How is it that nobody complained about me being in a dress? LOL.
We often forget this but your car is far more than just transportation it’s an outfit you get into a costume an avatar that sends a message to everyone about what type of person you are and when that avatar is a rolls-royce you’re a celebrity everyone wants to know who you are where you’re going what you’re doing and most importantly how you got to be so rich
When that rolls royce is a convertible well you’re really on display so you’d better go rent a tuxedo and be on your best behavior because you’ll be judged as harshly as amy schumer in a bikini eating an ice cream covered three bean quesadilla the rolls-royce dawn is effectively a convertible version of the wraith which is a coupe version of the ghost which
Is basically a long long wheelbase bmw 7 series lined with hundred dollar bills the dawn is according to its maker the sexiest rolls royce ever built and we won’t argue with that then again this isn’t a company known for sex appeal but the dawn has all of the sportiness of the wraith with all of the grace and elegance that that car is missing i’ll tell you one
Thing that don isn’t and to use a british term bespoke enough and for that i blame the platform sharing with the seven series see it might be said that rolls-royce customers never get gas but they eat mexican food too and they might also one day put fuel in their own vehicle when they do they will open this flap and be greeted by the cheapest fuel cap since a 1986
Ford tempo the rest of the exterior though is really well done this paint is perfection the bright work is gorgeous the panel fit is perfect and of course it has a door that opens the wrong way just to be different i really think this is the perfectly executed rolls-royce four-seat convertible rolls-royce has already said that all of its future products will
Be built on a bespoke aluminum chassis so i for one am hoping that any cheapo touches like the gas cap will be relegated to the past except that we’re in the present now and there are a few um compromises in the interior the very first thing one should say upon entering one’s rolls royce is wow unfortunately every time everyone gets in this car for the first
Time they say what the hell is that it is as it turns out an interior cabin temperature sensor for the climate control but i think we can all agree it looks like it belongs to a different car and while we’re talking about things that don’t belong in this car the memory buttons look like something out of a 2008 toyota camry the steering wheel surround is cheap
Plastic from like a bmw 1 series and all of the stocks are just really cheap plastic i’m not exactly sure what it is about german car companies that they can’t get this stuff right mentally does it too bentley also sprays plastic buttons with cheap looking chrome spray and thinks it’s expensive that’s not acceptable in a 400 000 car what rolls royce did do really
Well is the wood and the leather it is absolutely spectacular in this car and more importantly this herringbone wood covers up the navigation system if it’s one thing that dates a car more than anything else it’s the infotainment rolls royces are driven for a very long time and in 20 and 30 years from now this idrive screen that’s hidden here will look really old
Ditto the idrive controller so rolls royce rather brilliantly made it look like a piece of jewelry it’s clear glass but it’s still touch sensitive so i can draw all sorts of things really well done the rest of the interior other than these cheap little plastic pieces absolutely spectacular as you’d expect even the carpets this floor mat is so plush you honestly
Want to hug it it’s a great snuggie but enough for that let’s go see if it does burn out well if there’s any complaints about styling or the interior quality rolls royce has absolutely nailed this driving experience to the point where you wouldn’t even believe bmw had anything to do with it i mean the steering wheel is this skinny little big thing and i can
Use one finger to turn it around the corners absolutely light slow regal the ride quality well if this were a sports car you just call it blown shocks because it never stops moving it’s always bouncing and moving around but it is unbelievably comfortable at the same time and as long as you work around the body roll in the corners there’s actually a lot of grip
Rolls royce says the dawn weighs something approaching 5700 pounds which is about the same weight as both of my volkswagens combined and then another thousand pounds on top of it i say hey 5700 doesn’t feel an ounce over nine thousand you know we always used to say that v12s have power delivery like an electric motor because they’re so smooth well thanks to
Tesla we know exactly what an electric motor is like in a car and this is nothing like it because electric motors respond immediately and this well you hit the gas and then you count to three and then it starts to accelerate and this is programmed in this is the computer saying we don’t want any abrupt motions lest we make the passengers nauseous so you hit the
Gas on a delay the throttle’s open and the car proceeds forward you have no idea if the engine’s turning how fast it’s turning there’s no tachometer you don’t know which of the eight gears it’s in all you know is that eventually after you press the gas pedal you’re going to move and fast see floored and the only problem with doing that is the brakes this is a
Typical rolls-royce trait of the wooden brake pedal feel and it actually does feel like the brake pads are made of wood and they have initial bite and then you have to basically stand on them to get any braking out of them but this is not a bmw driving experience you you would never think this is a seven series underneath this is genuinely rolls-royce in in all
Of the right ways we so often throw around this term that being in one of these cars is is a sense of occasion but it really is this drives unlike anything else modern yes it has i drive and navigation system and lane keep warning and all that other crap but this doesn’t feel like a car that’s single-handedly obsessed with performance this is only concerned with
Your comfort even with the windows down and it’s windy and i’m near the beach it’s totally quiet i hear more noise from everyone else’s car than i do from my own there’s definitely a place in the world for this car because not everyone is obsessed with sport i mean yes it has 560 something horsepower and a twin turbo v12 but there is a segment of the population
For whom 0-60 doesn’t matter and who doesn’t really care about cornering who just want to be coddled and these are the people who want to get in their car and think why should my car be any different than my living room i should be surrounded by the same really nice materials your living room wouldn’t ride like crap the whole point of your living room is that it’s
Comfortable why should a car be any different unless we forget who buys these cars in the first place i mean the owners of these cars are really concerned with what’s going on in the back seat and that means sportiness doesn’t matter it should be smooth and quiet that’s exactly what it’s like back here it more importantly it’s comfortable i mean i don’t even
Have my seat belt on because we’re doing like 15 miles an hour but the point is this is a real actual rich person size comfortable back seat there’s no other car that you can do this with i mean maybe you could buy like a used chrysler sebring out of an enterprise car lot or like a volkswagen eos but like the bentley continental gt convertible and the mercedes
S-class convertible that’s coming this summer they’re like two plus twos small back seat this is big and comfortable and my sound guy is driving i think he does like two miles an hour dude do you have a livery license by any chance no have you ever gone drag racing cruising at jogging speed along the ocean is lovely but it doesn’t showcase what this rolls royce
Is so epically good at sustained high speed cruising on the open road i can’t believe how quiet this car is even at 120 miles an hour just the thoughts in my head echo that’s so cool ah my stomach is killing me why did i have to have that second serving of refined beans the name dawn implies a new beginning indeed right in rolls-royce’s press information
There is the thomas fuller phrase it is always darkest just before dawn if we read between the lines maybe it means rolls-royce’s forthcoming move to its own bespoke platform means even better things are in store for the wealthy and the prominent and that my friends is pretty hard to imagine because while you might never know who that person is driving the
Rolls royce where they’re going or how they got so rich you’ll know one thing they are very very comfortable
Transcribed from video
Jason Cammisa on the Rolls-Royce Dawn — Vintage Motor Trend Ignition Full Episode 157 By JasonCammisa
