A dream like this has its price, and for the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII it starts at exactly 100,000 euros. After two decades, the first Rolls-Royce created under the direction of BMW is already a legend and a dream car without equal, as a tour from Munich to Bastad in Sweden shows.
It’s not always easy to attract attention with a Rolls-Royce in Munich – at least not in the south of Munich, on exclusive Maximilianstraße or in snobbish Bogenhausen. The supposed entry-level models Ghost, Wraith or Dawn in particular hardly ever make anyone look away from their cargo bikes. It’s a different story with the Phantom. It is rare, uniquely striking despite its grandiose understatement and makes the public dream of royalty and megastars without any special effort. When new, the chauffeur model of the richest and most beautiful quickly cost half a million euros – or significantly more, depending on the level of customisation. The fact that this Phantom VII is already 20 years old is not apparent in terms of design or condition. And if you want to bring such a British-Bavarian dream on mighty 21-inch wheels into your own driveway, you can find it for around 100,000 euros – mostly well-maintained with manageable mileage and a complete service history. Not a lot of money for 5.83 meters of automotive luxury with no earthly limits.
The inclined customer sat in the rear right-hand seat, snuggled up in grippy leather and hid his feet in endlessly deep long floor mats in which even small cats could successfully hide. But what if the equally inclined and well-heeled used car customer wants to reach into the thin leather steering wheel himself? What can a car like the seventh Phantom of its kind, elaborately created from a blank sheet of paper at the end of the 1990s without any major cost limits, do on long journeys and especially in everyday use? Three days, more than 1,500 kilometres and a varied route from Munich via Berlin to Hamburg, on to Copenhagen and the Scandinavian luxury seaside resort of Bastad should show what this icon from 2003 / 2004 is really capable of. Is this just one for show or can it really shine?
The drive starting in the north of Munich is not very cozy. It is raining cats and dogs and so the 336 kW / 460 hp 6.8 liter V12 takes on the first few kilometers in the city and then north on the A9 with its windscreen wipers working diligently. The space on offer is gigantic, the leather-covered comfort seats (made from 18 flawless animal skins) show you long before Nuremberg that you could drive this tour in one piece, while the twelve-cylinder engine purrs so discreetly in the background that you think you’re sitting in an electric car.
45 minutes south of Berlin, the first somewhat premature refuelling stop. Consumption has shrunk from 22.5 to just over 17 litres per 100 kilometres – despite a brisk gallop. In view of the vehicle’s dimensions, the 2.6 tons of mass moved and the general conditions, it’s hard to complain. Rolls-Royce never tires of referring to history when it comes to quotes, technologies or the brand’s own aspirations. But if you want to be impressed, you don’t need quotes such as “whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble” by Sir Henry Royce or “strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it”. The 20-year-old Phantom is impressive and spectacular without taking your breath away, and the stories from the early days of motoring are something many people can no longer hear without falling into a comatose sleep of yesterday.
The risk should be just as low during the stopover in Potsdam, the short detour to cosy Pfaueninsel or to the inlocation “Curry 195” on famous Ku’Damm as it is the next day when we continue towards Hamburg in the morning. It’s pouring with rain again, so it’s easier than ever to make a wide detour around Hamburg and leave the A24 northbound onto the federal highways 404 / 205 early. The stopover in Bad Segeberg reminds us that, in addition to petrol stations and supermarkets, the Winnetou Festival has a firm place in the annual calendar here. Back on the A7 autobahn, the youngtimer, which can reach speeds of up to 240 km/h, makes swift progress and spoils its occupants not only with its grandiose travel comfort and interested looks from the surroundings, but also with its impressive 720 Nm of torque, which are available from 3,500 rpm and allow the imposing radiator front to be impressively lifted into the airflow during every overtaking manoeuvre.
It is debatable whether BMW’s rotary pushbutton control, which folded out of the centre armrest at the front, was a big hit at the time, whether the storage compartments were sufficient and whether the operation of some functions was not too much in keeping with the brand’s history. Passengers would have loved to be able to operate the automatic air conditioning, heated seats and other driving functions as intuitively as in a BMW of the time. Rolls-Royce wanted to go its own way and continues to do so today – often to the moderate annoyance of customers. This does not apply to the practical fuel consumption, which settled at 15.3 litres of Super per 100 kilometres.
The extremely brisk pace of the V12 colossus comes to an abrupt end beyond the Danish border and the speedometer needle turns with less commitment than the hour before. The attention that the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII, available from 2003, attracts here on the roads, in parking lots and at filling stations is noticeably greater than in Germany. The E45 finally takes us south-east via Odense and Ringsted to Copenhagen. Here in the bike-friendly Danish capital, it’s not just the hotel parking garage in the city center that is cramped, and the mighty Rolls-Royce occupies two parking spaces in a row anyway, just as it did near Potsdam, to come to rest.
The next morning, the final leg of the journey follows over the Öresund Bridge, which is almost eight kilometres long, past Malmö and the ferry port of Helsingborg to Bastad, where the well-heeled society of Gothenburg flocks in the summer not only for tennis tournaments or music festivals, and where the royal family is also only too happy to make a detour at the weekend.
Sometimes they do so in newly built armoured luxury limousines, which do not offer the same comfort as a 20-year-old Phantom VII and are not as conspicuous when it comes to the beautiful gardens of Norrvikens Trädgardar. Here, once a year, it is not apple trees and flowers or the memory of founder Rudolf Abelin that play the main role, but the big concours is all about sports cars and classic cars from yesterday and today – like the Rolls-Royce Phantom VII.
