Category: Large Executive 
Price Range: No data available
Unrivalled on-road presence, refinement, interior ambience
Neither very fast nor fun to drive, a touch on the dear side
The best effort yet from the resurrected Rolls-Royce brand
The Phantom Coupe may be the most sporting Rolls on sale, but that should in no way mean it can be confused with a sports car. It is anything but. Its engine may put out 453bhp, but it has a car weighing over 2.5-tonnes to tow, so in fact its power-to-weight ratio is similar to that of a diesel-powered BMW 335d saloon. Rolls-Royce says it will hit 60mph from rest in 5.6sec but inside it doesn't feel anything like that fast. True, much of this is thanks to the way it cocoons you from the outside world, diminishing all outside influences, including the sense of speed but an informal attempt to match the figures using nothing more than a stopwatch and speedometer nevertheless suggested something in the 6.5sec region was more likely to be easily repeated.
Who cares? No-one ever bought a Rolls for its 0-60mph time and most will find the smooth, silent and effortless manner in which its performance is delivered rather more compelling. Whether any of them will actually ever press the new 'sport' button that Rolls-Royce has integrated into the steering wheel is another matter altogether. It locks out top gear and shuffles the gearshift strategies to make the car more responsive to the right foot, but it also strikes a surprisingly bum note in what is otherwise a cabin of impeccably good taste.
Its performance in a straight line is matched by its attitude to corners. While Rolls' modifications to the suspension have clearly given the car a firmer grasp on its body movements, the Coupe is still resolutely softly sprung and any attempt to really hustle it through some tortuous corners results only in quite a lot of body roll and a few anguished yelps from the vast 21" tyres. It's a type of driving in which it would really rather you didn't indulge.
It's altogether happier if given some wide open spaces in which to play. Show it a quick curve rather than a tight turn and it responds with approval, feeling settled, stable and exhibiting surprising directional stability. It's a million miles away from what anyone would recognise as 'agile', but there is nevertheless something for the appreciative driver here: you just need to find the right environment in which to experience it.
