Imagine being tossed the keys to this beauty!
All 400 grand cruises like a parade float for the first block. Impossibly smooth. Riding high off the ground somehow, but with a low cowl and incredible visibility to the front and sides. With the top down, the horizons really open an endless sky above.
Something strange happens driving a convertible so large and so plush. You’re almost swept away with emotion as you greet walkers on the road. They will stop, turn, stare and wave almost involuntarily. Not sure who they are expecting — but surely a big somebody.
This car is a rolling event. A climax to poodle around in.
But what about its actual driver credentials?
How has lopping Wraith’s roof affected the handling and feel on the road?
We have SO MANY SMILES to report in the video below.
This video is also alive with full-throttle engine note and redline shifts. For you see, the parade-float mode is only one of Dawn’s talents.
This big machine can truly hustle. So much instant power, delivered nearly silently until about 5000-rpm. At which time a growl like only a V12 can deliver starts to echo through the opera-style air vents. Zero turbo sonics but they’re certainly there, delivering enormous thrust. The car is absolutely flying by now, mind you, so you focus far ahead on the horizon line. Keeping the Dawn pointed straight ahead is one-finger easy.
The overlarge steering wheel with its thin rim is an integral part of the drive experience. Much as we fantasize about a Rolls with a small, thick, flat-bottom racing steering wheel. Or Dawn with one of the SPOFEC widebodies and slammed suspension.
Those fantasies whisp up and into the jetwash of air above once you dig deep in Dawn’s throttle.
It feels just perfect as it is. As she is, we almost want to say. This is a car with soul and humanity — served on a silk pillow. Or perhaps with silk scarf dancing freely in the wind.
Dawn seems to handle and glide around corners in an even lighter, nimbler way than Wraith.
Driving and photographing the car was a true honor. Handing the keys back, however, was another story….
Please enjoy this 70-photo gallery, which includes the Monroney sticker of the test car.
RR does not list dollar signs, intriguingly. Just calls the price 413.030,00 USD.
Somehow, Dawn feels worth it.
It will certainly make its owners feel worth it, too.
2017 Rolls-Royce DAWN
Tom Burkart is the founder and managing editor of Car-Revs-Daily.com, an innovative and rapidly-expanding automotive news magazine.
He holds a Journalism JBA degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Tom currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his two amazing dogs, Drake and Tank.
Mr. Burkart is available for all questions and concerns by email Tom(at)car-revs-daily.com.