Silicon Valley start-up moguls in sneakers, Rich Kids of Instagram – believe it or not, but twentysomething multimillionaires are the new Rolls-Royce drivers. It’s a new era – or to succumb to the oft-used phrase, a new dawn – for the British luxury-car maker, whose target market, cars and approach are evolving with the times. The youthful new direction for Rolls-Royce became most apparent last year when its latest iteration, the Dawn, was introduced to the world in thoroughly modern fashion. First came the live web launch hosted by former model Jodie Kidd, who interviewed Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös on the roof of the Goodwood factory.
Then came the big reveal of the car at a series of global previews. In London, it was at a glitzy, Bankside apartment. In Dubai, I gathered with a small group of journalists and VIPs at the Armani Hotel, watching as Dawn was unveiled to the dulcet tones of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good. If seeing the Dawn in the flesh wasn’t enough to whet the appetite, listening to Rolls-Royce’s own Fifty Shades-style hyperbole certainly had the desired effect. It wasn’t only “the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever built”, the Dawn promised “a striking, seductive encounter” and apparently suited its name because “the early-day chill of dawn provides an erotic tingle on the skin, awakening the senses and passions as the day begins.”
Seductive encounters and erotic tingles aside, you’d have to be made of stone not to feel some kind of hot flush when looking at the Dawn. Inspired by the classic Silver Dawn from the 1950s, the four-seat drophead is pure class, with a masculine front end, sensuous feminine “hips”, and curves and contours inspired by 1950s and ‘60s fashion, according to Giles Taylor, Rolls-Royce’s director of design. My test car was the same as the hero model – in a sleek midnight sapphire hue with bold, mandarin leather interiors that shocked at first, and grew on me later – though prospective buyers have 44,000 colours and some 20,000 wood veneer combinations to choose from, should the open-pore Canadel panelling with a chevron pattern not float your boat.
As to be expected, both the leather and the panelled dashboard (fitted with Dawn sill plates, a custom Dawn clock, and climate controls) felt sensational beneath my fingertips. In fact, the only thing my fingers didn’t touch was the 10.25-inch dashboard screen. There’s a separate rotary controller with a touch-pad for that, meaning no “unsightly” fingerprints blight the screen. You can even “pull and pinch” the touch-pad, smart phone-style. There is no shortage of leg room, no matter where you’re sitting – this is an authentic four-seater, not a 2+2 – while under the hood, the Dawn shares the same power as the Wraith with a 6.6-litre, twin-turbo V-12 engine and an eight-speed automatic gearbox with satellite-aided technology, which allows the transmission to decide which gear to select based on the road conditions ahead. It’s a refined, magic-carpet ride, and even though the length of the bonnet can be unnerving – this car is nearly 5.3 metres long after all – the sense of security is second to none, with precise steering and torsional rigidity.
The Dawn is made for leisurely cruising, seeing and being seen. Rubber-necking and envious staring is part of the parcel when driving a Rolls, but with Dawn, you may actually cause an accident when retracting the roof – it’s that superb. In more fabulous hyperbole, Rolls describes it as a “silent ballet”, the entire graceful, soundless process taking a mere 22 seconds, even while driving at speeds of up to 50 kph. It’s just as delightful driving the Dawn with the roof on. With those French seams and six-layer fabric, there is zero wind noise, the cabin cocooned in such blissful silence, even an Aston Martin purring past will sound vulgar in comparison.
Dawn is truly inimitable. It’s a masterpiece, an effortless drive and yes, it sure is sexy. As Taylor so memorably said, while the Wraith was the loosening of the tie, the Dawn is taking the tie off. Again, veering into some Fifty Shades-style territory, but this is one drive where you won’t have any qualms taking your tie – or your top off.
NUTS&BOLTS:
Engine: 6.6-litre, twin turbo V-12
0-100 kph: 4.9 secs
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Top speed: 250 kph
CO2 emissions: 330g/km
Price: AED1,555,000 (US$422,000)