If you’re shopping for a new Rolls-Royce, your choices are simple – the Phantom, the Ghost, and the Wraith. Today Rolls-Royce officially announced a new addition to the super luxury cruiser family and it’s a convertible. The Rolls-Royce Dawn is a modern 2+2 seater crafted to levels of exquisite style and performance that shares the company’s renowned legacy of attention to detail and the goal of building “the best car in the world”.
“Dawn is a beautiful new motor car that offers the most uncompromised open-top motoring experience in the world,” said Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO Torsten Muller Otvos. “A true four-seater, it will be the most social of super-luxury drophead motor cars for those who wish to bathe in the sunlight of the world’s most exclusive social hotspots.”
Built on the same platform as the Wraith, Dawn has 80 percent new bodywork and the cabin has been designed to seat four full-size adults. The only carryover parts from the Wraith are the doors and grille surround. According to Rolls-Royce, the roof uses six layers of fabric and was constructed in way that makes the Dawn as quiet as the Wraith with the top up and is the quietest open top car ever made.
The company’s design chief, Giles Taylor, set out to create a car that was as beautiful with the roof up as it was down, with the intention of producing “two cars in one”. The firm looked to the 1952 Silver Dawn Drophead, the last coachbuilt Rolls, for inspiration. Taylor also vowed that comfort or space would not be compromised in the Dawn.
The car unveiled today has a Midnight Sapphire exterior and a bright Mandarin leather interior. Four people can ride in comfort in separate bucket seats surrounded by a plush cabin trimmed with open-pore Canadel wood paneling.
Powering the Dawn is the same twin-turbocharged 6.6-liter V12 used by the Ghost. The engine produces 563 bhp at 5250 rpm and 575 lb.-ft. at 1500 rpm, and drives the rear wheels through an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox, which links with the sat-nav to automatically pre-select the next appropriate gear. The Dawn can go from 0-62 mph in 4.9 seconds and reach a limited speed of 155 mph. Combined fuel economy is 19.9 mpg and CO2 emissions are 330g/km.
The new Rolls-Royce Dawn is set to go on sale early 2016, with a price starting at £250,000 ($385,000).
