Rolls Royce Phantom
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Over time many have laid claim to being the world’s most prestigious luxury car maker, but it’s Rolls-Royce which has most consistently been closest to the mark.
Despite the current Phantom not being the longest, the most powerful or even the most expensive super-luxury saloon, it exudes breeding and status that no other can match.
Power and performance afforded by the 6.75-litre V12 is ample, and while a tachometer has long been considered unnecessary in a Rolls-Royce, the Phantom has a power reserve gauge which shows, for example, that at whispering 100mph the engine has 75 per cent of its power in reserve.
With an aluminum space-frame chassis, the Phantom boasts a perfect 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, and with automatically-controlled air suspension and sophisticated Michelin Pax run flat tyres, comfort, safety and precision handling are all assured.
Up to sixteen hides are used to trim each Phantom saloon’s interior, and all 450 individual leather pieces are cut using a laser guide which are then all hand-finished. No fewer than six different veneers are available for the sixty separate wood pieces, and every surface is the genuine article – a case of what you see is what you feel.
For those seeking a less formal Rolls-Royce ownership experience, there’s now a brace of two-door Phantoms – the Coupé and the Drophead Coupé, but on whichever model the R-R badges in the wheel centres will all remain in the upright position. As Sir Henry Royce once said, “Accept nothing nearly right, or good enough”.