Ethereal Elegance From The Phantom

Gautam Sharma sits back and enjoys the deep-seated luxury of the new Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII.

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Rolls-Royce’s stately Phantom can justifiably claim to be a monarch of the automotive world, having been in almost continuous production for no less than 92 years – apart from hiatuses during 1940-50 and 1991-2003.

There’s no other nameplate out there that’s even close to achieving centurion status, so the fact that a vehicle that today costs from Dhs1.95m ($530,900) upwards has managed to remain relevant speaks volumes for the strength of the RR badge and the design and engineering that’s gone into each successive generation of the Phantom.

We’re in the idyllic environs of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland to drive the all-new, eighth-generation model, and it follows in the wheel tracks of Phantom VII, on sale from 2003-2017 (about double the usual seven-year lifespan of a premium luxury car).