As if a Rolls-Royce wasn’t already your dream car, the company definitely amped the car game up by adding a silent isolation chamber within its Phantom luxury car. According to Rolls-Royce, the Phantom is the quietest car currently in the world. Although, the car may not be the safest, considering the engineers behind the luxurious car built the Phantom with more aluminum and less steel. Of course there is a reason for this, the engineers saved several hundred pounds of weight by using aluminum. By saving weight, the company was able to invest into more sound dampening. They finally stopped attempting to make the cabin even quieter after it started to impede the ability of the driver to hear approaching emergency sirens, according to Popular Science.
Rolls Royce stated that the 2018 Phantom luxury car contains nearly 300 pounds of noise insulation built-in. The bulkhead and other areas of the car have double layers of “skin” with sheets of foam and felt in between to keep the sounds of the road from making its way into the vehicle. The windows are made from triple-thick 0.2-inch glass and even the tires hold an extra layer of foam inside to help cardinally damp any road noise in the cabin.
The clever engineers didn’t stop there. They realized that being able to hear a siren was only a necessity for the driver. The engineers in Goodwood, home of the Rolls Royce headquarters also noted that many Phantom owners have a chauffeur, which adds more privacy for those in the back, so they created a new option.
Rolls-Royce now offers the new Privacy Suite, an option for the new Phantom that swaddles the rear passengers in a magnificent bubble of isolation. The Privacy Suite separates the front and rear cabins with a new physical wall and an electrochromic glass panel. The panel offers those riding in the rear to choose between seeing the road ahead or, with the flick of a switch, to frost the glass and keep the driver from seeing what’s going on in the back seats.
A “frequency-specific compound” allows voices to be unheard by the driver so, any conversation can be made. Although, there is an intercom which allows passengers to call if needed. Need to pass something to your driver? Not a problem thanks to an opening in the wall, which allows items to be passed between the front and rear cabins.
Pricing has yet to be disclosed although we can assume it will likely command a hefty price since the car is already well over $400,000. Unfortunately the Phantom will not be available in the United States because it doesn’t meet the requirements for side-impact airbags.
