Art Eddy III

The internet is all a buzz with the new Rolls-Royce. The model is called Dawn. Everyone at Rolls-Royce feels that it is the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever built. The car is called Dawn since they believe this car inspires you with the opportunities that every new day holds. It is an awakening, an opening up of one’s senses and a burst of sunshine. In its tentative, inchoate, anticipatory state, dawn is the world coming to light from the ethereal dark of the night. The early-day chill of dawn provides an erotic tingle on the skin, awakening the senses and passions as the day begins.

Compromise is not a word recognized in the Rolls-Royce lexicon. Indeed the company continues to live by the clarion cry of co-founder Sir Henry Royce to “Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.”

The first part of this maxim – “Strive for perfection in everything you do” – guides the company’s every action particularly during the creation of a new motor car. The second – “Take the best that exists and make it better” – has been clearly evidenced in the success of both Phantom Series II and Ghost Series II as they were carefully updated in 2012 and 2014 respectively. And when Rolls-Royce judged that it was time for an authentic gentleman’s Gran Turismo to return to the world stage, it was guided by the third part of Sir Henry’s maxim: “When it does not exist, design it.” And thus, Wraith was born.

Now, the final part of this maxim has guided the Rolls-Royce design and engineering teams as they have worked to initiate a new age for open-top, super-luxury motoring. In a sector exclusively populated by the biggest of automotive compromises – the 2+2 seat configuration – Rolls-Royce has chosen to “accept nothing nearly right or good enough.”

Rolls-Royce’s new Dawn has taken inspiration from the Silver Dawn, whilst delivering a world first in super-luxury motoring – a cool, contemporary interpretation of what a super-luxury four-seater convertible motor car should be in 2015 – rare, refined and the most social super-luxury car there is.

Studying the open-top motor car sector, and specifically its high-value luxury niche, it became apparent to Rolls-Royce’s designers that customers were being short-changed. The myopic focus on one specific configuration – the 2+2 setup – was, in the view of Rolls-Royce, a compromise too far.

Commonly held, a 2+2 is a configuration with seating for the driver and one passenger in the front plus two smaller seats for occasional passengers or children in the rear. Space in the rear is most noticeably absent in terms of longitudinal leg-room, thereby reducing the comfort and practicality of the car. In the case of a convertible body type, this reduction in space is often the result of the manufacturer’s inability to package the convertible roof together with boot and rear passenger space. The result is a sector populated exclusively by open-top cars that Rolls-Royce would consider compromised and ‘anti-social’.

Beneath Dawn’s sleek exterior sits a 6.6-litre V12 twin-turbo engine. One engineered to deliver a surge of seemingly infinite power that will awaken your senses. A sensation that’s heightened the very second the roof quietly opens. This is open-top driving as you’ve never experienced it before.

Dawn is enthralling inside and out, granting you both freedom and control. Driver assistance gives you a truly effortless drive – a chauffeur without a chauffeur. A uniquely modern agility means Dawn is the perfect companion to the most vibrant of lifestyles.