Apparently, Sir Henry Royce once said “Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.”
Easier said than done, you’d think, but one look at the new Rolls Royce suggests that perfection may be closer than we’d expect. Billed as the world’s only true modern four-seater super-luxury drophead, the Dawn is the result of a meticulous design process. It has, for example, 80% unique body panels, setting it truly apart from any other cars in the range and ensuring it’s not, as earlier speculation suggested, a convertible version of the Wraith.
One of the aspects that received most attention from the design team was the 2+2 seat configuration. Their argument against most current convertibles was that “a 2+2 is a configuration with seating that favours the driver and passenger in the front leaving two smaller seats for occasional passengers or children in the rear. The result is a sector populated exclusively by open-top cars that Rolls-Royce would consider compromised and ‘anti-social’.” As such, they’ve worked extensively on the car’s entire configuration to ensure that four people, regardless of size, can enjoy the Dawn in comfort.
Part of this involved placing the convertible roof in a way that did not obstruct rear passengers. They also went one further, by setting out to make the Dawn’s roof, which is the second largest fabric roof ever applied to a production car, the quietest convertible fabric canopy in the world. As such, the Dawn’s roof will guarantee a silent cabin when erected, and will operate in just over 20 seconds at a cruising speed of up to 50 km/h – also in almost complete silence. They have, poetically, dubbed this motion ‘the silent ballet’.
Rolls Royce’s CEO, Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes, has billed this the ‘sexiest Rolls Royce ever built’, and it’s hard to argue with him. It looks as beautiful with the roof up as it does with the roof down, and the car’s sleek lines – particularly the high beltline – give the impression of effortless swiftness.
Deliveries of the new Rolls Royce Dawn commence in Spring next year, and from this preview we can attest that new owners are going to be very happy indeed.