Dreams Delivered

IT’S CHILLY AND gray, and reasonably hard rain is coming down, casting a pall over the otherwise lush, rugged beauty of this German-flavored slice of Switzerland. A terrible day to drive, a great day to be driven. I’m in the backseat of the all-new Rolls-Royce Phantom, and I roll down the double glazed acoustic-glass window to get a quick blast of fresh Swiss air. A cacophony of wind and water rudely intrudes into the cabin. Enough of that. The metal window button is cold to the touch when I press it, and as the window hits the seal it’s as if a set of noise-canceling headphones has suctioned over the car. Time to recline the seat, let my head hit the pillow, and enjoy the magic carpet ride.

- Mike Floyd

A terrible day to drive, a great day to be driven. I’m in the backseat of the all-new Rolls-Royce Phantom, and I roll down the double glazed acoustic-glass window to get a quick blast of fresh Swiss air. A cacophony of wind and water rudely intrudes into the cabin. Enough of that. The metal window button is cold to the touch when I press it, and as the window hits the seal it’s as if a set of noise-canceling headphones has suctioned over the car. Time to recline the seat, let my head hit the pillow, and enjoy the magic carpet ride.

There are few cars in which the back seat experience is just as important—if not more so—as what happens in the driver’s seat. For some 92 years, longer than any other nameplate, the Phantom has transported rock stars and starlets, monarchs and maharajas, captains of industry and hip-hop kingpins. The car has in many ways served as the brand’s foundation, a vehicle that helped propel Rolls beyond a mere manufacturer of fine automobiles to a global luxury icon. As the Phantom enters its eighth generation, the stakes have never been higher to deliver an ever richer, more immersive package, with cutting-edge, 21st-century tech and even more ways to make it your way—the bespoke way. And it should drive better, too.

The new Phantom has been five years in the making, and as Rolls-Royce officials acknowledge, it really needed to take a two-generation leap. The model it replaces is 14 years old, which might as well be 80 in car years. Everything starts with its all-new aluminum-intensive endoskeleton the marque calls the “Architecture of Luxury,” a versatile, lighter platform that will underpin all future Rolls-Royces. It makes the car about 30 percent more rigid than the previous Phantom, and additional cast aluminum structures reinforce areas wherever heavy loads are attached to the chassis.