Dawn of Rolls Royce

Rolls-Royce unveiled its new convertible, the Dawn, calling it “the sexiest Rolls-Royce ever built.” It’s the first time we can remember Rolls using the “S” word.

The company goes on, “(Dawn) begins a new age of open-top, super-luxury motoring. it offers the most uncompromised open-top motoring experience in the world.

It will be the most social of super-luxury drophead motor cars for those who wish to bathe in the sunlight of the world’s most exclusive social hotspots.” Rolls used the name Silver Dawn in 1952 on a convertible that was the first Rolls offered with a factory-built body. Just 28 were made between 1950 and 1954.

Rolls says the new Dawn takes its inspiration from the first one, the company’s modern interpretation of what it thinks a luxury four-seat convertible should be in 2015 -- “rare, refined and the most social super-luxury car there is,” the company says.

Rolls asks that you please not call the Dawn a Wraith convertible: Like the ’52 Silver Dawn drophead, the new version has 80 percent unique body panels. Even the tires were developed just for the new car.

The roof, Rolls says, is constructed in a way that makes the Dawn as quiet as a Wraith with the top up and operates in 20 seconds up to 31 mph. Rolls claims the Dawn is the “quietest open-top car ever made.” In fact, Rolls says that without question the roof is the Dawn’s “engineering highlight.”

Much attention was paid to the roof having a perfectly smooth surface so that air flows over the car without noticeable wind noise, as well as making sure the roof’s opening and closing mechanism was both beautiful and unobtrusive.

Rolls design boss Giles Taylor says when he was planning the Dawn, he took into consideration that most four-seat convertibles’ back seats are too small, largely because automakers’ inability to package the convertible roof together with trunk and rear-passenger space.

He vowed the Dawn wouldn’t compromise comfort or space -- it would be a real four seater -- and that it would look as good with the roof up as with it down. The car retains Rolls’ usual long hood, short front overhang, long rear overhang and high shoulder line. There’s also the traditional massive C-pillar. Rolls says when viewed from the side with the roof up, the car looks like a “low-slung hot rod.”