{"id":469,"date":"2009-08-05T08:51:42","date_gmt":"2009-08-05T08:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/?p=469"},"modified":"2009-08-05T16:04:59","modified_gmt":"2009-08-05T16:04:59","slug":"a-weekend-with-a-rolls-royce-phantom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/08\/05\/a-weekend-with-a-rolls-royce-phantom\/","title":{"rendered":"A weekend with a Rolls-Royce Phantom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rolls-Royce<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never really thought of myself as a Rolls Royce<\/a> kinda guy.\u00a0 My fantasy garage has always been filled with machines from Sant\u2019Agata<\/a>, Gaydon<\/a> or Hethel<\/a> rather than Goodwood<\/a>.\u00a0 Sport rather than comfort has always been what\u2019s impressed me.\u00a0 After this weekend however I might be squeezing one of Goodwoods finest into my lottery win spending plan.<\/p>\n

Last weekend I was a very very lucky guy.\u00a0 How it came about is a long story, but my girlfriend and I found ourselves with a fabulous \u201809 spec Rolls Royce Phantom<\/a> for the weekend.\u00a0 A few hundred miles later and I\u2019m smitten.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first thing that struck me about the Phantom is it\u2019s scale, it\u2019s simply massive.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen them up close before, but it\u2019s always a surprise.\u00a0 It carries it\u2019s size well though, projecting a huge amount of presence wherever it goes.\u00a0 On the road it seems somehow smaller.\u00a0 It\u2019s odd you\u2019re always aware of it\u2019s size, but it seems natural.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say that narrow roads and when parking don\u2019t focus the mind though!\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the only requirement on us a request to put at least 400 miles on the clock, on Sunday we headed out on a road trip to my parents house in London, stopping off to to see friends and family on the way.\u00a0 It\u2019s a journey that takes us across some great Sussex A and B roads, a 40 minute burst of motorway then a few miles of busy town roads.\u00a0 The ease with which the Phantom covered those miles was shocking.\u00a0 The ride is so smooth and the cabin so comfortable that time just flies by.\u00a0 It seemed like every time I glanced at the (rather good) sat-nav we\u2019d devoured another 10-15 miles off the route.\u00a0 If you needed to get from one side of Europe to the other I can\u2019t think of a better way to do it.<\/p>\n

Climbing into the cabin you soon notice the attention to detail that\u2019s gone into the Phantoms design and construction, it\u2019s a wonderful place to be.\u00a0 Our car was trimmed in white leather with black lacquered wood and black carpets which, lush as they were, also had thick rugs for good measure.\u00a0 Every surface inside is perfectly finished.\u00a0 The stitching in the leather is millimetre perfect no matter how long the seam and the chrome and wood are like mirrors.<\/p>\n

The real fun starts at night, with dials and buttons being sharply lit, and subtle lighting around the cabin adding an almost art deco feel.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to describe, and photo\u2019s don\u2019t really do it justice.\u00a0 In the back, the headliner has hundreds of fibre optic strands sewn into it, giving the roof it\u2019s own \u2018star light\u2019.<\/p>\n

Whilst I didn\u2019t drive \u2013 the car was entrusted to my girlfriend only unfortunately \u2013 the driving position is high and comfortable.\u00a0 The view is dominated by the long bonnet and Spirit of Ecstasy mascot.\u00a0 You tower above other cars, with even big Mercedes and BMW\u2019s seeming small (and dare I say insignificant!).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In front of you the dash has a large centre speedometer, with fuel and fluid gauges on the right and the and a \u2018Power Reserve\u2019 dial on the left.\u00a0 No rev counter for the Phantom then, just a guide letting you know just how effortless your progress is.\u00a0 And with a 6.75 litre V12 providing the go, any sensible progress really is effortless.\u00a0 Despite it\u2019s size the Phantom is a very quick car.\u00a0 Not sporting, but quick none the less.\u00a0 By contrast even at motorway speeds there\u2019s next to no noise.\u00a0 Whilst there\u2019s the underlying sound of a car running, it doesn\u2019t really change with speed.\u00a0 70mph isn\u2019t noticeably louder that 30mph.\u00a0 A single seats air conditioning is easily louder than the wind noise even at speed.<\/p>\n

What more can I say?\u00a0 I\u2019ve been very fortunate over the years to have driven and been in some pretty special cars.\u00a0 Not much has impressed me as much as the Phantom.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019d usually be more interested in performance than luxury, but the Phantom left quite an impression.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having the Phantom for the weekend was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.\u00a0 Hopefully I\u2019ve done it justice here!\u00a0 Needless to say, the Monday morning commute in my daily drive Peugeot was particularly long and uncomfortable the following day.\u00a0 I\u2019d really <\/em>like the Phantom back.<\/p>\n

\"Lotus<\/a>\"Rolls-Royce<\/a> \"Rolls-Royce<\/a>\"Rolls-Royce<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend I was lucky enough to have a 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom for the weedend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[525,197,312,137,311],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars","category-home","tag-cars","tag-goodwood","tag-phantom","tag-review","tag-rolls-royce","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}