The driving experience? One car writer gushed: “Big, audacious, gloriously smooth and effortlessly powerful.” Even better is that 75 percent of this is available at 1000 rpm. It’s an all-aluminum powerhouse that delivers an impressive 531 lb ft of maximum torque. The vehicle is ably propelled by the 6.75-liter V12 that’s found on the Phantom. The Rolls people must have thought a retractable hardtop would have been just too mechanical and not elegant enough for this car, which looks back nostalgically as much as it incorporates the finest contemporary amenities. Just below the deck, which lifts to receive the cashmere-lined fabric top and is covered by it when deployed, is a spacious trunk, whose lower bulkhead folds down as a carpeted picnic bench. All of the wood is farmed from sustainable forests. The machined grooves between them carry black caulking, still used by yacht builders. Here, more than 30 pieces of hand-waxed teak, all meticulously 3.5 mm thick, are assembled. Inspired by the 100 EX bare-metal look, the anti-corrosion hood is a brushed finish, which wraps around to the rear teak deck. The Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament, wings brushed back in elegant flight, sits above the stainless-steel grill, flanked by LED side lights. It’s inspired by the great J Class racing yachts of the 30s, and if any car is a “boat,” this is. The people in Sussex Downs dedicate 350 people-hours to hand assemble a Drophead Coupé, and everywhere this craftsmanship is evident. The first Drophead to arrive in Scottsdale stickered at $439,650, so this vehicle, fully customized, or as the RR people put it, “bespoke,” could debit one of your more liquid accounts for half a mil. That’s quite impressive, given that the MSRP is $412,000. The Goodwood, Great Britain-based company got this car rolling when it received 250 orders at the Geneva show.
Whether you speak in “tyre” and “bonnet” and “boot” and “colour” or “tire” and “hood” and “trunk” and “boot,” this convertible, drophead, is just plain gorgeous: an iconically beautiful, elegant woman who enters a room and everyone looks and tries not to stare. The Drophead is the Phantom sedan but sportier, younger and not afraid to take its top off and flex its extraordinary build, its finely toned coachlines and hand-precision detailing. “It’s effortlessly quick and nimble, it’s technologically advanced in design, features and build technique, yet it keeps the old world craftsmanship that makes a Rolls a Rolls.” “It’s easily the most elegant automobile I’ve ever seen and is a worthy successor to the Corniche convertible,” he adds. Saunders, a sales consultant for the Scottsdale agency, a Penske Automotive Group company. “There’s a waiting list here, but this is a car that you can get almost as much pleasure dreaming about as driving,” says J.B.
Only 300 of these mega-convertibles will be delivered in the United States, and the waiting list will put you in with kings and queens and business royalty, but you’ll have to have the patience of a luxury car saint for delivery, which is more than a year out: late 2008 or early 2009. The long-awaited Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé, which began as the 100 EX concept vehicle at the 2004 Geneva Auto Show, has arrived, but if you want it to arrive soon in your garage, motor on down - now - to Rolls-Royce Motorcars Scottsdale, 6725 E. Three tons, 12 cylinders, two coach doors, four seats and a base of just over $400,000: one superlative automobile.
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