Phantom is notorious for its longevity, making it a timeless symbol of exquisite aesthetics, beauty, and perfect luxury. It holds a unique position at the pinnacle of this industry, renowned for its elegant, timeless beauty.
“Phantom commands a unique position at the very pinnacle of the world’s luxury goods. As our flagship product, it represents the very best in our design, engineering, and craftsmanship – a perfect marriage of vision, creativity, the finest materials, skill, patience, and absolute attention to detail. With Phantom Series II, we have carefully retained everything that our customers love about this ultimate, most luxurious of motor cars, and subtly enhanced it with contemporary, elegant and meaningful improvements that reflect the ever-increasing demands and discerning tastes of the owners.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The products of Rolls-Royce are renowned for their long lifespan, making them a timeless icon of exquisite aesthetics, beauty, and perfect luxury. Phantom occupies an extraordinary position at the peak of this field, revered for its elegant, timeless, and transcendent beauty.
The eighth generation of Phantom was introduced in 2017. During the conceptualization of its new appearance, the desires of the customers became the guiding light for the designers and engineers at Rolls-Royce. The passionate requests of the owners were to make minimal changes to an already iconic vehicle. To fulfill these requests, the company made only minor modifications to the design, adornment, and features. The main goal of this upgrade was not to change what has already been perfected. In fact, the question that the brand posed was which parts should be retained in this line of cars.
A NEW FACE
The most important feature, and naturally one that needed to be preserved, is the commanding exterior of the Phantom. This beauty has now been accentuated by a sleek horizontal line between the daytime running light clusters, placed above the Pantheon radiator grille. This detail adds a new, contemporary, and resolute character to the Phantom, emphasizing the owner’s driving experience.
To make the distinguished badge ‘RR’ and the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot more prominent from the front, a delicate geometric change was made to the Pantheon radiator grille. Specifically, the grille is now capable of illuminating, a feature that was introduced and well-received by customers in the Ghost series. The headlight cluster is adorned with a delicately lasered star strip, creating a visual connection with the Starlight Headliner inside the cabin, while adding an intriguing surprise to the presence of the Phantom at night.
The side profile of the Phantom retains the characteristic short front overhang and long rear overhang, wide C-pillar, and extended wheelbase of Rolls-Royce, a detail that provides additional privacy for the passengers. The shape of the vehicle preserves the main elegant lines running from the Spirit of Ecstasy emblem to the slender rear portion. The split-belt line starts at the front fender and gracefully curves towards the rear door, emphasizing the elongated proportions from the windscreen to the vehicle’s axis, before descending towards the lantern-shaped tail lights. The waft line is more pronounced, creating a strong, powerful presence that visually conveys the brand’s unique Magic Carpet Ride feature.
The side of the Phantom has been further enhanced with a new set of wheels. These 3D wheels are made of stainless steel, with intricately scalloped and beveled triangle edges. Customers can choose to have the wheels fully polished or partially polished to complete the wheel set. Additionally, the Phantom also offers an option to equip genuine, elegant hubcaps, reminiscent of the romance of Rolls-Royce motorcars in the 1920s. These wheels are produced with polished stainless steel and black lacquer finish, providing a complete sensation of flying on land.
In response to the requests of Phantom owners, customers are now offered additional customizations, including a dark chrome-plated radiator grille frame, black hood trim, and a surrounding frame finish for the windshield and side frame. This aesthetic aspect allows Rolls-Royce to transform the appearance of the Phantom into the brightest brilliance or the darkest obscurity.
The luxurious interior of the Phantom remains largely unchanged: the steering wheel has been thickened slightly, providing immediate tactile contact and better connection for the owner-driver.
Phantom and Phantom Extended possess distinct characteristics, representing two different types of power. The Phantom is mostly favored by an increasing number of customers who want to drive themselves. For individuals who prefer to be driven from the rear seats, the Phantom Extended offers the epitome of luxurious chauffeur experiences.
ROLLS-ROYCE CONNECTED FEATURE
The new version of the Phantom introduces ‘Rolls-Royce Connected.’ This feature allows owners to send address information directly to the car through Whispers, the exclusive app dedicated to Rolls-Royce owners, providing seamless navigation to an event, restaurant, dealership, or even the Home of Rolls-Royce.
‘Rolls-Royce Connected’ also displays the vehicle’s location, security status, and current ‘health’ on Whispers; with just a press of a button, owners can contact priority dealers to fulfill any maintenance service requests or retrieve information about the vehicle.
Phantom Platino: The Return of Premium Textile Material
To mark the unveiling of the Phantom Series II and showcase Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke capability, the brand has created a new Bespoke masterpiece, the Phantom Platino, named after the silver-white finish of a precious metal – platinum – that many desire.
With the Phantom Platino, Rolls-Royce continues its exploration into interior design with fabric materials, a story that began in 2015 with the unveiling of Serenity, a true Bespoke Phantom with hand-embroidered and hand-painted silk interiors. As a harbinger of the next step on this important journey, the Phantom Platino introduces alternative materials alongside the familiar leather upholstery. This is an area that Rolls-Royce continues to explore, representing a more inclusive embrace of alternative interior coverings to traditional leather.
