Rolls-Royce Phantom UPDATED to become Phantom Series II – but with a very light touch

Rolls-Royce updates the Phantom to deliver the Phantom Series II, with small visual enhancements, new ‘Rolls-Royce Connected’ and more.

It’s hard to say that the Rolls-Royce Phantom has been updated to keep it appealing in the face of competition from rival car makers, because the Phantom really doesn’t have competition as such.

Cars like the Mercedes Maybach and Bentley Flying Spur may strive to compete, but they’re really competing with the ‘Lesser’ Rolls – the Ghost.

Still, five years on from the arrival of the eighth generation of Phantoms, Rolls-Royce has delivered a few tweaks to keep it current and ‘connected’, but with a ‘light-touch’ for visual and aesthetic tweaks in line with what Phantom customers want.

The Pantheon Grille on the Phantom displays the RR badge and Spirit of Ecstasy more prominently, there’s a polished line between the running lights over the grille, and new laser-cut bezel starlights adorn the headlights to create a visual connection to the Starlight Headliner inside.

There are also a new set of stainless steel wheels with triangular details – or 1920s-style disc wheels – and a “heavily undercut waft line” too which is said to visually signal the Phantom’s ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ (no, we can’t see it either) and an option to dump some of the chrome trim for black.

Just like almost every other car maker, Rolls also has a new App, but posher. Well, posher in its terminology at least, as RR say it’s the debut of ‘Rolls-Royce Connected’ from the Private Members Application, Whispers. There’s also a new ‘Phantom Platino’ with back seats upholstered in fabric. Although, as this is RR, you can have pretty much anything you want.

Torsten Müller-Ötvös, RR CEO, said:

We are acutely conscious of our clients’ esteem for and love of their Phantoms. They felt it could not be improved; but while naturally respecting that view, we believe it is always possible, indeed necessary, to gently go further in our pursuit of absolute perfection.

The subtle changes we have made for the new Phantom Series II have all been minutely considered and meticulously executed. As Sir Henry Royce himself said: ‘Small things make perfection, but perfection is no small thing.