Just in case you felt drop-tops weren’t flashy enough, Rolls-Royce has just announced the Dawn, a convertible that costs more than most houses and is almost certainly more luxurious.
Dubbed by Rolls-Royce as “the sexiest car the company has ever built” and built to help reverse a sales slump, the Dawn certainly needs to be a ray of sunshine. Luckily the model has a younger market in mind and has the styling to boot.
It is based on the Rolls-Royce Wraith and is therefore a 2+2, which means it can carry up to four people around in British luxury. A soft-top roof, meanwhile, can be opened and closed within 21 seconds at up to 30mph if Mother Nature is in a bad mood.
While the styling is from a Wraith, the engine comes from the Ghost. That means a 6.6-litre twin-turbo V12 that generates 563bhp (570PS) at 5,250rpm and 575lb/ft (788Nm) of torque from 1,500rpm.
Lightweight the 2,560kg Dawn most certainly isn’t, but it can still hit 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds and reach a limited 155mph. In case you’re wondering, that’s 200kg more than the Wraith.
Fuel economy is less than stellar, at 19.9mpg, but the majority of buyers probably have connections to oil companies anyway. CO2 is also a hefty 330g/km – three times that of the new Ingenium-powered Jaguar XF diesel.
The use of runflat tyres means the Dawn can limp on with a deflated tyre for 100 miles at 50mph. In going this route, the space that would otherwise be taken up by a spare wheel and jack is available for luggage. Speaking of which, there’s 244 litres of boot space rising to 295 with the roof up.
Inside the beautiful interior, with its fine leather and deck wood, is complimented by various electronic systems including an infotainment system hooked up to a 10.25-inch high-definition display. It knows Latin, Arabic characters and Mandarin voice instructions so this is a well-travelled computer.
There’s also automatic cruise control that will keep a certain distance between the Dawn and the car in front down to city traffic speeds, while a roll-over protection system is deployed in a fraction of a second should you somehow flip it.
This is definitely a case of if you have to ask, you can’t afford. But for the curious among you the Dawn will cost north of £250,000. We’ll let you wipe away the drool as you browse the following pictures.
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