ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM DROPHEAD COUPé

The 'Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé' is the latest convertible made by Rolls-Royce which debuted at the 2007 Detroit Motor Show on January 7, 2007. The platform is based on the Rolls-Royce Phantom and has styling heavily derived from the 100EX concept car unveiled to celebrate the company's centennial in 2004.

Contents

Exterior

Interior

Technical Specifications

Worldwide version

See also

External links

Exterior

The exterior remains faithful to the marine-nautical theme of the 100EX. The two-door four-seat droptop features rearward opening suicide doors and a two-tone color scheme that delineates between the upper and lower bodywork and frames the Teak wood paneling of the droptop's tonneau cover. Unlike the 2004 concept car, however, the production unit eschews the EX's bare, brushed aluminium bonnet in favour of more easily maintained lacquered stainless steel.

The front fascia takes its cues from the 100EX but with the crucial difference of the middle bodywork/raised bonnet/grille assemblage terminating midway down the face rather than continuing downwards and bisecting the front bumper. The headlights are also taken straight out of the 100/101EX exercise and similarly similar to the Phantom's. The deepset rectangular high beams are an LED unit while the round "faux-foglamp" driving lights are projector-style xenons.
All in all, the car continues Rolls-Royce's current design theme, premièred on the Phantom, artfully combining features of luxuriant 1930's Art Deco with cold 21st century techno-modern.

Interior

The interior is a modern avant-garde reinterpretation of the traditional English Gentlemen's Clubroom with a wide, varied pluralistic palette of design philosophies ranging from minimalism to Art Deco. Perhaps the car's main design showcase is the yachting-inspired wood veneering that wraps around the 8/9ths top portion of the cabin from suicide door to suicide door and terminating in a beautifully crafted droptop tonneau cover, hand-finished in exquisite nautical-grade Teak wood paneling sandwiched between an interior band of contrasting hardwood and the bare stainless steel motif of the car's upper exterior bodywork. Similarly with the 100 and 101EX, the dashboard and the steering wheel are straight out of the Phantom.

Technical Specifications

Worldwide version

'Dimensions'

★ Number of doors / seats 2 / 4

★ Vehicle length 5609 mm / 220.8 in

★ Vehicle width 1987 mm / 78.2 in

★ Vehicle height (unladen) 1581 mm / 62.2 in

★ Wheelbase 3320 mm / 130.7 in

★ Turning circle 13.1 m / 43.0 ft

★ Track, front 1687 mm / 66.4 in

★ Track, rear 1671 mm / 65.8 in

★ Width at shoulder height, front 1491 mm / 58.7 in

★ Width at shoulder height, rear 1298 mm / 51.1 in

★ Elbow room, front 1562 mm / 61.5 in

★ Elbow room, rear 1266 mm / 49.8 in

★ Head room, front 980 mm / 38.6 in

★ Head room, rear 943 mm / 37.1 in

★ Boot volume (DIN) 315 ltr / 11.1 cu ft

★ Fuel tank capacity 80 ltr / 17.6 Imp gal
'Weight'

★ Unladen weight (DIN) 2620 kg / 5776 lb

★ Axle load ratio, rear (unladen) 51.4 %

★ Gross vehicle weight 3050 kg / 6724 lb

★ Payload 430 kg / 948 lb

★ Axle load limit, front 1425 kg / 3142 lb

★ Axle load limit, rear 1800 kg / 3968 lb
'Engine & transmission'

★ Engine / cylinders / valves V / 12 / 48

★ Fuel management Direct injection

★ Displacement 6749 cc / 411.8 cu in

★ Stroke 84.6 mm / 3.33 in

★ Bore 92.0 mm / 3.62 in

★ Power output @ engine speed 453 bhp / 460 PS (DIN) / 338 kW @ 5350 rpm

★ Max torque @ engine speed 720 Nm / 531 lb ft @ 3500 rpm

★ Compression ratio / fuel type 11:1 / premium unleaded

★ Transmission type ZF 6HP32

★ Transmission ratios:

★ 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4.171 / 2.340 / 1.521 / 4th / 5th / 6th 1.143 / 0.867 / 0.691

★ Reverse 3.403

★ Final-drive ratio 3.460
'Steering & brakes'

★ Steering type Rack & pinion, speed-sensitive variable-rate power assistance

★ Brakes, front / diameter Ventilated disc / 374 mm / 14.7 in

★ Brakes, rear / diameter Ventilated disc / 370 mm / 14.6 in
'Aerodynamics'

★ Drag Cd 0.37

★ Drag Cd x A 1.004 m2 / 10.8 ft2
'Performance'

★ Top speed 149 mph / 240 km/h (governed)

★ Acceleration 0-100 km/h 5.9 sec
'Fuel consumption'

★ Urban To be confirmed

★ Extra urban To be confirmed

★ Combined / range To be confirmed

★ CO2 emissions To be confirmed
'Wheels (standard PAX alloy)'

★ Tyre, front & rear Michelin PAX 265/790 R540 A 111W

★ Wheel rim, front & rear PAX 265 x 540 A ALU
'Wheels (21 in alloy)'

★ Tyre, front Goodyear EMT 255/50 R21 106W

★ Wheel size, front 8 in x 21 in

★ Tyre, rear Goodyear EMT 285/45 R21 109W

★ Wheel size, rear 9.5 in x 21 in
Note: The engine is designed for octane grade 98 fuel; however, it may be run on fuel with a minimum octane grade of 91.

See also

★ Rolls-Royce Corniche (2000)

External links

★ Soft-top Rolls lifts the lid on global wealth, by Jorn Madslien, BBC News

★ Autoblog Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Photo Gallery

★ Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe unveiled

★ Phantom Romance Autoweek article about the 2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe