With inspiration coming from the Phantom Drophead Coupe (convertible) and the Phantom Coupe, Rolls Royce revealed the 2009 Model Year Phantom and Phantom Extended Wheelbase. The facelifted Phantom limos are distinguished on the outside by a new streamlined front bumper that has been designed and integrated with a shallower grille, finished in stainless steel. Other new exterior features include LED door handle illumination and the fitting of 21-inch cast alloy wheels as standard.

Furthermore, the BMW Group owned British automaker offers two more wheel options, both manufactured in forged alloy and available in either painted or part polished finishes.

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Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves would like to make an electric-powered Phantom. ‘Many of our customers do small mileages exclusively in the city,’ says Purves, who took over the helm of BMW-owned Rolls-Royce in July 2008. ‘For these customers, an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal.’

Purves has just driven the new electric Mini, which debuts at next month’s Los Angeles auto show, and was ‘bowled over by it. It is superb: quiet, fast and fantastic fun’.

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SPECS
ON SALE: November
BASE PRICE: $405,000
DRIVETRAIN: 6.7-liter, 453-hp, 531-lb-ft V12; RWD, six-speed automatic
CURB WEIGHT: 5,776 lb
0-60 MPH: 5.6 sec (mfr)
FUEL ECONOMY (EPA): 13 mpg (est)

What do I know about Rolls-Royce? I am landing at Heathrow to be whisked southward for a rendezvous with the new coupe version of the Phantom. That meeting will be effected in Goodwood, where the Rolls works lie hard by the old racing circuit (memories there), and thence to Folkestone and a Channel crossing, this time under it, and on to Reims in France (the memories roll in like clouds on a Weather Channel simulation). Finally, we’ll travel to Switzerland and Geneva’s airport. A few days of driving in upscale pretense. We are pros; do not try this at home.

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