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2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom Shows Us Its Interior for the First Time

The 2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom has begun its testing on the public roads phase early this year, but due to its heavily-camouflaged body, not a lot could be made out about the Anglo-German giant. Well, apart from the fact it will be big.
2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom interior 11 photos
Photo: CarPix
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Using the same amount of wrap that would have been enough to cover three conventional cars, the Phantom replacement has been spotted doing the usual chores of driving in the dry or on snow, but nobody was able to get close enough to the car to get a glimpse of its interior. And considering how predictably massive the exterior is, it's really the inside that should get us more excited about the new model.

Rolls-Royce is the kind of brand that looks change in the face and laughs at it, and that can best be seen in the car's exterior design. It's been the same theme for decades, only slightly adapted to each of the eras that have passed since the first Phantom was introduced.

The Rolls-Royce is one of the few brands whose cars anybody could easily identify based solely on their silhouettes or the tiniest of details. And that's probably precisely the reason why the company is so conservative when it comes to design.

Well, it would appear that somebody else has taken over the job on the interior, though, as this last set of spy photographs reveal a completely new dashboard layout centered around two large wide-screen displays. Think Mercedes-Benz S-Class and you'd be very close to what the new Rolls-Royce Phantom dashboard looks like.

If the current model looks more like a 1980's hi-fi audio system with all the wood veneer and the chromed rotary buttons, the new ones appears a bit more hi-tech. It's hard to tell since most of the console is still well under covers, but a few things are clear.

For one thing, the instrument cluster will lose the analog dials for a wide LCD screen mirrored to its side by one located in the center of the dashboard. The air vents will be moved to a lower layer (S-Class-style, as we've said before) while the actual controls for the air conditioning appear to remain largely where they were.

The multimedia controls (let's call it iDrive, shall we?) are still connected to the armrest and separated from the dashboard, but the main dial is at least twice as large as it will now incorporate a touchpad as well. This will undoubtedly clear the dashboard of buttons, making room for that big display. Well, we keep saying "big," but nothing is really that large when compared to the car itself.

It may be quite large, but the new Phantom will also be significantly lighter thanks to a new platform that makes use of aluminum and other lightweight materials. The car will undoubtedly still come with a V12 engine so, together with that magical suspension, it will continue to offer that "riding on soft clouds" sensation that its owners appreciate so much. Some of them will also be happy to know there's going to be a long wheelbase version as well, providing even more legroom for the back seats. As long as it's all covered in that soft carpet, we can see nothing wrong with it.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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