the time, road roar appears to emanate only from a distant universe, thumps over bumps are dimly heard but hardly ever felt, wind noise is already low and is promised to be lower on proper production cars. All occupants, front and rear, can converse with all others at 100mph at normal levels, and passengers can write normally. Yet this miraculously supple ride doesn't degenerate into floating, lurching or wallowing in corners or over crests; all is kept under fleece-lined control. The leather seats are yielding and rather more supportive than they look, and the air-conditioning - which requires a surprising degree of manual input - is discreetly effective. Subtle interior lighting comes mainly from Art Deco-like fittings, and the doors 'soft-close' electrically. If the rear doors are wide open, pressing a button swings them shut automatically. They are hard to push open from the rear seat, though, because you're pushing near the hinge end. Nor is it easy to see out directly to the side because the rear pillars block the view. That apart, travelling in the back of the Phantom is a deeply special experience. At 19ft 2in long, 6ft 6in wide and 5ft 4in high, the Phantom should be spacious and it is. In usual Rolls-Royce fashion the floor is level with the top of the sills, so you don't have to drop down into it, yet the high roof means there's still plenty of headroom. Rear passenger space is very generous, and the Chesterfield-like wraparound rear seat lets rear passengers lean into its corners and face each other. Retractable footrests are optional, as is 'theatre seating' - two individual rear seats with a drinks cabinet and console between them. As standard the rear centre armrest lacks built-in storage space, surprisingly, while the push-to-close upper front glovebox ends up with fingerprints on its shiny wood. Retractable wood picnic tables are built into the front seats' backs, and the boot's size should be adequate for most purposes. Sounds come from a Lexicon stereo system made by Harmon Kardon, with Logic7 surround-sound, nine amplifiers totalling 420 watts in output and 15 metal-matrix speakers. The reason for the odd number is that one sits in the centre of the facia top. Two subwoofers are mounted between the interior's false floor and the real floorpan below, radiating up into the front seats. There's a single-slot CD player plus a six-disc changer mounted in the lower glovebox. The sat-nav uses a 6.5in TV screen (there's also a TV of course) which is mounted on the back of the flip-over panel that normally displays the analogue clock. It's a very neat way of secreting the screen. A hands-free phone and voice-activated controls are also part of a package whose deep technology is hinted at rather than flaunted. The stereo sounds superb, of course.
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Introduction Here it is - the all-new Rolls-Royce Phantom from the all-new Rolls-Ro... |
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