Rolls-Royce Phantom in Madrid (2005)

The Rolls-Royce Phantom is a luxury saloon automobile made by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, a BMW subsidiary. It was launched in 2003 and is the first Rolls-Royce branded car made under the ownership of BMW.
Specifications
It has a 6.8 L, 48-valve, V12 engine that produces 453 hp (338 kW) and 531 ft·lbf (720 N·m) of torque. The engine is derived from BMW's existing V12 powerplant.
It is 1.63 m (63 in) tall, 1.99 m (74.8 in) wide, 5.83 m (228 in) long, and weighs 2485 kg (5478 lb). The body of the car is built on an aluminium spaceframe and the Phantom can accelerate to 60 mph (100 km/h) in 5.7 s. It has a six-speed automatic transmission and double wishbone suspension.
The Phantom features side markers on all vehicles (rear ones are red in the US to comply with federal car lighting rules).
An extended wheelbase Phantom was presented in March 2005 at the Geneva Motor Show, which is 250 mm longer than the standard Phantom.
Design
BMW went to great lengths to distinguish the Phantom from their own range. Although some 15 percent of components are shared with other BMW models such as the BMW 7 Series, the Phantom retains the traditional Rolls-Royce design cues.
The intention was to avoid being seen as just an extension to the BMW range. When Mercedes introduced its Maybach luxury saloon, it was criticized of producing "the ultimate bubble" instead of a separately branded car. The car shared many components with and looked like the cheaper S-Class Sedan. BMW learned from this lesson, selling the Phantom through separate dealerships where BMWs are not sold, while the Maybach showroom in London also sells the most basic of Mercedes models.
The aluminium spaceframe body is built in a BMW plant in Dingolfing, Germany and the V12 engine in Munich. Final assembly to each customer's individual specification is at a purpose built €100M plant at Goodwood, West Sussex, England.
Novel features

• Instead of a tachometer, the car has a power reserve dial indicating how much of the engine's power is left available to the driver.
• The rear doors are rear-hinged, a style referred to as suicide doors. An electronic lock prevents the doors from being accidentally opened when moving.
• The rear doors feature pop-out umbrellas.
• The traditional Spirit of Ecstasy ornament has an electronic retraction mechanism to prevent theft and protect pedestrians in the event of an accident.
• The 'RR' logos on each of the wheel hubs are independent bezels in order to always remain upright while the wheel is rotating making it, essentially, an anti-spinner.

Sales

• BMW have set a lifetime limit that only 10,000 units of the Phantom will be built.
• The base price is £250,000 in the UK and $340,000 in the US.
• As of October 2004, only 555 Phantoms were sold, down from a target of 1,000 units per year. Many say this is due to the slow set-up of the dealer network. By the end of the year, the company expected to have sold between 750 and 800. However, at that stage, Rolls-Royce was selling twice as many cars as its closest rival Maybach.
• The 2000th car rolled out of the Goodwood factory in December 2005.
• In July 2006, Rolls Royce produced a limited edition run of 25 cars called the "Phantom Black"