Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

There are, by unofficial count, 84 buttons to push in the front cabin of the Rolls-Royce Phantom drophead coupe, each shimmering in chrome or in black Bakelite, but what there is not is a tachometer to track the revs of the whispery quiet but eloquently powerful 453-hp, 6.7-liter V-12. So the engine’s redline is a mystery, but that’s not a problem, since shifting modes are limited to two—drive and low—and both are automatic.

The tach is replaced by a “Power Reserve %” gauge. At any moment while under way in this splendid convertible, a glance tells the driver what’s left in the bank, power-wise. For example, at 70 mph, you’re still rich—you have 86 percent of the car’s power to spend! The owner’s manual informs politely, “You can use this information, for instance, to estimate the acceleration potential when passing or driving in the mountains.” (Mountains? Apparently, people in the market for a half-million-dollar car are not found in our many prairie states.)

The Curious Gesture as Hallmark

Such eccentric gestures—the bonanza of buttons, umbrellas stored in door jambs, cameras front and back, the car’s bank-building face, a picnic tailgate that can hold 330 pounds of brie, rear-hinged “coach doors” that snap closed wickedly via another button, and the feltlike material used to line the wheel wells—are what Rolls-Royce continues to be about, even though this British institution is run by BMW and all the modernist no-nonsense that implies. The curious feature is still the company’s main currency: There’s a button that makes the hood ornament disappear via a trap door, and the great number of bull hides used to cover the puffy-firm seats are from an Alpine herd that, the pitch goes, neither is preyed on by mosquitoes nor suffers scarring from barbed wire. Bulls, you should know, are less prone to the terror of femalehood: stretch marks.

Those seats are not, oddly enough in this car costing $484,450, particularly comfortable. They’re not contoured, Mercedes-Benz fashion, but are more like the overstuffed chairs one supposedly finds in a London gentleman’s club. It’s like you’re a rajah perched atop an expensive cushion, but your elephant in this case has RR stamped on its flanks. Still, the leather aroma is wonderful, the material an exercise in smooth perfection. There’s a wide swath across the dashboard of “cross-banded Santos Palissander,” a honey-hued rosewood so special it’s not in the dictionary. Perhaps it came direct from the manger in Bethlehem—who knows? And speaking of wood, you can get a veranda of teak that wraps around the rear deck, along with a brushed-steel hood and matching A-pillar trim, for $17,550.

This is the long boy of cars—220.8 inches, close to a foot and a half in excess of a long-wheelbaseAudi A8. The Phantom comes within 107 pounds of three tons, although with a Rolls, that’s a good thing. The long and flamboyant hood makes the driver feel as if he were at the helm of some brightly painted locomotive, and the pencil-thin steering wheel seems too frail for the job. But the back seat, as luxurious as the ones in the front, isn’t any roomier than a Honda Accord’s.