MOTORING
Surrey’s Premier Lifestyle Magazine
New dawn
The Rolls-Royce Dawn is perhaps the most opulent open top car currently available and sets a new benchmark in luxury. Euan Johns sees in the new Dawn, and explains why two plus two doesn’t equal four in the eyes of its designer.
There’s a lot to be said for electric cars, all silky smooth running and silent stealth. Although I would have to say, as they become more prevalent, which of course they will, my advice is to take extra care crossing the road. I was almost run over by one of the silent beasts the other day, carelessly exercising my habit of not looking and listening – just listening.
This new Dawn is quiet, remarkably so, and manages the slings and arrows of the bumpiest roads with consummate ease. Some may think that even this prestigious carmaker would have to bow to the laws of physics and, of course, it does, but you really wouldn’t think it. The Dawn comes perilously close to providing a sublime open top drive, and with the top up, the driver has to keep his or her eyes open to realise there is any movement at all.
Specific attention has been paid to the engineering and manufacturing fronts in the creation of the Dawn’s roof. Unheard of anywhere in the modern motor industry, the roof of the Dawn delivers the silence of a Rolls-Royce Wraith when up. It operates in almost complete silence in just over 20 seconds at a cruising speed of up to 50kph.
This new Dawn is quiet, remarkably so, and manages the slings and arrows of the bumpiest roads with consummate ease. Some may think that even this prestigious carmaker would have to bow to the laws of physics and, of course, it does, but you really wouldn’t think it. The Dawn comes perilously close to providing a sublime open top drive, and with the top up, the driver has to keep his or her eyes open to realise there is any movement at all.
Specific attention has been paid to the engineering and manufacturing fronts in the creation of the Dawn’s roof. Unheard of anywhere in the modern motor industry, the roof of the Dawn delivers the silence of a Rolls-Royce Wraith when up. It operates in almost complete silence in just over 20 seconds at a cruising speed of up to 50kph.
Working with a fabric roof configuration, the Rolls-Royce engineering team set themselves a challenging goal to make the world’s quietest convertible. This silence quest applied to all aspects of the roof and, by extension, to the car itself. Its design is graceful, beautiful and sensuous, whilst remaining one of the largest canopies to grace a convertible car. In fact, the Dawn’s roof is the second largest fabric roof on a current production car, second only to its Phantom Drophead Coupé stable mate. The silent lowering of the soft top – dubbed ‘The Silent Ballet’ by the engineers – transforms the car, delivering a true Dawn moment when night turns into day.
As we know, compromise is not a word recognised in the Rolls-Royce lexicon. The company continues to live by the clarion cry of co-founder Sir Henry Royce to: “Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it doesn’t exist, design it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.”
The final part of that maxim guided the Rolls-Royce team as it worked to initiate a new age for open top, super-luxury motoring. In a sector exclusively populated by the biggest of automotive compromises, namely the 2+2 seat configuration, Rolls-Royce has indeed accepted no compromise. Studying the open-top sector and its high-value niche, it became apparent to the designers that customers were being a little short-changed. The myopic focus on one specific configuration – the 2+2 setup – was, in the company’s view, a compromise too far. An accepted 2+2 is a configuration with seating favouring the driver and front passenger, leaving two smaller seats for occasional, very small, adult passengers or children in the rear. The result is a sector populated exclusively by open-top cars that Rolls-Royce would consider ‘anti-social’.
As we know, compromise is not a word recognised in the Rolls-Royce lexicon. The company continues to live by the clarion cry of co-founder Sir Henry Royce to: “Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it doesn’t exist, design it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.”
The final part of that maxim guided the Rolls-Royce team as it worked to initiate a new age for open top, super-luxury motoring. In a sector exclusively populated by the biggest of automotive compromises, namely the 2+2 seat configuration, Rolls-Royce has indeed accepted no compromise. Studying the open-top sector and its high-value niche, it became apparent to the designers that customers were being a little short-changed. The myopic focus on one specific configuration – the 2+2 setup – was, in the company’s view, a compromise too far. An accepted 2+2 is a configuration with seating favouring the driver and front passenger, leaving two smaller seats for occasional, very small, adult passengers or children in the rear. The result is a sector populated exclusively by open-top cars that Rolls-Royce would consider ‘anti-social’.
