Home News Reviews Rolls-Royce Dawn Exclusive Launch and Test Drive

Rolls-Royce Dawn Exclusive Launch and Test Drive

14/04/2016

It’s quite remarkable but it happened once again. It’s been the same every time I have got behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce, whether it be a classic or the very latest in a long historic line, as in the most recent case.

First of all, there’s the price. Well actually, that’s the point. There usually isn’t one because every Rolls-Royce has its own price tag and you won’t find it plastered across the windscreen. What you can be sure of is that if there was one, it would have quite a few zeros.

It’s the ultimate example of the saying “if want to know how much it costs, you can’t afford it”.

The ‘cheapest’ new Rolls-Royce in the current range, the Ghost, will cost you an average-car’s-worth more than £200,000 and even a “previously-loved” example will set you back not a great deal less than that.

So, taking a seat in the brand-new example of the ultimate of classic British-built automotive engineering, the Rolls-Royce Dawn, I had the same thoughts running through my head.

After the usual stuff of how any car – no matter how good – can be worth that amount of money, I then felt like a very small, albeit extremely comfortable, cog in a huge tank of a beast with a vast expanse of bonnet stretching out before me as I embedded myself in very plush surroundings.

But once again all it took was a push on the start button of this dreamy drophead coupe, a flick of the steering-mounted gearchange into ‘drive’ and any negative thoughts simply drifted into the open atmosphere.

The fact that I was the only Scottish motoring writer to be given the chance to be one of the first in the world to experience the new car on the road in the fabulous surroundings of the winelands in the Western Cape of South Africa added immensely to the occasion, but the car would have done that all on its own.

Less than half a mile into a day-long drive around the stunning landscape, I was completely won over and full of appreciation of what the designers and engineers of this beauty have done to create a car worthy of bearing the RR badge and Spirit of Ecstasy flying lady mascot atop the radiator grille.

RR don’t hang back when describing their new car. “Striking”, “seductive” and “the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever built” are just some of the terms I heard being used by the RR chiefs as they salivated over their latest big baby.

And, you know, for once, I totally agree with the marketing speak.

The Dawn has a great pedigree, taking its inspiration from the original 1952 Silver Dawn drophead which was finished by Rolls-Royce coachbuilders Park Ward for individual customers and of which only 28 were ever made.

The Rolls-Royce story itself is quite remarkable going back to when it was formed in 1906 by Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in Manchester and went on to build prestigious luxury cars and world class aircraft engines. Things all went wrong in the early 1970s when it went bust, was nationalised and then later sold off again. The troubles continued until 1998 when BMW stepped in and bought the rights to the RR brand name and logo, the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy figure and the classic grille shape. But that was all. Since then they’ve created a brand new Rolls-Royce Motor Cars company – completely separate from the engineering corporation bearing the same name – along with a purpose-built production facility at Goodwood in West Sussex where 1400 workers hand build the cars for a worldwide market.

Embodied in that is the principle of Sir Henry to “Strive for perfection in everything you do” along with “Take the best that exists and make it better”, which is what they did with the existing range of the Phantom and the Ghost. His other maxim was ““When it does not exist, design it” and the Wraith coupe was born, which is followed now by the Dawn. Make no mistake, this is not just a Wraith with the roof chopped off. It has no fewer than 80% newly-designed body panels.

Attention to detail is at the heart of the exercise. Apart from the iconic RR letters on each wheel hub, which are always upright regardless of the wheel position, and the leather cladding on even the smallest of dashboard switches, the massive tyres have been specially developed to deliver the ‘magic carpet’ ride expected of every Rolls-Royce.

Specific attention has been paid to the Dawn’s six-layer fabric roof which when up, is claimed to be the quietest open top car ever made and gives it the look of a stylish coupe. The canopy wraps around the rear seats and down over the window tops to lower the roofline to highlight the low-slung look.

It retracts in almost complete silence in just over 20 seconds at a cruising speed of up to 30mph and transforms the car into a sophisticated drophead to bring alive the sounds and smells of the countryside. It’s a car that looks as beautiful with its roof up as with it down, effectively creating two cars in one.

The classic powerful front end has a more recessed grille and the lower bumper is also wider than on the Wraith. That gives way to a tapered ‘wake channel’ on the bonnet, emanating from the Spirit of Ecstasy’s wings and along the high shoulder line until it swells over the rear wheels.

At the back, it tapers in towards the rear to echo the design of early ‘boat tail’ Rolls-Royce drophead coupés and the motor launches of the early 20th Century that inspired them.

That’s repeated in the deck which covers the folded roof. Open-pore Canadel panelling – chosen by the customer to suit their individual taste – comes from the craftspeople in the Woodshop at Goodwood who have developed unique wood crafting technology and techniques.

The huge signature coach doors are evocative of the classic sports car and make it easier for rear passengers. I’m told by the people at Rolls-Royce that they will not merely ‘get out’ of a Rolls-Royce Dawn, but rather stand and disembark as if from a Riva motor launch as you would onto a glamorous private jetty in Monaco or on Lake Como.

But they also have a more fundamental role of adding to the strength and stiffness of the body and allow an uninterrupted A-pillar.

There’s a vast amount of space with four very full seats and a huge boot which has no encroachment from the folded roof.

The instrument dials have polished metal around the dials to give the impression of hand-made, luxury wrist watches.

The beating heart is the twin-turbo 6.6-litre V12 coupled with dynamic accelerator pedal mapping which delivers up to 30% increased response at medium throttle. The steering gives great driver feedback to make it effortless but precise and there’s a host of the latest technology in automatic cruise control linked to radar and camera which provides faster system response times, including pre-conditioning of the brakes to expect emergency pressure. In the worst case a concealed roll-over protection system from behind the rear head restraints deploys in a fraction of a second.

Satellite Aided Transmission uses GPS data to let the car see further than the driver, anticipating their next move based on location and driving style and then select the most appropriate gear from the 8-speed gearbox.

Like everything else in this car it is a delight and by the end of my drive we were working as a great partnership, totally in tune with each other.

Yes the Dawn is big and expensive but it’s a superb example of British design and engineering excellence and would make any owner look forward to the start of every new day.