Given how seldom it happens, when Rolls-Royce announce a new model, everyone tends to sit up and listen.
Which is what we all did yesterday when their CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös announced in a statement that: “I am truly delighted to confirm today the development of our new model which will open an exciting new chapter in the great story of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. We are currently developing an exciting and thoroughly contemporary interpretation of a pinnacle drophead tourer which will introduce even more discerning men and women to Rolls-Royce ownership.”
And what he meant by that slightly cryptic statement is that said “pinnacle drophead tourer” is the Wraith Drophead Coupe we saw wearing scribbly wallpaper in spy pics earlier this year.
Unlike the Phantom Drophead Coupé’s folding cloth top, the new Wraith Drophead appears to boast a folding hard top – that said, which ever route it chooses, it’s unlikely to have the much-talked-about starry-sky “Starlight” headliner the coupe comes with.
The new convertible will have the same 465 kW, 6.6-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine that hustles the Wraith to 100 km/h in around 4,5 seconds and on to a top speed of 250 km/h. Likley to weigh a tad more thanks to some extra chassis bracing, the Wraith Drophead Coupé will be a few tenths of a second slower to the 100 km/h mark.
For those ready to form an orderly queue, cheque books in hand, you will have to hang on until 2016. We know this because employing the cryptic style of his CEO, Rolls-Royce Chairman Peter Schwarzenbauer said the following: “The announcement of a new Rolls-Royce model is always a seminal moment in the automobile industry. When it arrives in 2016, this elegant and sensuous new car will build on the success of our current models and will play a key part in fulfilling Rolls-Royce Motor Car’s commitment to long-term sustainable growth.”
