Rolls-Royce launches Phantom Drophead Coupé at Detroit

Mumbai: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars will unveil its new Phantom Drophead Coupé on 7 January at the Detroit Motor Show. Production of the new car will start in the summer of 2007. It will be hand built alongside the Phantom at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars'' manufacturing plant at Goodwood on the South Coast of England.

This is the first car to be offered by Rolls-Royce since 2002, the last being the Corniche.

The two-door, four-seat convertible is a less formal interpretation of classic Rolls-Royce design. Using the lightweight rigidity of an all-aluminium spaceframe, it marries modern technology to a sleek, streamlined convertible body. The Phantom Drophead Coupé uses 1300 new parts over those developed for the Phantom.

Its exterior lines echo the styling of the Rolls-Royce cars: a long bonnet, large-diameter wheels, short front and long rear overhangs and the quintessential dynamic line descending along its flanks. Inside, the design emphasises the airy openness of top-down motoring, embracing the elements and creating a stunning, social environment.

"This car gave us the chance to think about the very nature of convertible motoring and in particular what it means to Rolls-Royce," says Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chief designer, Ian Cameron. "Above all we were determined to make this car a joy to live with and engineered it to give years of effortless service to its owner," Cameron adds.

A number of features first seen on 100EX, the experimental convertible shown by Rolls-Royce in 2004, have been engineered into the new Phantom Drophead Coupé. Two of the most visually striking of these are the brushed steel bonnet and A-pillar and the teak decking for the rear hood cover. The brushed steel is machine finished to give a uniform grain before undergoing extensive hand polishing to achieve a perfect sheen. At the rear, the teak decking is treated with a carefully blended mix of oils to preserve a natural finish and a long lasting lustre that is as beautiful as it is hardy.