To evoke memories of the early days of the brand’s establishment, the front seats of the Phantom Platino are finished with Rolls-Royce’s exquisite leather, while the rear seats are upholstered with fabric.
The Platino interior showcases a stunning tone-on-tone color scheme, combining two different fabrics. One is made in a factory in Italy, bringing durability yet luxuriousness in appearance, while the other fabric is made from bamboo fibers, selected for its shiny surface.
Both materials are adorned with a special repeated pattern, embodying an abstract representation of the Spirit of Ecstasy. For the knitted fabric, the design is smaller and woven into the fabric, creating a more visually stimulating finish. This pattern also appears within the Phantom’s Gallery, within the driver’s line of sight and on primary touchpoints such as the armrest and center console. The bamboo fabric is embroidered with larger icons, adding a tufting look commonly found in interior designs. This more elastic material is applied on lower-lying interior surfaces, where more contact endurance is required.
The Phantom’s Starlight Headliner is the largest canvas in the Phantom, where customers can freely create. A unique design specially made for Rolls-Royce Platino features the ‘stars’ arranged to attract the gaze rearwards, adorned with mesmerizing shooting stars running along the curved path of the star strip.
Mr. Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said, “We deeply appreciate the respect and love that customers have for their Phantoms. They feel that the car cannot be further improved. Although the brand typically respects the owners’ viewpoint, we also believe that there is always room to progressively strive for pure perfection. The subtle improvements that we have made to the new Phantom Series II have been carefully considered and meticulously executed. As Mr. Henry Royce himself said, ‘Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it’.”
Phantom epitomizes the luxury goods industry’s ‘ends of luxury.’ Phantom customers include individuals of various ages, whether young or old, modern or traditional, self-made or hailing from long-established wealthy families. Their bespoke orders reflect their unique personalities, individual preferences, and factors that influence their vision. In some ways, Phantom embodies a rebellious personality – youthful, dynamic, and audacious. On the other hand, Phantom becomes an icon of regal, sophisticated elegance and timeless beauty.
The challenge for the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective team is to meet the diverse personalities and desires of customers in a brand’s flagship product. Therefore, the eighth-generation Phantom was designed to provide a ‘blank canvas’ for Bespoke personalization options, being anything that the customer desires and reflecting their authentic style and unique personality.
The tremendous advantages and allure of the Phantom lie in its ability to allow customers to position themselves anywhere between these ‘ends of luxury,’ defining their own luxurious lifestyle. Wherever these extremes may be, they have the assurance that their Phantom – in terms of engineering, materials, aesthetics, and motivation – remains the ‘best car in the world.’
The Phantom Platino uses premium textiles as an alternative to the traditional leather upholstery. This shift represents a wider acceptance of alternative interior coverings in addition to the standard leather materials. It builds on Rolls-Royce’s journey of exploring and incorporating fabric materials for interior design. The Serenity, introduced in 2015, was a significant milestone in this exploration, showcasing hand-embroidered and hand-painted silk interiors. The Platino interior features a stunning tone-on-tone color scheme and combines two different fabrics, one from an Italian factory, renowned for its durable yet luxurious appearance, and the other made from bamboo fibers, chosen for its shiny surface. Both fabrics are adorned with a special repeated pattern that abstractly represents the Spirit of Ecstasy. The pattern is smaller and woven into the fabric for the knitted fabric, creating a visually stimulating effect. The bamboo fabric is embroidered with larger icons, adding a tufting look commonly found in interior design. These alternative fabric materials provide a unique touch to the Phantom Platino’s interior.
Mr. Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, stated, “We deeply appreciate the respect and love that customers have for their Phantoms. They feel that the car cannot be further improved. Although the brand typically respects the viewpoint of the owners, we also believe that there is always room for progressive pursuit of pure perfection. The subtle enhancements we have made to the new Phantom Series II have been carefully considered and meticulously executed. As Mr. Henry Royce himself said, ‘Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it’.”
Phantom epitomizes the pinnacle of luxury goods, attracting a file of Rolls-Royce customers from the luxury class. These customers are successful individuals with status, who not only occupy leading positions in their respective fields but also often attract public attention. They understand what they want and have high demands. It is no coincidence that the Phantom garners the most ambitious and challenging Bespoke orders that Rolls-Royce has ever undertaken.
The result is true works of art in the literal sense. These creations are a clear testament that, since the first appearance in the market, the Phantom has always been what customers desire; not just merely the ‘best car in the world’, but the best car for owners and their world.
These works are a testament to the profound understanding of the respect and appreciation that customers have for their Phantoms. They believe that their cars cannot be further improved. While the brand generally respects the owners’ viewpoint, Rolls-Royce also believes that there is always room to strive for pure perfection. The subtle enhancements made to the new Phantom Series II have been carefully considered and meticulously executed. Conforming to the ideology of Mr. Henry Royce, “Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it.”
