Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

We’ve got the measure of the Rolls now and have changed how we use it

Rolls-Royce Phantom DHC

Five weeks into our life with the mighty Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé, we’re discovering that you can indeed get used to having such a car around. Sort of. The odometer has crept forward by 1700 miles, the car has now been driven fairly often by half a dozen of us, and those who know it a bit feel a lot less reticent about pointing into the traffic of central London than we did five weeks ago.

At the outset, we were all keen to drive the car, just to see what it was like and say we’d been able to do it. Now we’re more discerning about the miles we do - which is exactly what the men from Rolls-Royce said would happen. On a sunny day, with rural miles to do, you first think of the Rolls. When you’re heading somewhere challenging, possibly with a traffic jam to sit in on the way, you choose something else. The Drophead is the most exalted of cruisers, a car for good times, and if you use it as such - enjoying the amazingly flat yet supple ride and the whispering quality of the V12 - it will repay you in spades. People in our place are already jockeying to be behind its wood-spoked wheel over the Goodwood Festival of Speed weekend.

Rolls-Royce Phantom DHC Seats

No one is impervious to this car Platoons of people photograph you as you go by. Provided you’re suitably humble about the way you drive it, other drivers treat you with exaggerated good humour. There are lots of waves and thumbs-up, and you’ll probably average one full salute a day. The Twitterati are inclined to be less generous, criticising our car for its vivid blueness and stand-out stainless bonnet (to me, a fabulous feature, if a little hard to keep clean), but the bile tends to be generated, to some extent, from the fact that you are in the car and they’re not.

Early on, we had some trouble locating certain controls and identifying several switch functions (the seat heaters took a full-on search), which, for all the pervading quality and craftsmanship, reminds you how well developed is the fascia design and ergonomics of the average mainstream car. But the switches and dials move beautifully under your fingers, with the sole exception of the big twist dial in the centre of the dashboard, which could do with more positive resistance.

Rolls-Royce Phantom DHC Rear

Given that this is a ‘special day’ sort of car, the comparative speed and convenience of its roof retraction system is a virtue, and so is the decent weather protection at motorway speeds for those in front. However, when you sit in the back or wind down all the windows to be seen, the only thing that’ll protect your barnet from serious rearrangement by the wind is a dramatically limited cruising speed.

It has taken us five weeks and 1700 miles to become firm friends with the big Rolls-Royce and ascertain its key abilities. Now, as summer crawls closer, we’re ready to get on with the rest of its life here.