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The sun rises on a new day, not only for the country, but also for Rolls-Royce.
It's releasing a new car a year, these days, and 2016's entry is the Dawn.
A proper four-seat convertible designed for open-top opulence wherever you fancy it, provided the sun's shining.
When presented with an opportunity to drive the new Rolls-Royce Dawn, I figured the most appropriate thing we could do is take it through dawn here in London to meet another dawn near my favorite road In Wales.
The true test of the car will be how comfortable it is.
How smooth, how quiet, and how trouble free it is over a few hundred miles.
And maybe also to see just how spirited Rolls has made its latest baby.
Let's get the numbers out of the way.
It's powered by a 6.6 litre Twin-Turbo V12, the same one you get in a How is it it doesn't share the Wraith's power?
It's been a touch de-tuned but you get more than healthy 563 brake horsepower and 575 pound foot.
And you get that wodge\g of torque from just 1500 RPM.
Which means you don't have to worry about things like turbo lag or waiting for anything.
It'll do 0 to 60 in under five seconds, and top out at 155 miles an hour.
Now, I know there will be some people in comment sections saying, that's not quick enough for a V12, but to them I have two things to say.
The first is that this weighs two and a halfish tons, which is a lot, and the second is that this is a Rolls Royce.
[UNKNOWN] Not a who machine.
The power is there should you need it.
This being a convertible, it's important to see how it's roof fares both up and down.
The mechanism is prissy cool, very quiet, and quick enough.
Rolls calls it the silence ballet.
Which is a neat touch.
With the roof half open it's eerily silent.
You get a whisper of engine noise and that's really about it.
You don't lose much.
By not having a proper roof.
Things are [INAUDIBLE] here is the best place to test the convertibleness of it's own.
The first thing is that you get a lot of attention in this car.
everybody wants to see who's driving the drop top Roller, and they get [INAUDIBLE] when they see me actually but.
Now being a convertible you are going to get some noise from the environment but with the windows up it's not actually that bad.
I still get trucks and busses and what have you and it's by no means silent.
The thing is the [UNKNOWN] encourages you to drive slowly so you don't get much wind interference and much [UNKNOWN] because You just want to woof along and enjoy the ride.
It's a very very bizarre experience.
Transmit the [UNKNOWN] design to Rolls Royce convertible.
Go slow.
enjoy the scenery, enjoy the weather.
Now as we own Rolls Royce SE you can have pretty much anything you want on here and it's beautifully put together.
Because the idea of a roller isn't simply a nice car.
It has to be the best car.
When Rolls met Royce all those years ago, they ended up creating some of the finest cars the world had ever seen.
They had speed, style, and luxury And that's pretty much what Rolls Royce creates today.
All their cars sit realistically in a class of one.
What does the Dawn go up against?
A Bentley Continental GTC?
Well, no.
What about Mercedes S-Class Cabriolet?
That's not exactly the same thing, is it?
There's a delicacy to a Rolls.
A sheen of better all over it.
The paint is just so, the design can't be called subtle but it oozes gentle class.
The interior wonderfully thought out, none of the controls too heavy, none hard to use.
The user is here to have a relaxing
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Luxurious ride like a moving massage.
One does not drive the dawn.
One moves with it.
So then what does she moved like?
I wanna talk about the general cabin before we start.
The Materials.
The leather is so soft, the wood is beautiful, the grain on it, it's so pretty.
The thing that impresses me most are the dials.
They're all analog, they look very delicate, very beautifully put together.
Where others are going digital, Rolls Royce doesn't feel the need to.
It prefers something delicate, something that looks nice Feels nice to watch as you're wafting down the road.
Like all Rolls Royce, it doesn't have a rev counter, instead it has a power reserve gauge that shows you how much you've got left.
Should you need to accelerate away from a problem, an incident, or, as we're in Wales, A sheep.
The steering is so light and I won't say all, there's loads of feedback to it cuz there really isn't.
You just turn and the wheels turn.
You can't really tell as you're going over a number of bump, or a light pot hole because really it just absorbs the bumps.
This is like driving a cloud.
A really soft, smooth cloud.
Easily one of the most comfortable cards I've ever had the pleasure of driving.
The gear box, so smooth you wouldn't really know it was there unless you're mid-corner and you're trying to go a little bit quick It did with me occasionally just kicked down a bit.
It was quite a nerving a couple of times.
But the average roll ride really isn't going to drive like the hands of a fire.
The throttle responds, even though it weighs about the same as the moon.
It has so much power.
You just put your foot down, [UNKNOWN], and off you go.
And it does not shift.
[LAUGH] It really moves, and it's fast, but the [UNKNOWN] pitches up and then you rise forward like a boat.
Going mental.
The brakes are enormous, obviously they have to stop a two and a half ton car.
And when you use them, say quite hard, You do feel the weight of the car.
The whole body kind of rolls and pitches and weaves with whatever you're doing.
So when you break the whole thing leans on the front.
They're designed to be used Gently.
This is a gentle vehicle.
It's not a Hoon car, it's not a race car, it's to be gently wafted down comfy lanes.
The entertainment I won't lie I recognize not just from other Rolls Royce's but from a BMW That bit has seemed to have been lifted over from the 7 Series upon which this is based.
But that's not a bad thing because the system works, it's easy.
That said, the car we have doesn't have digital radio fitted to it, which is very bizarre and a little bit concerning, considering This thing cost a quarter of a million pounds.
There is so little to dislike about this car, it's an event, it's truly is an event, you woke up to in the morning, you press the unlock button and the spirit of ecstasy rises gracefully out of the hood.
And then you watch and you follow her down the road.
She guides the way.
There's a beautiful elegance to everything.
You feel special in this.
You look special.
People stop and stare.
I was driving through a little village yesterday There's some people going that's not a Rolls Royce is it?
I can't believe it, it's a Rolls Royce.
People come up to this and ask us what is it we're filming.
Yes, it's the new Rolls Royce, that's the Dawn, how is it?
People love it you don't get judged for driving a Roller people enjoy it because they know how special it They realized that their part of the event.
Their part of the spectacle.
That is the rolo.
It's smooth, it's quiet, it's comfortable, and it's fast.
It's a Rolls Royce through and through.
At the end of our journey in sight in my favorite bit of Wales just around the corner and next door ready to go.
It's time to have a think about the latest roller.
Where does it fit in the world?
Who is it for?
Why is it?
The average age for a Rolls Royce buyer is forty five years old.
That's a very low number when you consider these are quite high value cars.
At dawn, before you put toys on it, is about 220,000 pounds.
This one, with its toys, is a little over a quarter of a million pounds.
However, you have to remember that there are a lot of very wealthy people in the world who like nice things.
The [INAUDIBLE] is very much a nice thing.
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The [UNKNOWN]
head, the only other open top Rolls seems to be dead.
So eventually this will be your only option when it comes to roofless decadence.
The good thing is, it's not a bad one at all.
It's a wonderful thing the Rolls Royce's doing.
It's good looking, comfortable, quiet, luxurious.
And quite quick, though it won't seem you're in a racer.
The power is simply there, should you need it.
It is easily one of the best cars you can buy today.
Rolls and Royce would surely be impressed with it, were they around right now.
And even though the dawn here in Wales is quite disappointing, the Dawn from Rolls Royce Most certainly isn't.
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