Rolls-Royce Announces End of Phantom Line–With Special Editions, of Course

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Posted on 23 February 2016 by George Kennedy

                                

Typically, car companies make a big deal about the arrival of a new concept, and bring a whole bunch of pomp and circumstance when a production version of that vehicle arrives. But Rolls-Royce isn’t every other car company, and brings the same sense of occasion to announcing the shuttering of one of its key model lines.

 

In a release emailed to BoldRide this morning, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO, Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes stated that, “the current Phantom will enter the last stages of its celebrated life in 2016.”

Additionally, the Phantom Coupe and Drophead Coupes will not be refreshed or renewed going into the future. According to the statement, the Drophead Coupe (below) and Coupe will each receive special collections of 50 models, called Rolls-Royce Zenith, and we expect will have more of everything, including a taller price.

But that doesn’t mean the world will be deprived of lavish full-size sedans, coupes, and convertibles from Rolls-Royce. Before the Phantom sedan is phased out, it will have some limited run special editions.

And the folks at Goodwood are hard at work on a new new aluminum architecture that will underpin all of its models by 2018.

Does this mean that the current Ghost, Wraith, and Dawn models that slot below the Phantom lineup will be replaced with this new shared architecture soon after 2018? Considering the current Phantom has ridden on the same platform since its arrival in 2003, that would be a pretty quick production run for these “entry level” Rolls-Royce models.

More likely, expect to see a Phantom replacement (Cloud? Silver Ghost? Silver Spirit? Camargue? Corniche?) by 2018, and when its time to replace the subsequent models, Rolls will do so using this shared aluminum architecture.

Considering how Rolls-Royce has grown under BMW’s management and its continued success as the de facto sled of the world’s ruling class, all the pomp and circumstance given to the first model that was introduced under BMW coming to a close actually seems worth it.