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What we liked
>> Striking looks; it's a genuine head-turner
>> Cabin is a well-resolved mix of olde-worlde and new-age elements
>> Effortless cruiser on the highway

Not so much
>> Could do with more low down and midrange grunt
>> Column-shift auto is clumsy to operate
>> Stratospheric pricing

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 2.5/5.0
Safety: 4.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.5/5.0
X-factor: 4.5/5.0

OVERVIEW
"We'd stop short of calling this car 'sporty'," said the poker-faced Rolls-Royce executive.

Oh well, that's put paid to any expectations of Rolls-Royce's pseudo-chop-top Phantom Coupe being the true drivers' car the exalted marque's line-up lacks… And which we'd been anticipating, based on the pre-launch PR bumpf that billed it as "the most driver-oriented model" in the Phantom family, and "noticeably more dynamic" than its stablemates.

So it seemed a little odd that -- during the Coupe's media launch in Crozet, France -- the company's suits took such great pains to point out that this was, in fact, not conceived to be a sporty car. They also immediately dispelled suggestions that the Phantom Coupe was positioned to steal sales from Bentley -- a brand with a marginally more youth-oriented approach.

"Research shows Bentley and Rolls-Royce buyers are quite different," argues the company's corporate communications manager, Graham Biggs. "Our buyers are looking for the ultimate in comfort, quietness and luxury." (Er, isn't that what Bentley purports to offer?)

However, Rolls-Royce isn't shy in admitting most Phantom Coupes will be snapped up by buyers stepping out of other brands  -- rather than existing customers -- and at least some of these are likely to be current Bentley owners.

The Phantom Coupe is the showroom version of the 101EX concept that debuted at the 2006 Geneva motor show and, it must be said, the transition from design study to production reality has been virtually seamless -- so much so that distinguishing
one from the other is all but impossible.

The newcomer's introduction means the Rolls line-up now consists of four distinct model lines - the other three being the Phantom, Phantom EWB (Extended Wheelbase) and Phantom Drophead.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
Australian deliveries of the Phantom Coupe are due to commence in the fourth quarter of this year, and pricing is tipped to start around $1.19million. Exact pricing will depend on how much individual customers tap into the goodies that can be provided by RR's Bespoke division.

Bespoke makes it its business to try and give customers exactly what they want -- so if you want a canary yellow Phantom Coupe with purple upholstery and a carbon-fibre dashboard, it's easily (but not cheaply) achieved.

The Bespoke program has been a particular success in the Australia, says Rolls-Royce Asia Pacific corporate communications manager, Hal Serudin, as many buyers in our region demand individualised cars that reflect their own tastes/quirks. As for how many Phantom Coupes are Oz-bound, that's not set in stone as Serudin says it will depend on how the market responds to the ultra-niche offering.

This is, after all, a Rolls-Royce, so it goes without saying there's nothing lacking in the equipment/mod-cons quota. Obviously, ABS, ESP, multiple airbags, climate-control, keyless entry and power everything are standard. Also included at no extra cost are a mega-watt, ultra-premium Lexicon Logic 7 sound system and 21-inch alloys, which are available in a choice of three designs.

Among the car's surprise-and-delight features is the 'starlight roof', which is created by inserting hundreds of fibre optics into the roof lining. It creates a unique cabin ambience, and no other car manufacturer as yet offers a similar feature.

Being a Roller, the cabin is naturally replete with lashings of the finest leather and woodgrain trim.

As per the Drophead, the bonnet and windscreen frame can be ordered in stainless steel that's machine-brushed to create a uniform grain and then hand-polished to a flawless finish. Availing of this option also helps to further differentiate the Coupe from the Phantom sedan.

MECHANICAL
Cynics may suggest the Coupe is little more than a Drophead with a hard-top bolted on, but chief designer Ian Cameron insists this is not the case. "The Coupe and Drophead are two distinct cars, with different personalities and specific performance characteristics," he stresses.

The Coupe's hard-hatted configuration means it offers more torsional rigidity than the canvas-topped Drophead, and this is partly why it's touted as more of a 'driver's car' than the latter. However, the basic architecture hasn't been tampered with, which means that -- as per its stablemates -- the Phantom Coupe is built around an aluminium spaceframe chassis and clothed by panels that are also hewn from aluminium. The exceptions are the two-piece bootlid and aforementioned brushed stainless steel bonnet and A-pillar surround.

