How the Rolls-Royce Phantom Evolved: From the 1925 New Phantom to Goodwood's V12 Flagship

Rolls-Royce's own account of the line begins in 1925, when the company created what it called the New Phantom. The name has stayed attached to the top of the range for roughly 90 years, which makes it one of the longest-running model names in the luxury car business.

That history matters because the badge carries expectations. A Phantom isn't meant to be the quickest or the sportiest car in a showroom. It's meant to be the quietest, the most formal and the most carefully finished, and each generation has been judged against that idea rather than against rivals' lap times.

Vickers had owned Rolls-Royce Motors since 1980 and looked at selling it as early as 1992. In 1998, after a bidding contest, Volkswagen acquired the car business. BMW was the losing bidder, but it turned out to hold the card that mattered: the Rolls-Royce name and marque rights belonged to Rolls-Royce plc, the aero-engine company, not to the car maker. BMW bought those rights for a reported £40 million.

The result was an unusual split. Volkswagen got the Crewe factory and Bentley. BMW got the name and, under a deal between the two, would make Rolls-Royce cars from 2003. The last Rolls-Royce built at Crewe was the Silver Seraph, powered by a 5.4-litre BMW V12 and described by Grace's Guide as effectively the first all-new Rolls-Royce since the Silver Shadow, more than 30 years earlier. Details of that handover vary a little by source, but the 2003 changeover itself is well documented.

BMW's team had five years to design, develop and test the car, and the design work was led by Ian Cameron. The Phantom VII was unveiled on January 3, 2003, the third day of official operation at the new Goodwood factory in West Sussex. Staffing started at 350 people and later grew to 1,700, with early craftspeople drawn partly from local boat building and saddle making.

The car was a clean-sheet design. Its body used a new aluminium spaceframe, with extrusions produced in Norway, machined in Denmark and hand-welded in Germany, according to Wikipedia's summary. Power came from a 6.75-litre naturally aspirated V12 (the BMW N73) rated at 460 PS and 720 N·m. The first cars paired it with a ZF six-speed automatic and reached 100 km/h in about 5.9 seconds, with a kerb weight of roughly 2,550 kg. The introductory price was £250,000 in the UK.

The saloon was joined by an Extended Wheelbase version, shown at the March 2005 Geneva show and 250 mm longer. A Drophead Coupé was unveiled at the 2007 Detroit show with production starting that June, and a Coupé followed at Geneva in 2008. Across all variants, about 10,327 Phantom VIIs were built between 2003 and 2017.

The Series II update, announced in May 2012 for the 2013 model year, brought LED lower lights, a one-piece stamped grille, new wheels, a simpler dashboard with an 8-inch screen and a ZF eight-speed automatic in place of the six-speed. The engine's rated output stayed the same. For a buyer shopping used, the Series II is the one with the newer electronics and gearbox, while the earlier cars are the cheaper way into the same basic car.

Rolls-Royce revealed the Phantom VIII by livestream on July 27, 2017, with a public showing at Bonhams in Mayfair two days later. It was the first car on the company's Architecture of Luxury, an aluminium spaceframe that later underpinned the Cullinan.

The V12 stayed at 6.75 litres but gained two turbochargers. The BMW N74B68 makes 563 hp (571 PS) at 5,000 rpm and 900 N·m (664 lb·ft) from just 1,700 rpm, sent through a ZF eight-speed automatic. The standard car does 0 to 100 km/h in 5.3 seconds and the Extended Wheelbase in 5.4, both limited to 250 km/h. Kerb weight is about 2,560 kg for the standard car and 2,610 kg for the Extended.

The chassis adds self-levelling air springs, electronically controlled dampers, active anti-roll bars and a stereo camera behind the windscreen, called Flagbearer, which preconfigures the suspension for what's ahead at speeds up to 100 km/h. A Series II update arrived for the 2023 model year with revised front styling and new headlamps. The Extended Wheelbase adds 220 mm of length.

The Phantom has never been a volume car. Annual Phantom VIII deliveries have run from a high of 830 in 2018 to 604 in 2019, 360 in 2020, 427 in 2021, 418 in 2022, 505 in 2023, 413 in 2024 and 376 in 2025. Each car is hand assembled at Goodwood.

Electric power has been part of the story since 2011, when Rolls-Royce showed the fully electric Experimental Phantom, the 102EX, followed by the 103EX design study. The production Spectre was unveiled in October 2022 and was tested over 2.5 million km. Rolls-Royce quoted a preliminary WLTP range of 323 miles (520 km), and in 2021 said its whole range would be fully electric by the end of 2030. There's been public discussion since about whether that timetable holds, so check current statements if it affects a purchase.

The generations differ in ways that affect running costs. The VII's naturally aspirated V12 has no turbochargers to wear, while the VIII's twin-turbo engine, air suspension and camera-linked damping add systems that need a technician who can read the car's diagnostics. Complexity isn't a reason to avoid either car, but it's a reason to ask any shop how many Phantoms of your generation it has serviced.

Because low volumes mean few cars and fewer specialists, a documented history carries real weight. Ask for service records, confirm software updates were applied, and have the air suspension and the aluminium structure checked for prior accident repair. Spaceframe repairs need the right procedures and equipment, so ask about that before you buy.