Rolls-Royce Phantom

Start with what the Rolls-Royce Phantom is: a 4-door saloon with 6.75 L N74B68 twin-turbo V12, built from 2017, as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Giles Taylor / Pavle Trpinac / Chris Duff (interior).

The background

The Rolls-Royce Phantom is a full-sized luxury saloon manufactured by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. It is the eighth and current generation of the Rolls-Royce Phantom, debuting in 2017, and the second launched by Rolls-Royce under BMW ownership. This is the current flagship model made by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, and is offered in two wheelbase lengths.

The engineering

The engine is 6.75 L N74B68 twin-turbo V12. On the scales it comes to 2560 kg. Drive goes through a 8-speed 8HP automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 3552 mm (SWB) / 3772 mm (EWB). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Where it sits

In the Rolls-Royce line-up the Rolls-Royce Phantom has a clear place: it replaced the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII; the factory was West Sussex, England (Goodwood plant), United Kingdom. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Tesla Model 3, the Chevrolet Bolt, the Chevrolet Camaro. Its Rolls-Royce stablemates include the Rolls-Royce 100EX and the Rolls-Royce 102EX.