Rolls-Royce Phantom

The model for this objet, one Eleanor Thornton, was the secretary to the original sculptor, Charles Sykes. Less well known is that she was also the mistress of the former Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, motoring pioneer. Not so much the Spirit of Ecstasy, then, as the physical embodiment of it. The players in this bizarre art-sex-automotive triangle are long gone but, against the odds, the old girl is still there. His lordship’s bit on the side is up at the front, scanning the road ahead and forming, with her upswept arms, a notch like the rearsight of a rifle, and by which the Phantom can be trained on some distant landmark.

Quite right. Not only is the strip of chrome running down the vaulted bonnet and culminating in the feet of the Silver Strumpet one of the finest down-the-bonnet views available, the aiming facility is, remarkably, still necessary. I’m not suggesting for a moment that the steering is as vague as, say, a Cloud’s, where the steering wheel is connected to the steering wheels via a steering committee back at head office, but the Phantom’s responses are still aristocratically remote. It is just one of several wholly authentic Rolls-Royce characteristics designed to discourage you from driving like an oik. Or even a BMW owner.

rolls royceI’m a bit of a fan of post-war Royces and the new Phantom gives me the right vibes. The styling - something of a multi-culti effort under Ian Cameron - draws on countless cues from old Rollers but avoids the trap of being retro. As a bare bodyshell seen in the factory, it looks like a familiar R-R, but the completed vehicle is contemporary, imposing and not at all Jimmy Saville. On a slow swoop up to the reception of our Californian beach resort, the Phantom looked more rock’n'roll than reproduction roller.

The interior is similarly something new yet strangely resonant. Tick boxes next to light switches grouped in a circular dash cut-out, knurled wheels and knobs for the aircon, a column shift, a fabulously slender wheel rim, wood, and leather. But there is also
something like snakeskin on the doors, aluminium and modern plastics. The interior lighting is suggestive of a Fifties American doo- wop motel and the ashtray is a magnificent glittering vault. Once, the interior of a Royce was like some ante-room to the baroque, but
now it’s like the airy and aromatic reception of a chic hotel. Wizardry such as the iDrive and seat controls - both similar to the 7-Series items - are hidden away under flaps to maintain the air of stylish simplicity.