Car review: Rolls-Royce Phantom

The interior isn’t just roomy, it's huge, says Mike Stone
Mike Stone1 May 2018

No country does super-luxury cars better than the British, and no-one – not even Bentley – can outdo Rolls-Royce when it comes to refinement. These companies may be German-owned, but the cars are British-built.

R-R’s latest model, the eighth-generation Phantom, is the most refined car the world has yet produced, with an astonishingly smooth ride and almost sepulchral silence.

This is a huge vehicle – 5.76 metres long and weighing the best part of three tons – but considering its bulk it remains amazingly wieldy once you have got used to its huge dimensions.

The Phantom’s 6.75-litre V12 engine may be the same size as that of the outgoing model, but it is all new, and uses twin turbos to help generate 563bhp which can accelerate the car from rest to 60mph in just 5.5 seconds and it could reach 100mph in less than 12 seconds should you wish, although wafting is more what this vehicle is about.

The styling is a little more modern than before, and the dominant “Pantheon” radiator grille is incorporated into the bodywork, instead of standing proud of it. The imposing vertical nose gives it real presence, and the top of the shallow, rectangular headlamps line up with the top of the grille and give it an almost leonine dignity.

The interior isn’t just roomy. It is huge. In the extended wheelbase version, if you were sitting in the back and wanted to stretch out your foot to touch the back of the front seat, you would need to be about seven feet tall to manage it.

You could write a book about the efforts that have gone into improving the magic carpet ride provided by the air suspension. At the Phantom’s launch in Munich, Felix Kilbertus, one of its chief designers, said, with admirable understatement: “This vibration-free design leads to a car significantly quieter than anything else on the road.”

The interior is, as you would expect, second to none. You feel you could sink up to your knees in the plush lambswool carpets, the seats are uncannily comfortable and the new dashboard is completely electronic.

James Lipman

There is also an area across the dashboard which Rolls calls the Gallery. Here, under glass, you could display any artworks of your choosing or just opt for the company’s own offering. Between the rear seats is a chill cabinet for your champagne, furnished with R-R flutes.

As accomplished as the Phantom is on the road, there are times when even it cannot hide its bulk. Under braking or round sharp bends you are aware that the car weighs a great deal, although not is any alarming way.

Only in one sense does it fail to match Bentley’s flagship model, the Mulsanne. For a huge car, the Bentley seems to shrink around you and feel less bulky than it is. As brilliant as the Phantom is, it can’t quite pull that off – you always know you are driving something of immense size.

The Phantom has the longest-standing model name of any car in the world – there have been Phantoms since 1925 – and the latest version to bear the name has every right to call itself the best car in the world. As a brilliantly executed combination of elegance and refinement, coupled with state of the art technology, it is a staggering achievement.

Details: Rolls-Royce Phantom

Top speed: 155mph

Combined mpg: 20.3 (claimed)

0-60mph: 5.5 secs

CO2: 318g/km

Price: £360,000 before options

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