Not many vehicles in the history have a legacy as stupendous and prestigious as the Rolls Royce Phantom. Since its debut in 1925, the Rolls-Royce Phantom has been the chariot of choice for the world’s most influential and powerful men and women. The eight generation Phantom made its debut in the presence of its eight historic and illustrious predecessor Phantoms from Rolls-Royce's heritage, rightfully called the ‘The Great Eight Phantoms’. The inaugural was held at the London Mayfair exhibition, where the brand celebrated the last 92 years of the world’s most luxurious vehicle. Let’s have a detailed look at the new eighth generation Rolls Royce Phantom through our picture gallery.
The all new Phantom is built ground up on an all-new bespoke scalable platform. Called the ‘Architecture of Luxury’, this is an all-aluminium space frame architecture designed by Rolls Royce engineers and will underpin all future Rolls Royce cars.
Rolls Royce has kept the design evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The hallmark grille has been integrated into the fascia flanked by futuristic and sleek LED headlamps. And of course, the ‘spirit of ecstasy’ sits atop the grille in all its glory.
The silhouette is unmistakably Phantom with opulent proportions and smooth flowing lines. It measures more than six metres and justlike before, the RR logo remains upright on the 22-inch wheels. The Phantom is as majestic as a car can get.
The signature ‘coach doors’ are also a part of the new generation model. The tail lights seem similar to the outgoing Phantom, albeit with LED infusion. The D-Pillar is better flowing and sleeker than the previous car and adds a bit of modernity to this legacy vehicle.
Rolls Royce is famous for its silent and tranquil cabins, but the new Phantom uses 130kg of sound insulation material to keep all noises out. The tyres also uses something called ‘Silent Seal’ to keep the noise down.
The coach doors get a new feature called the ‘Embrace’. These are basically new self-closing rear doors, which can now be operated both from the outside and inside to prevent the rear passenger from taking the ‘extra’ effort of closing the doors themselves.
The cabin is serene, extravagant and opulent to say the least. Needless to say, Rolls Royce will provide the upholstery and veneer with an infinite combination of finest materials as requested by the customer. But the overall cabin lay out is subtle yet grand.
The instrument cluster gets the famous power reserve metre. The roof lining gets a stargazing effect. The centre console is no fuss and functional. There acres of space for the rear seat passengers, even though this is not the LWB version.
Housed under the hood ofthe Rolls Royce Phantom is the reworked 6.75-litre V12 which has now been turbocharged to breathe out 563bhp and an exorbitant 900Nm of torque accessed from as low as 1700rpm. The transmission is a buttery smooth ZF eight-speed unit.
The new Phantom is lighter but up to 30 per cent more rigid. The suspension is a new double-wishbone front axle and five-link rear axle with self-leveling air suspension which now gets four-wheel steering as well.
Rolls-Royce has also provided the new Phantom with a suite of safety features including an alertness assistant, a four-camera system with a panoramic view, active cruise control, pedestrian warning and cross-traffic warning.
Further enhancing the famous ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ is a new tech called ‘Flagbearer’ that uses a stereo camera system integrated into the windscreen and scans the road ahead and adjusts the suspension accordingly at up to speeds of 100kmph.
With features like the Architecture of Luxury, the Gallery, the Embrace and the Art of Movement, the Mk8 Phantom is the most advanced Rolls Royce till date. And the new Phantom is India-bound as well.
Rolls Royce is expected to introduce the new Phantom in India sometime next year. Prices are yet to be announced but expect the price tag to be at a premium compared tothe outgoing car when it goes on sale.
