Rolls-Royce’s new opulent express

To retain the Phantom’s reputation as ‘ the best car in the world’, the eighth-generation model is blending high-tech with traditional luxury

IT’S NOT AS IF THE EXISTING Phantom, launched in 2003, had relinquished its claim to be the world’s best überlimo. But its eighth-generation successor – built around an allnew aluminium-matrix modular architecture that will serve the forthcoming Cullinan SUV as well as other future Rolls-Royces – is aiming not just to raise the bar, but to put it out of reach.

Phantom VII had unusual, but highly distinctive, proportions. The new car is the work of Giles Taylor and his design team and is all about flow. It looks more traditionally balanced front-torear, with a swage line beginning just inboard from the top edge of the grille and moving outwards along the body to the tapered rear. The most potent aesthetic is the grille itself. For the first time on a Phantom it’s integrated into the surrounding bodywork, so it looks cleaner and more modern, especially flanked by the sharper graphics of the ‘laserlight’ headlights, which can cast their beams 600 metres down the road.

The weight-saving aluminium architecture is also roughly 30 per cent more rigid than the Phantom VII’s space frame. In conjunction with the air suspension, 21-inch wheels and specially developed, ultra-quiet tyres, it should lead to an even silkier ride than before. And thanks to more than 130kg of sound insulation and applied acoustic science, the new Phantom is around 60 decibels quieter inside than its predecessor at 100kmph. Virtually silent.

Self-closing doors, the finest traditional and contemporary materials used in more bespoke and original ways, and an interior that generally looks to the future rather than the past, were all part of the brief for the new Phantom. Gone is the cliff-face facia and grouping of large analogue dials, replaced by a seamless swathe of toughened glass that spans the full width of the bulkhead, beneath which sit 12.3-inch TFT colour screens with LED backlighting displaying virtual instruments and read-outs and a bespoke clock.

Propulsion is again provided by a 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12, now making 563bhp, and 900Nm of torque from just 1700rpm, up from 453bhp and 720Nm respectively. The addition of Satellite Aided Transmission, married to a ZF eight-speed gearbox, should ensure that the Phantom is always in the optimum gear.

The new Phantom goes on sale next year. Expect it to cost upwards of 7 crore.

The modular aluminium architecture is roughly 30 per cent more rigid than the old car’s space frame