Cape Town, South Africa—Not many people know what it’s like to drive a near-half-million-dollar Rolls-Royce, and even fewer know what it’s like to drive top-down in a convertible Roll-Royce Dawn around the southernmost tip of Africa. It is not an easy experience to relay, but I will try.
Driving the new 2017 Dawn convertible from Rolls-Royce is conspicuous consumption put to motion. You do not spend $381,900 dollars on a mere car, you spend that kind of money on a rolling statement of wealth.
Walkaround
The Dawn dwarfs other cars on the road. It’s long like a cigarette boat. The famous chrome grille is an imposing sight in a rearview mirror. In general, other drivers show the Rolls respect, so long as you extend the same courtesy. You might think you’d get rude gestures from every passing stranger, but that didn’t happen once in our day of driving around Cape Town. Instead, we got waves, and kids jumping up and down and pointing. For some reason I can’t explain, people didn’t hate us in this car.
Maybe it was because two scruffy-looking men driving a Rolls look like living proof that the American Dream is possible. (Onlookers didn’t know we were only faking it, that we had to hand back the keys at the end of the day.)
Interior
It’s a safe bet exactly none of the Dawns leaving the Rolls factory in Goodwood, England will do so at the basic $381,900 price. Every one will be customized from a huge selection of factory options: two-tone paint, or shag carpet, or orange leather seats.
Most people who buy the Dawn will want to add a personal touch, maybe have their initials embroidered onto the seats, or inlaid into the wooden veneer. Some will want their Dawn colour-matched to their favourite French poodle and Rolls-Royce — after consulting with the client — will oblige, for a price.
Predictably, the cabin is palatial. But it’s also palatial for rear seat passengers, too, and this is unusual for a convertible. This is a car you’re meant to share. Driving it alone would be kind of sad. The wood decking behind the rear passengers is a nice touch, too.
Technology
Who cares about technology? There’s oodles of it. But does it matter? Do you think about it when you’re driving? Not really. At this level, you expect everything to just work. The satellite-aided eight-speed automatic transmission uses the nav system to ensure the car is always in the right gear—not that you need it with 563 horsepower and 575 lb-ft of torque.
The cloth roof when raised makes the cabin as quiet — or even more so — than any German luxury sedan. In fact, Rolls claims it’s as quiet with the roof up as the Wraith coupe. Added wind noise is often a compromise you have to make when you drive a convertible—not so here. Raising or lowering the roof happens at the push of a button at speeds of up to 50 km/h.
Performance
Chopping off the roof will usually do bad things to a car. You might expect some flex in the chassis, or at the very least the suspension to get ruffled on bad roads. But not the Dawn. The most magnificent thing about driving it is the way it floats over the road. Nothing interrupts the calm. It corners — fast or slow — without body roll.
The long hood seemingly wheels around corners a second or two before the rest of the car follows suit. It feels stately. In fact, it can be hard to judge just how fast you’re driving. The steering is never anything other than light. The 6.6-litre twin-turbo V12 never feels like it’s working hard. Even as it hurtles the car from zero to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds, it barely makes a peep. It’s utterly surreal, I’m afraid.
Value
At present, the Dawn is the best luxury convertible in the world. It costs about $400,000 in Canada. Is that good value? You be the judge.
Conclusion
It’s hard not to be seduced by a new Rolls-Royce in such a spectacular setting. This is, of course, probably what Rolls-Royce had in mind when choosing to launch the car here. But the fact is if you put this car on any road, anywhere in the world, it would be just as quiet, just as comfortable and just as spectacular.
