A motoring expert was left stunned after test driving an iconic Rolls-Royce Phantom, admitting one thing “wouldn’t happen” to a driver of any other brand. Mat Watson, Chief Content Officer at Carwow put the 18-year-old Phantom through its paces to find out whether road users should pay £50,000 for a second-hand petrol vehicle or put that money into something new.
After devouring the timeless bodywork and luxurious leather interior, the team got behind the wheel to find out what the Phantom is actually like to drive. However, during the test drive, Mat found himself face-to-face with a road closure and was forced to do a U-turn in the middle of a housing estate. As he was embarking on the ambitious manoeuvre, traffic emerged from both sides, putting Mat under pressure to face the right way.
After completing the three-point turn, Mat told Carwow’s YouTube channel: “Hopefully, not going to get into too much trouble with the other road users, they might forgive me because I’m in a Rolls-Royce, I wasn’t too stressed.
“I think people just assume you must be royalty or very important so they are willing to wait for you in a Rolls-Royce. If I’d done that in another brand, say a BMW, who owns Rolls-Royce, I’d have got beeped.”
The Rolls-Royce Phantom is fitted with a twin-turbocharged 6.75-liter V12 engine capable of producing a whopping 563hp. The model can reach speeds of up to 60mph in just 5.1 seconds and has a rop speed of 155mph.
After completing the test drive, Mat concluded that the Rolls-Royce Phantom was an “absolute steal” for its £50,000 price tag,
He even said the model was better value than a brand new Skoda Superb despite almost two decades on the road.
Mat added: “This car makes you feel so incredibly relaxed even in stressful situations. There’s something about the Rolls-Royce. It just makes you feel like you’ve got all the time in the world.
“And if you really do need to get a move on you just floor your throttle. Smooth gearbox and engine response and it just pitches its nose skywards and buggers off full speed ahead. But the thing that really amazes me about this car is despite it being 18 years old, not a single rattle or squeak, it’s like it’s new.”
