By camper van, we mean the VW California, but at 5.4-metres long, the smallest saloon in Roller's range has half a metre on Volkswagen's bus.
Anyway, officially this car is the 200EX concept. Rolls-Royce calls it an 'experimental model' that previews the firm's next car. Don't be taken in by the over-cautious marketing guff, however: this is all but the production RR4 - an E-Class to the Phantom's S-Class.
Due to take up two stands at
Geneva (probably), the little Roller shares a significant amount of its hidden bits with the latest
BMW 7 Series - around 20 percent, including parts of the chassis, steering rack, suspension and electrics. Obviously there's no visible switchgear from the Seven, however; that would just be frightfully crude.
The 200EX, promises its Goodwood maker, will be every inch the awe-inspiring beast the Phantom is, except wrapped in a slightly less intimidating, less expensive shell. But with a price tag of around £180,000, cheap it certainly isn't - and it pretty much occupies a niche of its own, sitting somewhere between the mainstream mega saloons (
Mercedes S-Class, Audi A8, Bentley Flying Spur) and stratospheric limos like the Phantom and Maybach 57 S.
So what does £180k buy you, exactly? Well, apart from the obvious cachet afforded by having the Spirit of Ecstasy guiding your progress, you get a slightly more dynamic, slightly easier to park take on automotive opulence. The cabin, which is all-new, loses nothing of the quality of its bigger stable mates and features 'violin key' switchgear, opaque dials and more leather than the DFS winter sale.
The dashboard is as clutter free as possible to emphasise its sheer size, though driver and passengers sit lower than they would in other Rollers to highlight the car's slightly more cosseting, dynamic remit. There's an i-Drive style controller there too, which is bound to be controversial because of its obvious ties with the British maker's German parentage. And, of course, there's wood aplenty, and the carpets are Cornsilk - whatever that is. All this is accessed via wide-opening 'suicide doors' at the back.
On the outside it's a pure Phantom Mini Me. The bodywork is contrasted by a silver satin finished bonnet and A-pillars, and an upright, monolithic grille remains. Rolls reckons it tried to make the grille "more like a jet intake", but we fail to see on what grounds it's succeeded in that. Still, modern touches include daytime running lights and swage lines down the flanks that are strangely reminiscent of those on the Vauxhall Insignia.
It's powered by a new V12 engine and though we don't know much about it yet, it's likely to appear under the bonnet of a 7 Series too. In the Roller, however, it's tuned for more low-down grunt to make wafting as easy as writing a cheque. Obviously we'll get more details at Geneva, and when we do, we'll tell you.
Mark Nichol - 20 Feb 2009