STRIVE FOR PERFECTION - A celebration of Design & Luxury

HERALDING A NEW DAWN

One of the most eagerly anticipated launches for years, the newest addition to the Rolls-Royce family reincarnates a famous name from the marque’s past

“Our new Rolls-Royce Dawn promises a striking, seductive encounter like no other Rolls-Royce to date, and begins a new age of open-top, super-luxury motoring. Dawn is a beautiful new motor car that offers the most uncompromised open-top motoring experience in the world. It will be the most social of super-luxury drophead motor cars for those who wish to bathe in the sunlight of the world’s most exclusive social hotspots.” This is how Dawn was presented to the

world’s media by CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös at Rolls-Royce’s first ever fully digital launch, called Digital Dawn, on 8 September 2015. He went on to sum it up more pithily: “Quite simply, it is the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever built.”

A STORIED NAME As the CEO explained at the launch, “the name ‘Dawn’ perfectly suggests the fresh opportunities that every new day holds – an awakening, an opening up of one’s senses and a burst of sunshine”. For Rolls-Royce enthusiasts, of course, it conjures visions and memories of an earlier, but equally exclusive, incarnation. The year 1952 is still regarded by many as a high-water mark for Britain. The economy

Opposite: Dawn represents a bold new horizon for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

was recovering after a long period of post-war austerity, the world’s first passenger jet, the de Havilland Comet, made its maiden commercial flight, Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne and, perhaps most importantly to these islands, 13 years of tea rationing finally came to an end. For Rolls-Royce, it marked the mid-life point of the Silver Dawn. This Crewe-built model was the first Rolls-Royce to be offered with a factory-built body. In all, just 28 dropheads were built between 1950 and 1954. Some 63 years later, this exceptionally rare motor car provided the inspiration, as well as the name, for the marque’s newest creation.

CREATED WITHOUT COMPROMISE The Goodwood design team set itself the challenge of delivering a cool, contemporary interpretation of what a four-seater super- luxury convertible motor car should be in 2015 – rare, refined and, above all, social. In so doing, the team fully embraced co-founder Sir Henry Royce’s exhortation to “strive for perfection in everything we do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough”. That meant addressing what the

company describes as “the biggest automotive compromise” – the 2+2 configuration. This provides comfortable

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seating for the driver and one passenger in front, with two smaller seats for occasional passengers or children in the rear. While it’s more-or-less standard practice

for open-top cars, Rolls-Royce designers believed customers were being short-changed by the 2+2 layout, particularly at the high- value luxury end of the market. Space in the rear of a 2+2 is restricted, notably in terms of longitudinal leg-room, compromising both comfort and practicality to an extent Rolls-Royce considers “anti-social”. In its view, it is a compromise too far. Dawn simply had to be a true four-seater drophead. “In the world of Rolls-Royce, even

mathematical norms don’t always apply. In the case of Dawn, 2+2 does not equal four,” says Giles Taylor, Director of Design. “We pride ourselves as creators of fine motor cars that also serve as social spaces. The idea of a car that can be used in comfort by only two adults on an everyday basis is anathema to us. In creating Dawn, we’ve accepted no compromise to the comfort and luxury of four adults who want to travel together in the pinnacle of style.”

A TRULY NEW DAWN Media speculation ahead of the launch suggested that Dawn would essentially be a “drophead Wraith”. Any such notions were

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