The aluminium-intensive approach is primarily to keep weight down, but the fact remains the Phantom Coupe is still in the sumo-wrestler category, tipping the scales at a Toyota LandCruiser-rivalling 2.6 tonnes. And herein lies the reason why it never had a chance of being a true driver's car, but we'll delve into this later.

The drivetrain is as per the rest of the Phantom family, which means motive power is provided by a BMW-sourced 6.75-litre V12, which pumps out a healthy 338kW and 720Nm, but even these outputs are no more than adequate for the heavyweight Roller.

The engine is hooked up to a ZF six-speed automatic transmission, essentially the same unit used in the existing BMW 7 Series and myriad, Jaguars, Land Rovers, Ford Falcons and even Maseratis. In this case there's no manual-shift mode, but there is an 'S' button that yields more aggressive shift points.

Given the weight of the car, the brakes needed to be relatively large, and they are; the ventilated discs measure 374mm at the front and 370mm at the rear.

As per its Phantom siblings, the Coupe is suspended by wishbones at the front and a multi-link set-up at the rear, but its 'driver's car' orientation means it gains a thicker rear anti-roll bar and stiffer spring and damper settings than its stablemates. For the same reason, it also sports visible tailpipes (they're concealed in other models).

PACKAGING
The Phantom Coupe shares its external dimensions (except height) with the Drophead, which means its wheelbase is 250mm shorter than that of the Phantom sedan. However, it's still no minnow, measuring over 5.6m from stem to stern and close to 2m across the bows.

Its gargantuan dimensions mean the Phantom Coupe is a genuine four-seater -- rather than a 'two-crush-two'. And while there's enough space in the rear to accommodate two adults in reasonable comfort, there's a claustrophobic feel that means the front is where you really want to be.

The cabin's ergonomics are less than ideal, though. For starters, the [rear-hinged] suicide doors, although a novel design element, don't make for easy ingress/egress -- especially if you're angling to clamber into one of the back seats.

Then there's the fact that the steering wheel doesn't offer enough reach adjustment, which means the driving position is, at best, a compromise. And it wasn't just me, as my colleague from another publication had a similar complaint, even though his physical dimensions are quite different.

I'd also have liked more side bolstering on the seats, particularly in view of the Coupe's 'driver's car' claims. As it is, you have to hang on to the steering wheel to avoid sliding around on the flat seat squab under even moderately enthusiastic cornering loads.

However, where Rolls-Royce's boffins deserve kudos is for endowing the Phantom with a true sense of occasion.

Slide into the driver's seat (via undoubtedly the heaviest portal fitted to any production car) and you'll discover a cabin that's retained the cigar-club ambience of Rollers of yore, yet infused with a few concessions to modernity, such as BMW's iDrive controller.

Unlike, say, Maybach's offerings, which are perceived by many as little more than upmarket versions of the Mercedes S-Class, or even Bentley's popular Continental family (which owes its origins to the Volkswagen Phaeton), the Phantom is a genuinely bespoke product, with no more than 15 per cent of its components sourced from the BMW 7 Series.

And this is evident when you're behind the wheel. It's a unique driving experience, unmarred by shared switchgear you'd find in a car costing a fraction as much (anyone from Bentley taking notes?).

SAFETY
Size usually wins in a two-car collision, so this in itself bodes well for the 2.6-tonne Phantom Coupe, but avoiding crashes in the first place is preferable. With this goal in mind, the driver-aid list includes DSC (Dynamic Stability Control) and ABS with Brake Assist.

The Phantom Coupe's aluminium structure is claimed to be light yet rigid, and the front crumple zone is designed to direct impact forces into the chassis members and main understructure. Naturally, there's also an armoury of airbags (front, side and curtain) to provide further occupant protection.

COMPETITORS
The Phantom Coupe represents a purchase driven by emotion rather than that rationality or practicality, so pinpointing rivals isn't easy. What's more, its ultra-rarefied pricing puts it beyond the reach of most other cars on the market in any case.

