RollsRoyce Phantom 2003 Review

<a href="http://secure-au.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/a/ci_450304/et_2/cg_811826/pi_1016255/ai_860152" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img width="1" height="1" border="0" src="http://secure-au.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/a/ci_450304/et_1/cg_811826/pi_1016255/ai_860152"></a>If you're rich enough -- we're talking seriously billionaire-rich here -- the new gold standard, top-of-the-heap automotive game is about to be played out between Maybach and Rolls-Royce. But behind the two equally spectacular, technologically advanced, best performing, indulgently hedonistic, and huge limousines, the truth is this is yet another battle in the private war between BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

The Maybach you know. Now it's the turn of BMW's Rolls-Royce Phantom, a totally new, aluminium spaceframe, four-door sedan powered by a new 6.7-litre V12, which effectively replaces the notably smaller (and just five years old) Silver Seraph, created when Rolls-Royce Motors was owned by Vickers.

BMW is keen to emphasise the building of a dedicated Goodwood factory, near the south coast of England, but the reality is that it's little more than a face-saving assembly operation. Yes, the leather and woodwork are carried out here by craftspeople, but the engines, body, suspension, and most electrical components and equipment are all manufactured in Germany.

To BMW, what is more important is that the new model -- launched just three days after control of Rolls-Royce passed from Volkswagen (which retains Bentley) to BMW -- was styled in London. BMW drew on design talent from its Californian Designworks and Munich studios, and their colleagues at Rover and Land Rover in the UK, but they worked together in London.

For five months from January 1999, Project Rolls-Royce rented a couple of floors of a former Westminster Bank building, opposite Hyde Park, in an area of London where you can smell the wealth. Within the 20-strong design team, the studio was known only as The Bank. Chris Bangle, BMW's controversial design boss appointed Brit Ian Cameron -- who led the team responsible for the current 3 Series' exterior -- to be design director.

"Bangle stayed in the background," says Cameron, "but he was instrumental and effective in giving the group real autonomy. Everybody was adamant it was not going to run like a BMW project."

A research team talked to RR owners, car clubs, dealers, and enthusiasts on a global basis, before preparing a dossier that established the new model's philosophy, and a package that insisted the Phantom would be considerably bigger, everywhere, than the Seraph.

BMW owned only the automotive rights to the Rolls-Royce name -- effectively the Spirit of Ecstasy flying-lady symbol and the famous vertical grille. That was it, although given the visual significance of the radiator, it wasn't exactly a clean sheet of paper, but close. And it meant nothing was carried over from the Seraph. Cameron set up three competing teams to each come up with two different proposals. Another team produced two full-sized interior models.

"People wondered if it's going to be a 9 Series and not a Rolls-Royce. We wanted to halt a 30-year decline that produced a parody of what a Rolls-Royce should be."

They examined in detail the Silver Cloud, "an icon of post-war styling"; the Silver Shadow, "a classic of understatement"; and the coachbuilt models. They pointedly ignored the new Seraph, which traces its floorpan origins back to the Shadow, launched in 1965.

"The era that got us on heat was the Phantom II and Phantom III from the '30s, and especially their proportions," says Cameron. "No car should be higher than two wheel (and tyre) heights. That means it must have bloody big wheels, or it's a Ferrari.

"What makes a car look good today is what made a car look good then. The position of the front axle needs to be way out in front, so there is a long, powerful bonnet. The distance from the front wheel to the front-door shutline should evoke a feeling of power. Quickly there was consensus with the proportions: short overhangs, long bonnet, and very big wheels. They've ended up at 19in with 60-aspect-ratio tyres."

The board chose the proposal from Marek Djordjeric, a Yugoslavian designer. Charles Coldham, an English contemporary, won the interior competition.

Unapologetically, the new Phantom is a huge car, stretching to 5834mm in length and standing 1632mm tall, and it's built on a massive 3570mm wheelbase. A long-wheelbase model, plus coupe and convertible will be added during the Phantom's expected 8-10-year lifecycle.

Despite the use of aluminium spaceframe and aluminium body panels, it weighs 2485kg. Still, that's just 85kg more than the 436mm shorter Seraph.

See it for the first time at close quarters and it looks massive, dominated by a grille that is 100mm higher than the Seraph. This, and a confusion of lights, certainly makes the front-end distinctive -- ugly even. The upper rectangular lights contain daylight-running lights, while the large circular headlights are low enough that it doesn't need foglights. The front-end even looks a little like the nasty Pininfarina-styled Camarque from the '70s!

The aerodynamic problem that produces the 0.38cd is the classic grille. But, says Cameron, "Because of the grille, the flies that should hit the windscreen, hit the car behind it.

"We wanted to have a bigger lady, but we were at the limits of the sight angles (legal requirements for vision). Anyway, she drops down at the touch of a button."

From the beginning, Djordjeric's sketches always featured what RR calls "coach doors". To achieve class-leading body stiffness, RR decided to retain the B-pillar, but the large back doors are hinged at the rear. BMW applied for and was granted, after a year of demonstrations, a RR-exclusive concession to use the unique doors. Their great advantage is to allow passengers to walk, naturally, straight into the rear compartment.

But the Phantom is also for drivers, and those up front will enjoy vast space.

"Traditional customers will feel at home," says Cameron, who points out that nothing you can see or touch in the interior reveals any association with BMW. The wood looks like wood and Rolls resisted pressure from the BMW test drivers to increase the diameter of the steering-wheel rim beyond RR-thin.

For the Rolls, BMW has developed a new V12, based on the architecture of the 6.0-litre V12 fitted to the new 760i, but with a shorter stroke and wider bore -- 84.6/92mm versus 89/80 -- to take the capacity out to 6749cc. The huge engine develops 338kW at 5350rpm and 720Nm at 3500rpm, somewhat below the 2780kg Maybach bi-turbo V12's 405kW and 900Nm.

The Phantom shares the same ZF six-speed automatic with the 760i, but it's lower geared to compensate for the 335kg weight penalty. Even so, BMW says it's capable of 0-100km/h in just 5.9sec. The suspension is all-new, the double-wishbone front and multi-link rear suspensions working with self-levelling air spring on all four wheels.

Predictably, the Phantom is superbly equipped, beautifully finished, and, importantly, far more roomy and regal than the cramped Seraph. Its inherent simplicity hides delightful features -- like the umbrellas, released at the touch of a button, housed in each rear door.

How does the Rolls compare to the Maybach, the Phantom's closest competitor? We won't know until the inevitable comparison. However...

"The biggest difference is that the Maybach is a Mercedes-Benz," says the outspoken Cameron, then, pointing to the Rolls-Royce, "This car, whatever it is, it's not a BMW."