LOADING
So, breaking the mould has created a car deemed silent and social that can be used in comfort by four adults on a day-to-day basis, travelling together at the pinnacle of style.
Roof down, the allure of the car is apparent. From the side, the steep rake of the windscreen, the swage line that flows over the rear haunches, plus the high beltline that rises along the profile, give an impression of speed. The same beltline wraps around the rear passenger cabin akin to the collar of a jacket pulled up to protect the neck.
Modern craftsmanship comes to the fore in the interior woodwork with open-pore Canadel panelling (echoing Sir Henry Royce’s favourite French cove) which traces the horseshoe shape of the rear cabin.
What’s the price to keep silent whilst running? Well, prices start from £250,000. This car is a rarity, but think of it this way, special things like this come perhaps once in a lifetime, and if we’d all had the foresight to put £50 on Leicester City winning the Premiership at the start of the season, we’d be there.
Roof down, the allure of the car is apparent. From the side, the steep rake of the windscreen, the swage line that flows over the rear haunches, plus the high beltline that rises along the profile, give an impression of speed. The same beltline wraps around the rear passenger cabin akin to the collar of a jacket pulled up to protect the neck.
Modern craftsmanship comes to the fore in the interior woodwork with open-pore Canadel panelling (echoing Sir Henry Royce’s favourite French cove) which traces the horseshoe shape of the rear cabin.
What’s the price to keep silent whilst running? Well, prices start from £250,000. This car is a rarity, but think of it this way, special things like this come perhaps once in a lifetime, and if we’d all had the foresight to put £50 on Leicester City winning the Premiership at the start of the season, we’d be there.
essence info
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Iconic royalLagonda
The 1954 Lagonda 3 Litre Drophead Coupé car that won Aston Martin Lagonda Limited its first Royal Warrant was built to the special order of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. It recently sold for just under £350,000 through H&H Classics at their auction at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.Used by The Duke of Edinburgh for personal transport up until 1961, and finished in a bespoke shade of Edinburgh Green, the three litre Lagonda was one of just 20 MK1 cars made.
Prince Philip used the vehicle to drop off Prince Charles at Cheam Preparatory School, and the car toured The Commonwealth with him in 1956-1957. The Lagonda featured an extra vanity mirror – reputedly for Her Majesty The Queen to adjust her hat – and a radio telephone necessitating the Duke being allocated his own radio frequency by The Admiralty.
During The Duke’s seven-year ownership, Aston Martin despatched staff to The Royal Mews and Windsor Castle on a sometimes weekly basis to ensure smooth running. For The Commonwealth tour, the car was met in Australia by one of the firm’s most senior engineers, Tony Tocock. Dunlop similarly went to great pains to ensure that all its Australasian branches were stocked with suitable tyres.
H&H Classics sales manager, Damian Jones, explains: “This car is part of our history. The accompanying paperwork beggars belief. There is a story about Prince Philip driving Her Majesty The Queen through London and being held up by a policeman on point duty. When he saw who was in the Lagonda, he did a double take and swiftly waved them on.”
Profile: H&H Classics
H&H Classics was founded by Simon Hope in 1993 as a specialist auction house dedicated to the sale of collectors’ motorcars and motorcycles. Staffed by hands-on enthusiasts with over 600 years combined experience, H&H’s specialist valuers are among the most knowledgeable in the industry.
With the head office near Warrington, Cheshire and an office in Hindhead, Surrey, H&H Classics holds regular sales at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, Donington Park in Derbyshire and Chateau Impney in the West Midlands.
essence info
Website: www.classic-auctions.com“Our new Rolls-Royce Dawn promises a striking, seductive encounter like no other Rolls-Royce to date, and begins a new age of open-top, super-luxury motoring. Dawn is a beautiful new car that offers the most uncompromised open-top motoring experience in the world. Quite simply, it is the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever built.”
Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes, chief executive officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars