Driving a Rolls-Royce Phantom: A Magical Experience

As we stepped into the world of luxury and sophistication, I couldn't help but feel like a kid on Christmas morning. The anticipation was palpable as we prepared to take the wraps off the new 8th generation Rolls-Royce Phantom. And what a car it is! With nearly 600 horsepower, this beast of a machine is ready to tackle even the most demanding roads.

As we set off into the beautiful Swiss countryside, I couldn't resist the urge to put the car through its paces. We started with the gear selector, pressing down on the low gear lever to experience some of that incredible power and torque. The gears clicked down, and the car sprang into life, accelerating away from the starting point with a pace that belied its size. I was impressed by how responsive the car felt, despite its massive engine. It's clear that Rolls-Royce has worked tirelessly to create a driving experience that's both exhilarating and refined.

The combination of this car, the weather we had today, and the stunning locations we were driving in made for an absolute perfect day out. The Phantom is all about its environment and its ability to provide an exceptional driving experience. Whether you're cruising through city streets or tackling the open road, this car will put a smile on your face.

As we continued our drive, I couldn't help but appreciate the attention to detail that Rolls-Royce has paid to every aspect of the Phantom's design and build. The interior is, as always, a masterclass in luxury and refinement. From the leather upholstery to the polished chrome accents, every element has been carefully considered to create an atmosphere of opulence and sophistication.

The Phantom we were driving today was an extended wheelbase model, with a length of 5.98 meters and a rear door that was 22 centimeters longer than its standard counterpart. This extra length had created a more spacious interior, complete with serenity seats that offered ultimate comfort and relaxation. The white leather was paired perfectly with the deep purple carpets, creating a truly unique and luxurious look.

As we explored the interior of this car further, I couldn't help but notice the attention to detail that Rolls-Royce has paid to every aspect of its design. From the fixed center console to the fridge and cooler, which was stocked with drinks for our use, it's clear that this is a car designed for ultimate comfort and convenience.

We also took a look at another extended wheelbase Phantom, which had been painted in bright orange metallic and adorned with chrome accents. The interior of this car was equally impressive, featuring oak cluster wood inlays and tan leather trim. It may not have had the same level of luxury as its longer-wheelbase counterpart, but it still offered an air of refinement and sophistication that's hard to find elsewhere.

As our day drew to a close, we headed back to the hotel where the event was being held. The Park Hotel Vets is located on the shores of Lake Lucerne, in one of the most beautiful locations you'll ever have the chance to visit. It's here that Rolls-Royce has chosen to showcase its latest creation, and it's clear why. This car embodies the very essence of luxury and sophistication, and I felt incredibly fortunate to have had the chance to experience it for myself.

As we stood outside the hotel, taking in the breathtaking views of the lake, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at what Rolls-Royce has created. The Phantom is more than just a car – it's an experience. It's a statement piece that says, "I've arrived." And with its level of craftsmanship, finish, and luxury, there's simply no comparison to be made.

The new 8th generation Rolls-Royce Phantom serves as the ultimate pinnacle of luxury on wheels. There's nothing quite like it. With its incredible power, refined handling, and opulent interior, this car is a true masterpiece. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the chance to experience it for myself, and I'm confident that you'll be just as impressed if you ever get the chance.

As we wrapped up our event, I couldn't help but think about how much I'd enjoyed ourselves. From the stunning scenery to the incredible car itself, every aspect of this day out had been perfectly executed. And it's not just the Phantom that's impressive – the entire event has been a masterclass in hospitality and luxury.

As always, I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to Rolls-Royce for inviting me to be a part of this fantastic event. It's been an absolute pleasure to experience the Phantom firsthand, and I'm confident that you'll love it just as much if you get the chance. Don't forget to subscribe for plenty more videos in the future, and I'll catch up with you again very soon. Cheers!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys i'm smee and welcome back to another video where you join me in switzerland to explore the pinnacle in automotive luxury the new rolls-royce phantom 8. and today i'm going to show you all around the new car take it for a little drive have a look at the front and the rear and see what's gone into what is arguably the most luxurious car in the world let's get started with a summary walk around i'm going to show you some of the details and features of this glorious new car before going for a short drive and then taking a proper look at all of the luxuries that you can find inside now this is actually the eighth generation phantom it's been around for 92 years since first introduction and we've brought the car today to this wonderful location at the top of the system pass in switzerland surrounded by snow mountains and lovely roads and a very special car to be taking a look at now one can expect this car is going to have quite a decent lifespan the previous generation the seventh generation car lasted 14 15 years or so and seven and a half thousand of them were built expectation is for about 500 of these per year but let's take a little look around and talk about some of the design elements some of the luxuries some of the features and the details of the new phantom 8 and starting around the front it's still immediately recognizable very distinctly rolls royce it's actually a touch shorter than the previous generation car it's available in the regular platform or also the extended wheelbase version which sits slightly longer around the front the very distinct rolls-royce grille finished with the gold-plated spirit of ecstasy on the top of this car but the grill is now integrated into the body work into the shapes of the car rather than protruding out of the front that's flanked either side by new headlights with led technology and surrounded by rather nice finisher that we'll take more of a look at later on it has a new active suspension system so the ride is even more like a magic carpet than the previous generations have been so famed for and that's supported by the latest technology we're here in the upper part of the windshield there are three cameras that are monitoring the road ahead and actively adjusting the suspension to smooth out the ride over potholes and bumps and the like and the car has self-leveling as we've seen before so the car will sit as flat as possible wherever you leave it and one small little detail that you might be familiar with the rr badge in the center of the wheels will always be parked the right way up it rotates to adjust itself correctly now as we look at the design of the side of the car you'll notice that the main power line always leads up and forwards very much showing the progressive nature of the car continuing down there's a large volume of color separated by the two doors that open in traditional phantom style suicidally towards the rear and forwards where we get a quick glimpse here at this voluptuous interior and this car's finished inside an arctic white supported by navy blue and it is a beautiful place now i'm going to start at the rear here just quickly so you can catch a glimpse of the two-seat configuration i'll go over all of the options and features that you have back here but it is beautiful in the front you have more of the mahogany wood that you can see and this new gallery so this ability here to customize and install your own artworks and bespoke commissions into that part of the car it's really quite a special thing as we come around one new feature you can close the doors with a touch of the sensor on the door handle which is new now in the latest generation and they will shut as we continue towards the rear very familiar you can see this new power line that's painted surrounding the main body of the upper bog of the color contrasting with the golden coach line that now follows that new shape along the side of the car so let me come around and just jump into the driver's seat very quickly to show you the view that the driver will have whether you're driving the car or being chauffeured in it from the back so you step in where the buttons to close the doors are mounted here that will close and you're greeted by the sound of silence welcome to new phantom it is very very very quiet in here and that's been my first experience riding in the car is quite how much it is a new world of tranquility it's up to six or seven decibels quieter than the previous model which was already almost silenced when you're riding in it we'll talk more about the sound deadening and the development that went into the tires that is a crazy story but what we're looking at is a new digital display still finished with the chrome surrounds to give it a traditional image but as we start it up and bring that 6.75 liter horsepower twin turbocharged v12 into life and the view across the bonnet of the spirit of ecstasy there it's well you can barely hear it and it has 900 newton meters of torque but let's go and discover new phantom and see what it's like for my first experience we're going to jump into the back and discover being chauffeured so christian vettec product manager hello thank you very much we will jump in experience the car from the rear so i can now press the button back here or as christian has done from the outside and the door will close and welcome to the back where we're going to discover the mountain pass with the luxury of the suspension system in this car so you can have a number of options for the rear of the car you can have the configuration with a folding armrest or with a fixed center console or you can have um the full seats as well which i think we'll be able to see later on i am indeed and even in the bright sunshine we can just see little bits of the starlight headliner that's something so again look at later on but the first sensation is the quietness you get moving and it's completely serene and relaxing and tranquil you can barely hear anything as we start to move off and make a move down towards these stunning views in the valley here but sat in the back you've got vast amounts of leg room even in the standard wheelbase car and you can move the seat that's sitting in front from the back you can control the front seat by enabling the mode there and then sliding that forwards to have even more space and of course the extended wheelbase version offers even more then your central console here you can fold open a motorized table and then the screen as well which of course offers you all sorts of information uh navigation should we choose to see on the screen the view of this road that we're driving around scroll that down to the map or various other bits of car information as well and that's all quite neatly integrated there you can close it back up as well by pressing the button and away it goes but really the thing about being in the back here is even on a road like this when we're going around some seriously tight corners you just feel very very relaxed it's so so super smooth and calm and i mean look at this view look at this view so off in the front there how is this to drive i love it great experience it just oozes elegance and i yeah it's hard to drive it too hard to describe it it's the the most extraordinary luxury to be so calm in this environment as we enter into the tunnel here you can catch a proper glimpse of the starlight headliner which is a wonderful wonderful thing can we emerge back out into the sunshine and if you have the fixed armrest it would have a fridge in here but in this car it's located inside the back rest here where you have your cooling fridge armed with champagne glasses should you be that way inclined bottle of water today though where's that back up of course you can fold up the armrest and have the fifth central seat there but everything i mean the carpets they're deeper than anybody probably has carpets at their home very very soft there's a raiseable footrest control from here from the side which lifts up for even more comfort the seats can lie down into an amazing seating position just by moving it forwards where you then have these lovely lovely pillow headrests surrounded here with the cobalto blue stitching and piping contrasting on the arctic white seats of the interior it is truly elegant now christian i've thoroughly enjoyed my ride in the back of the car but you've been working on this project for five years from inception all the way through to seeing them all now on the roads that must be quite special absolutely for me an outstanding experience first time and then in such an environment on the road fully finished perfect and if you had to pick say one feature your favorite aspect of the new car does something stand out what quite clearly my favorite feature is the auto closing from the exterior so okay it's not even pressing a button it's just touching a button and magically the door will close it's a very smooth process as i demonstrated before in terms of building it though the engineering side there must have been a lot of challenges things you had to develop yeah i mean talking about challenges probably the gallery the new feature that's the that was the biggest challenge which i haven't actually shown in much detail let's jump in and just take a better look at the gallery if that's okay so i'll just come around to to this side and we can show it in more detail in here so the gallery section just close the door and return to near on silence so talk us through yeah um that area we call the gallery and what is new i mean it's an additional stage for personalization it's protected with a glass so it's a real glass running from left to right before where um which gives us the opportunity to introduce materials new materials to the car so precious materials things you would never be able to have in the car you see a leather execution here we're offering wood we're offering metal we're offering fabric and um on the long run our customers will have the opportunity to bring any kind of art installation into the car if they want to so they could install a piece of artwork from a famous painter or photographer or anything yes anything the options are endless so if i had one i could have little model cars in there why not why not be mine and this is the arctic white yeah we call we call it regatta says like white leather wrapped around um carbon fiber blades okay and then also the bespoke clocks or just to kind of like bring the quality level up to as much as as possible and the traditional elements of a rolls royce the loudest thing you can hear inside is the ticking of the clock although you can't it's more true than ever um absolutely well i think we should jump back on the road it is now my turn to drive and the new generation of phantom is positioned slightly more towards being self-driven close the door with the button naturally start up the engine you have different customers in different markets around the world for example in the us you're more likely to find customers self-driving their phantoms in china you're more likely to find customers being chauffeur driven so again you have a distribution between the regular car and the extended wheelbase but here we are we have the eight-speed automatic geo-location uh gearbox the satellite location gearbox that knows where you are so it can set up the car based on what you're doing it's also actively detecting as you drive the kind of roads the kind of style so it can adjust based on that as well and then up front is that 6.75 liter twin turbocharged v12 it has 571 ps and 900 newton meters of torque that is more than say a mclaren has in a supercar so it's effortless and you get that from 1700 rpm not that you have a rev counter you have the power reserve gauge currently showing 100 because we haven't started moving but let's very slowly get on the move and this is the thing with the rolls royce you want to be very delicate with the steering wheel just gentle touches because pretty much the loudest thing you're going to hear in the car is the movement of the hands on the leather of the steering wheel and i don't know if you noticed actually when i stepped in how much quieter it got as i closed the door from the waterfall that was alongside us but we're on the move it's so peaceful you could hear a pin drop in here it's actually surprisingly less intimidating than you might expect it obviously has this incredibly trick system with the suspension that has the flag bearer those cameras name the flag bearer because when the motor car was introduced cars had to be led by a flag bearer so that's how it's named and that allows obviously the suspension to preempt what's coming and adapt ahead of that it also now has four-wheel steering so the rear axle can steer by three degrees that varies at the speed at which it will change but at low speed in the opposite direction to the front wheels will give you increased maneuverability uh the radius for the turning circle of the new phantom to compare it loosely the extended wheel base of the new phantom has a similar turning circle to the short regular wheelbase of the previous generation so significantly improved and then stability at speed as well now the craziest thing for me is just being in here makes me want to talk so peacefully to not disturb the sounds in the car and as we go through the tunnels i've got some drips on the windscreen so automatic wipers and all those features and that's the thing this car is loaded with technology but rolls royce customers don't necessarily want to know everything that their car has they just want it to be there so it comes very very highly equipped on that front with all of the 360 degree cameras adaptive cruise control safety systems mechanisms and like i mentioned the system for the gearbox that can predict what you're doing and what you want from it but you do also have a button on the stalk so the gears are chosen by the stalk there are no paddles or anything to manually interact but you have the low button which will typically hold it one gear lower at all stages which is slightly sportier if that's what you you want in this kind of environment let's say to get on that power slightly earlier and you'll get not to 62 miles per hour in 5.3 seconds so a 2560 kilo car gets moving fast now it also goes up to a top speed governed to 155 miles per hour and no doubt it would just be cruising effortlessly with this engine at that power at that speed because of how much power it has and just being very capable around the corner we go and it does turn quite tightly and the suspension works so well on leveling and keeping the car so stable and steady the steering wheel is thin besides what you're holding is very old school in style effortless you can turn it with one finger if you wanted to be silent on the wheel and you just let it take you along in this calmness and elegant tranquility that nothing else in the world can come close to matching it's time to explore some of the features that i've alluded to or mentioned so far in a little bit more detail i'm going to start with the contact point to the ground the tyres for the rolls-royce phantom now these are particularly trick and the amount of development that went into making them by continental is fairly crazy so they produced 180 different sets of tires for the 21 inch and 22 inch wheels on the phantom inside they have two kilos per wheel of sound deadening foam to make the ride even quieter because otherwise the size of the tyre creates a chamber for sound to echo around and that's just eight kilos of the 130 kilos of sound deadening material that is used all around the car in the roof in the floor and everywhere you can imagine to keep this car as quiet as we've been experiencing it now the phantom itself is actually based on rolls royce's own architecture the new aluminium frame one that can be adjusted made smaller for a potential future car made larger for a potential future suv that we're expecting to see at some point in the not too distant future now that obviously helps them with all sorts of development going forwards but you just walk around it has such an elegance to it and i i know i've said that you start at the front and you look at those solid sides that give it huge presence as it's coming towards you the squared shape almost across the top surrounded by those headlights again that i mentioned earlier which are matrix led they have the running light around them surrounding the outside of the two sets the two distinct parts that you can see on the inside but very clever technology again found there the huge single piece front grille proud and prominent at the front underneath the gold-plated spirit of ecstasy which if you're wondering is a 40 000 pound option over the top of the silver plated spirit of ecstasy at the front so popular in some markets quite striking against the navy at the top sections of this car that active suspension it's all a new setup they had passive uh suspension before it's got 30 to 40 percent larger air spring volume to make that all possible so it really has moved two generations further on now the car has so much tech the cameras the four cameras in total for the 360 degree vision you can see on the door mirrors on the underside one at the front one at the rear the extra cameras at the front for the suspension control and the lane departure warnings and that side of things it has radar for adaptive cruise control the park distance sensors the ultrasonic sensors naturally the night vision camera that we're familiar with so it is loaded up from that perspective if we come back to the inside to show you in here a little bit more with the headliner which it's hard to see in the light that we have today is quite bright out here as you can tell but that headliner can be customized to look like the day that you were born you can bespoke and configure it and at night it is so so super smart you wouldn't believe and as we move down towards the dashboard everything in here that looks like it's made out of wood or metal is genuinely made out of wood or metal so the mahogany here the lovely finishes for the air vents this is how you open and close them with those toggles and moving back towards the leather seats these rear seats are actually positioned slightly pivoted towards the center which allows the two occupants at the rear to feel more part of a conversation with one another and then if you turn on the seat heating it's not just the seat that heats now it's also the panels around the seat the armrest so you have the whole area of warmth around you which is something i've not come across before and one interesting thing is the toggles for the uh temperature there's still these old-school traditional style dials and levers no digital panels or displays which gives you that traditional feel a lot of this card does that it feels very traditional but it works with this character it's what this car is about i noticed these two vents just here um just inside the door pillar and if we come a little bit further around you are probably familiar with what we have right here the rolls-royce umbrella one of each or one on each side for the rear passenger doors and these are finished in navy and white to match the colors of the car that's a custom bespoke option on this car specifically so pop that back in very easy click done then you come around to the door where you swipe it and off it goes and closes again so i'm going to head back to the front for a moment just talk a little bit more about the driver technology that we have in here i'm going to climb into the car the start button is just down there so we'll fire it up for a moment power reserve bar showing 100 and the glass on these windows the reason it's so quiet when i close this there are two six millimeter pieces of glass with a piece of foil between them to insulate the sound completely and you can hear how much louder that bike was as soon as i opened the door made a huge difference soft closed as well on those too and then like i mentioned before 12.3 inch tft in the central display that shows you surrounded by the chrome bezels there's not a huge amount you can change on the steering wheel you've got your adaptive cruise control settings your phone call settings on on the other side obviously down here you've got your mirrors uh mirrors and your window buttons and all the seat controls if i just open the door again quickly you can see the illuminated side sill phantom side still here you have your seat controls and lumbar support in the position of the seat down on the side as well you can control from the driver's seat the driver's door and the passenger's door giving it a good test here aren't i but it's doing what it should working very well and then the central screen the navigation screen which is the idrive system that's pretty much the only thing in here that comes from bmw you can actually tuck that away if you want a full view of the gallery so you can open it and close it as you like pops back up and this is all made inside the clean room in goodwood at the rolls-royce factory so dust can't get in there that's something i was wondering it's all fully sealed off with the electronics and everything to ensure that it will stay perfect forever and anything that's built as part of the gallery and this is a tier 2 gallery you have tier 1 which is a standard finish either a plain leather or or a standard material finish then you have tier 2 which adds some 3d texture to it and then tier 3 which is when you go completely bespoke and create your own gallery style and it's possible to spend six figures or more on what you have going on through there then continuing further down much like the rear it's all mahogany lovely finishes the climate control toggles have a nice feel to them it's very old school but it just feels luxurious they're super light to move turning on your air conditioning with these almost responsive dials they sprung into place it's all just very nice down here you've got a little pocket storage bucket this side you've got the cup holder storage close those back up you have a storage tray here where we've got a key for the car with matching leather uh keyring on it here so if you're wondering this is the phantom key nice solid piece it feels good right back in there for the moment lots of storage glove box door pockets and everything you expect and this really nice arctic white and navy blue contrast all around so let's just stop the car for a moment that button there by the way is for your assistance systems and settings then your headlights and the head-up display let me show you the head-up display the highest resolution head-up display on a vehicle to date because you can see there you get lots of your navigation information and data going on in the system obviously all fed from this that we're familiar with which is controlled through that central unit i'm in the middle with the idrive controller replaced obviously with the rolls royce logo but much the same the ability to scroll back through like in the rear the different settings and bits and bobs that you've got in there with all of your entertainment your telephone connectivity and so forth and you can close this away as well you can close away the whole system so that it's a little bit tidier if you don't want it and here you've got your suspension up and down if you want to raise all the raise for getting over bumps or easier access lower for well looking cool and then your cameras which load up there the rear camera system um if i actually pop it into the reverse you'll see the 360 system you've got on the left hand side the helicopter view bird's eye view looking around again works very neatly anyway what i was going to do is turn off the engine and jump out because i wanted to show you in the engine bay have a quick glimpse at the v12 so the lever is under here there we go double pull just to release it and then we come around and lift this open off it goes and there you have that engine the 6.75 the larger engine than before they've made the car actually the whole length of the car is actually 10 centimeters shorter than before it's been made smaller however the passenger room is larger and the main reason for that is the ability to take out space between the engine and the dashboard there was lots of loose space there before and also at the front as well so it's all slightly more compact but that's what's giving us the 571 ps or the 563 brake horsepower depending which way you want to look at it and the 900 newton meters of torque which is just absolutely crazy so let's shut that back down just give it a drop into place and needs a little click there we go we are closed and then you have i mentioned them earlier these nice stripes the hand-painted stripes that separate out the two colors just break them out slightly there and then the gold coach line that runs down the side of this particular car it's very smart other things to tell you well this car five meters and 76 centimeters the extended is five meters and 98 centimeters so 22 longer the boot actually back here has 88 liters more luggage capacity than the previous car you can see my luggage in here just to get a sense of how large it is you can fit a lot of things it extends quite a long way back inside but nice and easy obviously that is motorized and automatically controlled from either the button there from a button on the driver's door also from the key should you wish as well and around the rear you can see the way all the shapes come down and in towards the center sculpting it almost back with the traditional chrome finish across the top of the boot lid as well but quite a distinct car a very traditional car and one that is also loaded with features and tech even though it doesn't instinctively initially seem that it might and i just noticed this nice chrome finish that comes down around here surrounding this intake for cooling as well and another one just above all nicely integrated into the body of phantom 8. i'm back at the wheel and we've descended from the mountains down to the road around lake lucerne from one beautiful environment to another and i'm very much exploring the rolls-royce driving technique at the moment you can be very very delicate with the steering wheel just pushing it around with a finger and a thumb to not make noise because if you did if you push the wheel or started playing like that it's pretty much the only thing you'd actually hear in here but cruising around this beautiful scenery in this car it just makes you feel relaxed you feel like you've got into a spa to calm yourself down and i presume you have that every single time you take the car out for a drive and with the rear wheel steering it it does pull round fairly tight corners with absolute minimal effort this view is breathtaking this is a wonderful place to take a car like this for a drive this is incredible and it's so so gentle yes it might be on the larger heavier side but it's a phantom it's supposed to be it's that presence and luxuriousness you couldn't have it any other way it's just so relaxing even slows down how quickly i talk when you're driving along one thing i really like is the dials that you're looking at on the dashboard and i showed you them before but at first glance you would swear they were analog dials yet they are digital they do show you the current speed limits if you wanted to and you've got the head-up display for more information too but with the chrome surrounds around them they're just very smart and traditional and the display looks how how you want it to look while still having some technological functionality on top of that and just cruising along it's so lovely now i must confess that i've not driven the previous generation of phantom 7 so i can't directly compare but this car is being pitched and aimed a little bit more towards being self-driven by owners using them and driving them not just as chauffeur vehicles in the in the majority and it feels to me getting into the car and driving it like that would be the case i've been used to the previous generation you know for over a decade of familiar familiarity and thinking what would that car be like to drive to actually go out and drive and this feels so much more usable than i was expecting or would have in the past expected the previous car to be like so i thank you very much can if you don't mind trying to park a six metre long car or just under then why not first though just because we are driving a car with nearly 600 horsepower let's press a low drop it down into the low range one gear lower and experience some of that the gears go down and the car picks up and it really does have quite some pace to it well you'd expect it might be heavy but that amount of power that torque and away you go okay not bad take the combination of this car the weather we have today and the locations that we're driving in and i don't think you could get anything more perfect i think cars are about their environment and their experience and a car like this on a day like today is just magical and yes they might be mostly driven or often driven as show for vehicles around city centers for example where again the quietness is such a nice thing to have and not have to listen to the hustle and bustle of the city but out here this is it's just something else anyway let's head back and i'll have a final look around one or two more things to let you know about and then we'll wrap it up back here at what is a rather magnificent hotel it's been a big part of the event and the experiences that you may have seen other content about but there are two more cars that i want to take a look at and the first is this lovely extended wheelbase behind me here so let's take a little look at some of the differences and i want to show you the interior of this car as well now 22 centimeters longer this one sits at five meters and 98 centimeters and that additional 22 centimeters is in the rear door that you can clearly see are elongated now there's another marking distinguishing feature which is the chrome strip along the lower side skirt but have a look at the interior of this car it has the serenity seats which have the full lounge relaxation lie back foot rest comfort and then combine the white leather with the purple carpets that you have here it's it's very very trick and this has the fixed center console as well so if we open up this you can see the fridge and cooler in there ready with your drinks as you'd like them it's even got the tv playing goldfinger at the moment but this this is very very luxurious let's just have a look in the front of this car as well the combination of the white and the purple leather making a fairly wonderful finish and just because i love doing it so much close the doors now let's head outside back into the sunshine by the lake and show you one more venturing out to the lawn then here we have another extended wheelbase phantom this is the star of india homage but i'm just going to take a moment to show you the hotel that rolls royce have chosen for this press launch the park hotel vets now here on the side of lake lucerne it's a truly beautiful and amazing location that very much embodies the lifestyle of a rolls-royce phantom owner now this car like i said it's a homage with the bright orange metallic paintwork the contrast of orange and silver very much reminiscent of a phantom 2 from 1934 and if we come around and i show you the interior we'll take a look at the back again extended car with the chrome accent but this has the final seating configuration with the two seats with fixed center console so not the full serenity seats but with the console fixed in the center as well so you've got the oak cluster wood inlays and the tan leather trim as well and this is well really quite nice i don't know why i'm closing the door manually when there are buttons but an umbrella finish to match as well in the black and orange pop that back in and close the door the proper way there it goes and the soft touch closed so what an incredible event this has been what an amazing location and a car that you would be very hard pressed to fault on anything for what it is trying to do for the purpose the new rolls-royce phantom serves to be the ultimate the pinnacle of luxury on wheels nothing comes remotely close to touching it incorporate some technology behind the scenes with that level of craftsmanship of finish and of luxury and there's nothing better a day like today to enjoy it in this wonderful surroundings this location the roads we've been driving has just been phenomenal so a big thanks to rolls royce for the invitation to come and join them here at this magnificent event and i hope you've enjoyed checking out in a lot of detail the new 8th generation rolls-royce phantom so thank you very much as always for watching guys make sure you subscribe for plenty more videos to come in the future and i'll catch up with you again very very soon cheers youhi guys i'm smee and welcome back to another video where you join me in switzerland to explore the pinnacle in automotive luxury the new rolls-royce phantom 8. and today i'm going to show you all around the new car take it for a little drive have a look at the front and the rear and see what's gone into what is arguably the most luxurious car in the world let's get started with a summary walk around i'm going to show you some of the details and features of this glorious new car before going for a short drive and then taking a proper look at all of the luxuries that you can find inside now this is actually the eighth generation phantom it's been around for 92 years since first introduction and we've brought the car today to this wonderful location at the top of the system pass in switzerland surrounded by snow mountains and lovely roads and a very special car to be taking a look at now one can expect this car is going to have quite a decent lifespan the previous generation the seventh generation car lasted 14 15 years or so and seven and a half thousand of them were built expectation is for about 500 of these per year but let's take a little look around and talk about some of the design elements some of the luxuries some of the features and the details of the new phantom 8 and starting around the front it's still immediately recognizable very distinctly rolls royce it's actually a touch shorter than the previous generation car it's available in the regular platform or also the extended wheelbase version which sits slightly longer around the front the very distinct rolls-royce grille finished with the gold-plated spirit of ecstasy on the top of this car but the grill is now integrated into the body work into the shapes of the car rather than protruding out of the front that's flanked either side by new headlights with led technology and surrounded by rather nice finisher that we'll take more of a look at later on it has a new active suspension system so the ride is even more like a magic carpet than the previous generations have been so famed for and that's supported by the latest technology we're here in the upper part of the windshield there are three cameras that are monitoring the road ahead and actively adjusting the suspension to smooth out the ride over potholes and bumps and the like and the car has self-leveling as we've seen before so the car will sit as flat as possible wherever you leave it and one small little detail that you might be familiar with the rr badge in the center of the wheels will always be parked the right way up it rotates to adjust itself correctly now as we look at the design of the side of the car you'll notice that the main power line always leads up and forwards very much showing the progressive nature of the car continuing down there's a large volume of color separated by the two doors that open in traditional phantom style suicidally towards the rear and forwards where we get a quick glimpse here at this voluptuous interior and this car's finished inside an arctic white supported by navy blue and it is a beautiful place now i'm going to start at the rear here just quickly so you can catch a glimpse of the two-seat configuration i'll go over all of the options and features that you have back here but it is beautiful in the front you have more of the mahogany wood that you can see and this new gallery so this ability here to customize and install your own artworks and bespoke commissions into that part of the car it's really quite a special thing as we come around one new feature you can close the doors with a touch of the sensor on the door handle which is new now in the latest generation and they will shut as we continue towards the rear very familiar you can see this new power line that's painted surrounding the main body of the upper bog of the color contrasting with the golden coach line that now follows that new shape along the side of the car so let me come around and just jump into the driver's seat very quickly to show you the view that the driver will have whether you're driving the car or being chauffeured in it from the back so you step in where the buttons to close the doors are mounted here that will close and you're greeted by the sound of silence welcome to new phantom it is very very very quiet in here and that's been my first experience riding in the car is quite how much it is a new world of tranquility it's up to six or seven decibels quieter than the previous model which was already almost silenced when you're riding in it we'll talk more about the sound deadening and the development that went into the tires that is a crazy story but what we're looking at is a new digital display still finished with the chrome surrounds to give it a traditional image but as we start it up and bring that 6.75 liter horsepower twin turbocharged v12 into life and the view across the bonnet of the spirit of ecstasy there it's well you can barely hear it and it has 900 newton meters of torque but let's go and discover new phantom and see what it's like for my first experience we're going to jump into the back and discover being chauffeured so christian vettec product manager hello thank you very much we will jump in experience the car from the rear so i can now press the button back here or as christian has done from the outside and the door will close and welcome to the back where we're going to discover the mountain pass with the luxury of the suspension system in this car so you can have a number of options for the rear of the car you can have the configuration with a folding armrest or with a fixed center console or you can have um the full seats as well which i think we'll be able to see later on i am indeed and even in the bright sunshine we can just see little bits of the starlight headliner that's something so again look at later on but the first sensation is the quietness you get moving and it's completely serene and relaxing and tranquil you can barely hear anything as we start to move off and make a move down towards these stunning views in the valley here but sat in the back you've got vast amounts of leg room even in the standard wheelbase car and you can move the seat that's sitting in front from the back you can control the front seat by enabling the mode there and then sliding that forwards to have even more space and of course the extended wheelbase version offers even more then your central console here you can fold open a motorized table and then the screen as well which of course offers you all sorts of information uh navigation should we choose to see on the screen the view of this road that we're driving around scroll that down to the map or various other bits of car information as well and that's all quite neatly integrated there you can close it back up as well by pressing the button and away it goes but really the thing about being in the back here is even on a road like this when we're going around some seriously tight corners you just feel very very relaxed it's so so super smooth and calm and i mean look at this view look at this view so off in the front there how is this to drive i love it great experience it just oozes elegance and i yeah it's hard to drive it too hard to describe it it's the the most extraordinary luxury to be so calm in this environment as we enter into the tunnel here you can catch a proper glimpse of the starlight headliner which is a wonderful wonderful thing can we emerge back out into the sunshine and if you have the fixed armrest it would have a fridge in here but in this car it's located inside the back rest here where you have your cooling fridge armed with champagne glasses should you be that way inclined bottle of water today though where's that back up of course you can fold up the armrest and have the fifth central seat there but everything i mean the carpets they're deeper than anybody probably has carpets at their home very very soft there's a raiseable footrest control from here from the side which lifts up for even more comfort the seats can lie down into an amazing seating position just by moving it forwards where you then have these lovely lovely pillow headrests surrounded here with the cobalto blue stitching and piping contrasting on the arctic white seats of the interior it is truly elegant now christian i've thoroughly enjoyed my ride in the back of the car but you've been working on this project for five years from inception all the way through to seeing them all now on the roads that must be quite special absolutely for me an outstanding experience first time and then in such an environment on the road fully finished perfect and if you had to pick say one feature your favorite aspect of the new car does something stand out what quite clearly my favorite feature is the auto closing from the exterior so okay it's not even pressing a button it's just touching a button and magically the door will close it's a very smooth process as i demonstrated before in terms of building it though the engineering side there must have been a lot of challenges things you had to develop yeah i mean talking about challenges probably the gallery the new feature that's the that was the biggest challenge which i haven't actually shown in much detail let's jump in and just take a better look at the gallery if that's okay so i'll just come around to to this side and we can show it in more detail in here so the gallery section just close the door and return to near on silence so talk us through yeah um that area we call the gallery and what is new i mean it's an additional stage for personalization it's protected with a glass so it's a real glass running from left to right before where um which gives us the opportunity to introduce materials new materials to the car so precious materials things you would never be able to have in the car you see a leather execution here we're offering wood we're offering metal we're offering fabric and um on the long run our customers will have the opportunity to bring any kind of art installation into the car if they want to so they could install a piece of artwork from a famous painter or photographer or anything yes anything the options are endless so if i had one i could have little model cars in there why not why not be mine and this is the arctic white yeah we call we call it regatta says like white leather wrapped around um carbon fiber blades okay and then also the bespoke clocks or just to kind of like bring the quality level up to as much as as possible and the traditional elements of a rolls royce the loudest thing you can hear inside is the ticking of the clock although you can't it's more true than ever um absolutely well i think we should jump back on the road it is now my turn to drive and the new generation of phantom is positioned slightly more towards being self-driven close the door with the button naturally start up the engine you have different customers in different markets around the world for example in the us you're more likely to find customers self-driving their phantoms in china you're more likely to find customers being chauffeur driven so again you have a distribution between the regular car and the extended wheelbase but here we are we have the eight-speed automatic geo-location uh gearbox the satellite location gearbox that knows where you are so it can set up the car based on what you're doing it's also actively detecting as you drive the kind of roads the kind of style so it can adjust based on that as well and then up front is that 6.75 liter twin turbocharged v12 it has 571 ps and 900 newton meters of torque that is more than say a mclaren has in a supercar so it's effortless and you get that from 1700 rpm not that you have a rev counter you have the power reserve gauge currently showing 100 because we haven't started moving but let's very slowly get on the move and this is the thing with the rolls royce you want to be very delicate with the steering wheel just gentle touches because pretty much the loudest thing you're going to hear in the car is the movement of the hands on the leather of the steering wheel and i don't know if you noticed actually when i stepped in how much quieter it got as i closed the door from the waterfall that was alongside us but we're on the move it's so peaceful you could hear a pin drop in here it's actually surprisingly less intimidating than you might expect it obviously has this incredibly trick system with the suspension that has the flag bearer those cameras name the flag bearer because when the motor car was introduced cars had to be led by a flag bearer so that's how it's named and that allows obviously the suspension to preempt what's coming and adapt ahead of that it also now has four-wheel steering so the rear axle can steer by three degrees that varies at the speed at which it will change but at low speed in the opposite direction to the front wheels will give you increased maneuverability uh the radius for the turning circle of the new phantom to compare it loosely the extended wheel base of the new phantom has a similar turning circle to the short regular wheelbase of the previous generation so significantly improved and then stability at speed as well now the craziest thing for me is just being in here makes me want to talk so peacefully to not disturb the sounds in the car and as we go through the tunnels i've got some drips on the windscreen so automatic wipers and all those features and that's the thing this car is loaded with technology but rolls royce customers don't necessarily want to know everything that their car has they just want it to be there so it comes very very highly equipped on that front with all of the 360 degree cameras adaptive cruise control safety systems mechanisms and like i mentioned the system for the gearbox that can predict what you're doing and what you want from it but you do also have a button on the stalk so the gears are chosen by the stalk there are no paddles or anything to manually interact but you have the low button which will typically hold it one gear lower at all stages which is slightly sportier if that's what you you want in this kind of environment let's say to get on that power slightly earlier and you'll get not to 62 miles per hour in 5.3 seconds so a 2560 kilo car gets moving fast now it also goes up to a top speed governed to 155 miles per hour and no doubt it would just be cruising effortlessly with this engine at that power at that speed because of how much power it has and just being very capable around the corner we go and it does turn quite tightly and the suspension works so well on leveling and keeping the car so stable and steady the steering wheel is thin besides what you're holding is very old school in style effortless you can turn it with one finger if you wanted to be silent on the wheel and you just let it take you along in this calmness and elegant tranquility that nothing else in the world can come close to matching it's time to explore some of the features that i've alluded to or mentioned so far in a little bit more detail i'm going to start with the contact point to the ground the tyres for the rolls-royce phantom now these are particularly trick and the amount of development that went into making them by continental is fairly crazy so they produced 180 different sets of tires for the 21 inch and 22 inch wheels on the phantom inside they have two kilos per wheel of sound deadening foam to make the ride even quieter because otherwise the size of the tyre creates a chamber for sound to echo around and that's just eight kilos of the 130 kilos of sound deadening material that is used all around the car in the roof in the floor and everywhere you can imagine to keep this car as quiet as we've been experiencing it now the phantom itself is actually based on rolls royce's own architecture the new aluminium frame one that can be adjusted made smaller for a potential future car made larger for a potential future suv that we're expecting to see at some point in the not too distant future now that obviously helps them with all sorts of development going forwards but you just walk around it has such an elegance to it and i i know i've said that you start at the front and you look at those solid sides that give it huge presence as it's coming towards you the squared shape almost across the top surrounded by those headlights again that i mentioned earlier which are matrix led they have the running light around them surrounding the outside of the two sets the two distinct parts that you can see on the inside but very clever technology again found there the huge single piece front grille proud and prominent at the front underneath the gold-plated spirit of ecstasy which if you're wondering is a 40 000 pound option over the top of the silver plated spirit of ecstasy at the front so popular in some markets quite striking against the navy at the top sections of this car that active suspension it's all a new setup they had passive uh suspension before it's got 30 to 40 percent larger air spring volume to make that all possible so it really has moved two generations further on now the car has so much tech the cameras the four cameras in total for the 360 degree vision you can see on the door mirrors on the underside one at the front one at the rear the extra cameras at the front for the suspension control and the lane departure warnings and that side of things it has radar for adaptive cruise control the park distance sensors the ultrasonic sensors naturally the night vision camera that we're familiar with so it is loaded up from that perspective if we come back to the inside to show you in here a little bit more with the headliner which it's hard to see in the light that we have today is quite bright out here as you can tell but that headliner can be customized to look like the day that you were born you can bespoke and configure it and at night it is so so super smart you wouldn't believe and as we move down towards the dashboard everything in here that looks like it's made out of wood or metal is genuinely made out of wood or metal so the mahogany here the lovely finishes for the air vents this is how you open and close them with those toggles and moving back towards the leather seats these rear seats are actually positioned slightly pivoted towards the center which allows the two occupants at the rear to feel more part of a conversation with one another and then if you turn on the seat heating it's not just the seat that heats now it's also the panels around the seat the armrest so you have the whole area of warmth around you which is something i've not come across before and one interesting thing is the toggles for the uh temperature there's still these old-school traditional style dials and levers no digital panels or displays which gives you that traditional feel a lot of this card does that it feels very traditional but it works with this character it's what this car is about i noticed these two vents just here um just inside the door pillar and if we come a little bit further around you are probably familiar with what we have right here the rolls-royce umbrella one of each or one on each side for the rear passenger doors and these are finished in navy and white to match the colors of the car that's a custom bespoke option on this car specifically so pop that back in very easy click done then you come around to the door where you swipe it and off it goes and closes again so i'm going to head back to the front for a moment just talk a little bit more about the driver technology that we have in here i'm going to climb into the car the start button is just down there so we'll fire it up for a moment power reserve bar showing 100 and the glass on these windows the reason it's so quiet when i close this there are two six millimeter pieces of glass with a piece of foil between them to insulate the sound completely and you can hear how much louder that bike was as soon as i opened the door made a huge difference soft closed as well on those too and then like i mentioned before 12.3 inch tft in the central display that shows you surrounded by the chrome bezels there's not a huge amount you can change on the steering wheel you've got your adaptive cruise control settings your phone call settings on on the other side obviously down here you've got your mirrors uh mirrors and your window buttons and all the seat controls if i just open the door again quickly you can see the illuminated side sill phantom side still here you have your seat controls and lumbar support in the position of the seat down on the side as well you can control from the driver's seat the driver's door and the passenger's door giving it a good test here aren't i but it's doing what it should working very well and then the central screen the navigation screen which is the idrive system that's pretty much the only thing in here that comes from bmw you can actually tuck that away if you want a full view of the gallery so you can open it and close it as you like pops back up and this is all made inside the clean room in goodwood at the rolls-royce factory so dust can't get in there that's something i was wondering it's all fully sealed off with the electronics and everything to ensure that it will stay perfect forever and anything that's built as part of the gallery and this is a tier 2 gallery you have tier 1 which is a standard finish either a plain leather or or a standard material finish then you have tier 2 which adds some 3d texture to it and then tier 3 which is when you go completely bespoke and create your own gallery style and it's possible to spend six figures or more on what you have going on through there then continuing further down much like the rear it's all mahogany lovely finishes the climate control toggles have a nice feel to them it's very old school but it just feels luxurious they're super light to move turning on your air conditioning with these almost responsive dials they sprung into place it's all just very nice down here you've got a little pocket storage bucket this side you've got the cup holder storage close those back up you have a storage tray here where we've got a key for the car with matching leather uh keyring on it here so if you're wondering this is the phantom key nice solid piece it feels good right back in there for the moment lots of storage glove box door pockets and everything you expect and this really nice arctic white and navy blue contrast all around so let's just stop the car for a moment that button there by the way is for your assistance systems and settings then your headlights and the head-up display let me show you the head-up display the highest resolution head-up display on a vehicle to date because you can see there you get lots of your navigation information and data going on in the system obviously all fed from this that we're familiar with which is controlled through that central unit i'm in the middle with the idrive controller replaced obviously with the rolls royce logo but much the same the ability to scroll back through like in the rear the different settings and bits and bobs that you've got in there with all of your entertainment your telephone connectivity and so forth and you can close this away as well you can close away the whole system so that it's a little bit tidier if you don't want it and here you've got your suspension up and down if you want to raise all the raise for getting over bumps or easier access lower for well looking cool and then your cameras which load up there the rear camera system um if i actually pop it into the reverse you'll see the 360 system you've got on the left hand side the helicopter view bird's eye view looking around again works very neatly anyway what i was going to do is turn off the engine and jump out because i wanted to show you in the engine bay have a quick glimpse at the v12 so the lever is under here there we go double pull just to release it and then we come around and lift this open off it goes and there you have that engine the 6.75 the larger engine than before they've made the car actually the whole length of the car is actually 10 centimeters shorter than before it's been made smaller however the passenger room is larger and the main reason for that is the ability to take out space between the engine and the dashboard there was lots of loose space there before and also at the front as well so it's all slightly more compact but that's what's giving us the 571 ps or the 563 brake horsepower depending which way you want to look at it and the 900 newton meters of torque which is just absolutely crazy so let's shut that back down just give it a drop into place and needs a little click there we go we are closed and then you have i mentioned them earlier these nice stripes the hand-painted stripes that separate out the two colors just break them out slightly there and then the gold coach line that runs down the side of this particular car it's very smart other things to tell you well this car five meters and 76 centimeters the extended is five meters and 98 centimeters so 22 longer the boot actually back here has 88 liters more luggage capacity than the previous car you can see my luggage in here just to get a sense of how large it is you can fit a lot of things it extends quite a long way back inside but nice and easy obviously that is motorized and automatically controlled from either the button there from a button on the driver's door also from the key should you wish as well and around the rear you can see the way all the shapes come down and in towards the center sculpting it almost back with the traditional chrome finish across the top of the boot lid as well but quite a distinct car a very traditional car and one that is also loaded with features and tech even though it doesn't instinctively initially seem that it might and i just noticed this nice chrome finish that comes down around here surrounding this intake for cooling as well and another one just above all nicely integrated into the body of phantom 8. i'm back at the wheel and we've descended from the mountains down to the road around lake lucerne from one beautiful environment to another and i'm very much exploring the rolls-royce driving technique at the moment you can be very very delicate with the steering wheel just pushing it around with a finger and a thumb to not make noise because if you did if you push the wheel or started playing like that it's pretty much the only thing you'd actually hear in here but cruising around this beautiful scenery in this car it just makes you feel relaxed you feel like you've got into a spa to calm yourself down and i presume you have that every single time you take the car out for a drive and with the rear wheel steering it it does pull round fairly tight corners with absolute minimal effort this view is breathtaking this is a wonderful place to take a car like this for a drive this is incredible and it's so so gentle yes it might be on the larger heavier side but it's a phantom it's supposed to be it's that presence and luxuriousness you couldn't have it any other way it's just so relaxing even slows down how quickly i talk when you're driving along one thing i really like is the dials that you're looking at on the dashboard and i showed you them before but at first glance you would swear they were analog dials yet they are digital they do show you the current speed limits if you wanted to and you've got the head-up display for more information too but with the chrome surrounds around them they're just very smart and traditional and the display looks how how you want it to look while still having some technological functionality on top of that and just cruising along it's so lovely now i must confess that i've not driven the previous generation of phantom 7 so i can't directly compare but this car is being pitched and aimed a little bit more towards being self-driven by owners using them and driving them not just as chauffeur vehicles in the in the majority and it feels to me getting into the car and driving it like that would be the case i've been used to the previous generation you know for over a decade of familiar familiarity and thinking what would that car be like to drive to actually go out and drive and this feels so much more usable than i was expecting or would have in the past expected the previous car to be like so i thank you very much can if you don't mind trying to park a six metre long car or just under then why not first though just because we are driving a car with nearly 600 horsepower let's press a low drop it down into the low range one gear lower and experience some of that the gears go down and the car picks up and it really does have quite some pace to it well you'd expect it might be heavy but that amount of power that torque and away you go okay not bad take the combination of this car the weather we have today and the locations that we're driving in and i don't think you could get anything more perfect i think cars are about their environment and their experience and a car like this on a day like today is just magical and yes they might be mostly driven or often driven as show for vehicles around city centers for example where again the quietness is such a nice thing to have and not have to listen to the hustle and bustle of the city but out here this is it's just something else anyway let's head back and i'll have a final look around one or two more things to let you know about and then we'll wrap it up back here at what is a rather magnificent hotel it's been a big part of the event and the experiences that you may have seen other content about but there are two more cars that i want to take a look at and the first is this lovely extended wheelbase behind me here so let's take a little look at some of the differences and i want to show you the interior of this car as well now 22 centimeters longer this one sits at five meters and 98 centimeters and that additional 22 centimeters is in the rear door that you can clearly see are elongated now there's another marking distinguishing feature which is the chrome strip along the lower side skirt but have a look at the interior of this car it has the serenity seats which have the full lounge relaxation lie back foot rest comfort and then combine the white leather with the purple carpets that you have here it's it's very very trick and this has the fixed center console as well so if we open up this you can see the fridge and cooler in there ready with your drinks as you'd like them it's even got the tv playing goldfinger at the moment but this this is very very luxurious let's just have a look in the front of this car as well the combination of the white and the purple leather making a fairly wonderful finish and just because i love doing it so much close the doors now let's head outside back into the sunshine by the lake and show you one more venturing out to the lawn then here we have another extended wheelbase phantom this is the star of india homage but i'm just going to take a moment to show you the hotel that rolls royce have chosen for this press launch the park hotel vets now here on the side of lake lucerne it's a truly beautiful and amazing location that very much embodies the lifestyle of a rolls-royce phantom owner now this car like i said it's a homage with the bright orange metallic paintwork the contrast of orange and silver very much reminiscent of a phantom 2 from 1934 and if we come around and i show you the interior we'll take a look at the back again extended car with the chrome accent but this has the final seating configuration with the two seats with fixed center console so not the full serenity seats but with the console fixed in the center as well so you've got the oak cluster wood inlays and the tan leather trim as well and this is well really quite nice i don't know why i'm closing the door manually when there are buttons but an umbrella finish to match as well in the black and orange pop that back in and close the door the proper way there it goes and the soft touch closed so what an incredible event this has been what an amazing location and a car that you would be very hard pressed to fault on anything for what it is trying to do for the purpose the new rolls-royce phantom serves to be the ultimate the pinnacle of luxury on wheels nothing comes remotely close to touching it incorporate some technology behind the scenes with that level of craftsmanship of finish and of luxury and there's nothing better a day like today to enjoy it in this wonderful surroundings this location the roads we've been driving has just been phenomenal so a big thanks to rolls royce for the invitation to come and join them here at this magnificent event and i hope you've enjoyed checking out in a lot of detail the new 8th generation rolls-royce phantom so thank you very much as always for watching guys make sure you subscribe for plenty more videos to come in the future and i'll catch up with you again very very soon cheers you\n"