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Rolls-Royce Phantom Gallery
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| DRIVING RATING: |
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The Phantom's bulk is intimidating at first, especially if you're squeezing it through tight spaces, but you sit high and the squared-off frontal extremities are easy to see and judge. Reversing is trickier owing to the thick rear pillars and sloping tail, but parking sensors help you out. The steering, via a thin-rimmed, leather-covered wheel, is light but precise (the latter a new departure for a Rolls-Royce). The push-button electric (but not automatic) parking brake is easy to use, and the switchgear logical and easy to find. One small gripe is that adjusting the front seats is a two-stage process: first select the button corresponding to the part of the seat you want to move, then move a joystick. It's similar to the 7-series' system, but here you also have to slide back a cover to find the buttons. Hidden under another leather shroud is a cut-down, and much simpler, version of the 7-series iDrive control system. Here, though, you can operate the Phantom well enough without the semi-iDrive not to have to use it much. A five-star rating is a surprise here, but it's deserved because the Phantom is a mighty entertaining driving machine. The only problem is judging your speed as you try to recalibrate your senses. The air suspension that does such a good job of giving a comfortable ride also keeps the responses crisp, so the steering feels 'connected' in a way alien to earlier Rolls-Royces, responding accurately to inputs with no stodge, rubberiness or vagueness. The Phantom's size means it can never be agile, but it does channel its considerable forces in the right directions to make it a tidy handler on a tight, twisty road. Its muscular V12 gives great overtaking ability; the sensation is much like taking off in the upstairs cabin of a 747, and you can have much amusement with the 'power reserve' gauge that sits where you might expect to find a rev-counter (anathema to Rolls-Royce). And it has brakes to rise to the occasion: firm, progressive and very powerful.
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