Description
By: Malcolm Tucker .
On New Year’s Day 2003, the first Phantom saloon produced by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd at Goodwood was handed over to its proud owner. Since that day, nearly four and a half years ago, the saloon and its extended wheelbase sibling have established themselves at the pinnacle of automotive design and luxury. The name Rolls-Royce might once again be qualified with the sobriquet ‘the best car in the world’.
The Phantom saloon is designed around an aluminium spaceframe that imparts great strength, torsional rigidity and lightness to the car; it also has the ability to be easily adapted to other dimensions and designs. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars knew that they had to produce more than one model to satisfy their existing and potential customers, and so, following the worldwide approbation for the experimental car 100EX, a production version was conceived, designed and manufactured; the Phantom Drophead Coupé.
A two-door, four-seater soft-top convertible; the Drophead Coupé was designed to set a new class-standard of excellence for driver and passengers alike. This book tells the story of the car’s creation and its debut into the motoring world. The reader may now decide if Rolls-Rolls Motor Cars succeeded in their endeavour to build the most attractive, exciting and romantic open car to bear the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot and the name Rolls-Royce.
He has had a lifelong interest in Rolls-Royce
Malcolm Tucker had a lifelong interest in Rolls-Royce cars, having restored several to national concours winning condition. Joining the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club in 1963, he became the club’s youngest chairman in 1989. Following which he launched Pinnacle magazine, ‘The magazine for International Rolls-Royce and Bentley Owners’ on behalf of the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation. He has written five children’s books on engineering subjects and edited seven others for Merlion Publishing, a division of Penguin Books. He has contributed to several motoring magazines and was a regular contributor for The Nob Hill Gazette, San Francisco, USA.
The Goodwood Phantom Drophead Coupé is the third book he has written for Dalton Watson Fine Books, it being preceded by The Goodwood Phantom and Rust In Peace.
