Rolls-Royce Phantom still has that Spirit

ROLLS-ROYCE fans can rest easy – the famous Spirit of Ecstasy flying lady emblem and the traditional in-your-face pantheon grille will be front and centre on the new eighth-generation Phantom flagship that is due to be formally revealed in London’s Mayfair on July 27.

A teaser image of the Phantom’s nose shown overnight in the United Kingdom confirms that the vertical grille design carried by the Phantom for 92 years is going nowhere.

While no one really expected Rolls-Royce to dump these signature design cues, a camouflaged test car shown previously in official shots was missing the chrome-plated statuette atop the radiator.

Inside, however, the BMW-owned British company appears to have broken with tradition, with another teaser shot appearing to show a black wooden dash panel cut with an abstract design.

We assume that the dash finish will be just one of several offered to buyers and that if burled walnut is your thing, Rolls will be happy to oblige.

The Roller saloon will be joined later by an SUV sibling, the Cullinan, built on the same light-weight aluminium platform and powered by – as GoAuto has reported – a new turbo-charged V12 rather than the BMW-sourced normally aspirated V12 engine of the current model.

To celebrate the launch of its new pride and joy, Rolls-Royce will show the new model alongside an example of each of the previous seven generations at the Mayfair event.

Dating back to 1925 when the first Phantom appeared under the banner “The Best Car in the World”, the cars are being shipped in from around the globe for the event.

Rolls-Royce has indicated that these cars each have a special history that – one by one – will be spelled out ahead of the July event, starting with the “Fred Astaire Phantom 1” once owned by American actor and dancer Fred Astaire but now owned by the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles.

The current model that has reigned at the top of the Rolls line-up since 2012 is already out of production to make way for the “100 per cent new” Phantom VIII that will land in Australia in mid-2018.