However, it's possible that buyers of this car may have considered other premium grand-touring coupes such as the Bentley Brooklands (of which just 550 examples are being offered globally), Ferrari 612 Scaglietti or Aston Martin DBS.

It's also possible that prospective Phantom Coupe owners already have one or more of the aforementioned in their multi-car garages.

ON THE ROAD
There are certain cars that have a tendency to shrink around you… This isn't one of them. The Roller's sheer size was brought home in rather amusing fashion as we cruised up to a French toll-gate during the media launch drive program.

The simple act of getting alongside the ticket vending machine was rendered virtually impossible, as the Spirit of Ecstasy emblem perched on the edge of the XXL bonnet was a hair's breadth away from brushing against the boom gate at the end of the toll station. This necessitated a rather awkward stretch out of a half-opened door to pluck the ticket from the machine.

The Coupe isn't exactly narrow either (close to 2m across the bows -- excluding mirrors), which meant there wasn't too much in the way of breathing space as we carefully navigated through narrow, wall-lined streets in quaint little French towns.

Once the roads widened a fraction, we were able to stretch the Phantom's BMW-sourced direct-injection V12. The big mill is smooth enough -- as you'd expect -- but doesn't produce the most sonorous exhaust note under throttle.

Rolls-Royce quotes a 0-100kmh dash of 5.6sec, but this seems highly optimistic based on our seat-of-the-pants feel. A couple of brisk standing starts, timed on my wristwatch, indicated a 0-100kmh split closer to the seven-second mark.

More importantly, the normally aspirated engine lacks the mid-range oomph provided by the likes of the Bentley Continental's twin-turbo W12, and this is particularly noticeable if you're aiming to quickly nip past slower cars on twisty roads with only short straights providing overtaking opportunities.

We asked a couple of Rolls-Royce execs if equipping the Coupe with a more powerful version of the V12 was ever a consideration -- given its 'driver's car' orientation. They remained adamant the brand's buyers have never really complained about a lack of power, and therefore the answer was "no".

It's possible to extract a bit more out of the engine via an 'S' button that alters the six-speed automatic transmission's shift pattern to downshift earlier and hold gears longer, but the Phantom Coupe is still no tarmac missile. Interestingly, company suits stop short of calling it a 'Sport' button -- according to them, the 'S' is more likely to stand for "Spirited".

The six-speed auto is operated via an antiquated column shift (which I found rather clumsy to use), and there's no manual-shift mode as Rolls-Royce drivers wouldn't dream of doing something so vulgar as overriding the transmission's electronic brain.

As for the 'driver's car' claims, don't believe them. The Phantom Coupe steers accurately enough via the retro-esque three-spoke wheel, but there's simply no disguising the sheer bulk of the car. You can't defy physics, the laws of which state that large masses aren't particularly good at changing direction quickly.

Sure enough, the Phantom remains poised on the freeway and on fast, sweeping roads, but pressing on through really twisty bits is a bit like asking a Boeing 747 to perform aerobatics. It's not what the car was built for...

It's far better to proceed at a brisk, but not frenetic, pace and revel in the Coupe's "waftability" -- a Rolls-Royce-coined expression that supposedly implies effortless progress.

The suspension settings -- albeit stiffer than those of its Phantom siblings -- are geared towards ironing out road-surface imperfections as effectively as possible, but the work is partially undone by the run-flat tyres, which, apart from generating a significant amount of tyre roar, don't cope particularly well with sharp corrugations.

There's also noticeable wind noise emanating from the door mirrors at speeds above 100kmh, undermining the Phantom's quest to offer Lexus-like super-stealth cruising capabilities.

There's no doubt the cabin is handsomely crafted, but the Phantom Coupe's exterior is its real piece de resistance. The chop-top roofline and gun-turret side windows and rear windscreen endow it with an authentic gangsta stance -- an image best brought home if the car is ordered in black. If basic black isn't your thing, there's 44,000 other exterior colours on offer via Rolls-Royce's Bespoke program.

Some would say the Phantom Coupe is an unnecessary extravagance, and they'd have some justification for feeling this way. Yet, as the ultimate in style statements, the imposing Roller has few peers.

Dynamic driver's car it isn't, but it is an effortless continent crosser of the highest order.

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