By Sean O'Grady
Good news from Goodwood. The Rolls-Royce plant there should, all being well, soon be ready to recruit new staff. There's talk of a new shift, maybe even a second line. Rolls is on a roll, you might say.
Chairman and chief executive Ian Roberts thinks aloud about new models to follow the vast, stately Phantom limo launched four years ago. Baby (by its standards) Rolls-Royces, to perhaps go head-to-head with the Bentley Continental family, should boost production volumes.
The remarkable creation that you see here, the Phantom Drophead Coupé, will also be doing its small part (say, 200 units a year) to keep things rolling along.
OK, I'll quit with the "rolling" puns now and tell you why this new car is a worthy successor to the "proper" Rolls-Royces built in the days when the company was unequivocally British.
Rolls-Royce knows its customers. They're what it calls "ultra high-net-worth individuals" and what I call the filthy rich. They're worth in excess of $30-million (about R210-million, excluding property) and there are 85 400 of these fortunate people worldwide.
Exposure to them - those whose toughest decision is whether to buy a second yacht, a substantial property in Thailand or that new Rolls-Royce convertible (possibly all three) is usually enough to turn me into a socialist. Best not go there, eh? (Apparently, the number of Chinese super-rich folk is growing at 20 percent a year, another sign of the times.)
Anyway, the reborn Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the company rebuilt by BMW out of the old Rolls-Royce/Bentley combine (VW made off with Bentley) has gone to huge effort to find out what 21st-century plutocrats want. And this, apparently, is it.
Rolls-Royce's would-be customers, apparently "impervious" to traditional marketing techniques, prefer intimate get-togethers at boutique hotels and to be asked what they think and their views are acted upon. So I can only hold them responsible for the Drophead's unhappy front end, sadly reminiscent of its Phantom big brother.
They obviously also asked for this new car's nautical necessities; a real teak cover for the canvas roof on the rear "deck"; sisal for the floor covering; and, most remarkably of all, a stainless-steel bonnet that has given the car a vaguely vintage two-tone look.
As usual, Rolls-Royce is all about choice, so those eccentricities can be replaced with more conventional items, but it's refreshing to see such audacity. Luggage is stored in a picnic boot, Range Rover style, a split-tail compartment that opens in two parts, and the lower tailgate provides a comfortable seating platform for two adults when lowered. Ideal for polo, I imagine.
They'll even do you a car in yellow, for which nod to a great old movie I'll forgive a lot.
Stout sills
So, it's quite the land yacht. That's the unpredictable bit of this Rolls-Royce story. The rest is as you'd expect. It's very strong: the aluminium space frame under those beguiling panels has been braced and beefed up to make up for the absence of a roof. At 2.5 tons, it's even heavier than the Phantom limo.
The chunky look of the Drophead is partly down to that - the sills are particularly stout so there's quite a step up to get in, though access through those wide rear-hinged doors, even to the rear bench of this four seater, is fairly easy.
A little button tell an electric motor to shut the door. Nice.
The Drophead Coupé wafts, as every Rolls-Royce should, thanks to air suspension, and a 6.75- litre V12 engine, though you're more buffeted than in many a lesser convertible. And the Drophead retains the delightfully slim steering wheel found in the Phantom, which older customers will recall from bygone Silver Shadows and Spirits and Spurs.
If rain threatens your tranquillity, your hood will be up in 25 seconds and you'd hardly think you were in a soft-top. You're quite insulated from the world in your £300 000 plutotoy. Until the revolution, that is.- The Indepenent, London