German Car Forum

What I don't like is that the car isn't uncompromised. The pipes are out of character and the car lacks unity in design. If you ask me the roof looks like it has been taken off a caravan. Like Marcus has mentioned it's merely a coupe made cheaply out of the DHC.

The funny thing is that Bentley says they did the same thing in making the Brooklands from the Azure, yet it works so much better on the Bentley. They even explain how many welds and man hours it takes to add the roof. Yet, the Bentley doesn't look "grafted" on or like and afterthought. There is design, technique and capability all in Roll-Royce's face.

That door handle is in the wrong place on this Rolls Coupe also. Just nasty.


M

The line you mentionned is my only problem with the DHC. It is curved, and I don't like it. Looks like the car was a banana.

I understand why it is there, to enlighten the profile, give a bit dynamic in it. Less rigid.

It may works IRL, with the monstruous size of the car you can't see in pics. But in the pics I think it is too curved. IRL, surely a different story.

On the other side, you have the same kind of line in the BMW 1-Series, and I hate it...

I want to see this car in black with the aluminium hood! I also think that the press photos are ridicously poor for a car with the caliber of a Rolls Royce. BMW need to get a new press release team. Out of the big three (Merc and Audi), BMW consistently have the worse press photos.

Rolls Royce should have perfect press photos. That is what they market there cars as, perfect. These photos certainly are not perfect. I hope we get more, better photos soon!

To be fair I'll reserve final judgement until I see it in person, but it ain't looking that good right now.

M

On the contrary I've always fancied how the DHC looks with the roof up. There's something about a coloured roof canvas which makes it work well together with British luxury cars.

Yeah that is the strange part, the Drop looks good top up or down. Puzzling.

M

How silly of me not to notice this. I see the biggest problem. The side profile has no coupe shape or form. It looks like a sedan that has had the rear door removed. The coupes folding roof has a more slanted, "coupe like shape'. The actual coupe has a very flat and uninspiring roofline. Where is the coupe shape Rolls Royce? Even the window line is lacking the clasic coupe shape!

Bingo. There it is. Rolls shouldn't feel bad because Aston-Martin did the exact same thing, yet the opposite by adding 2 doors to the Ripade. Neither "design" works IMO.

M

Yep and Bentley, Rolls and Jaguar always have the most varied color selection for their cloth tops. There is a certain sensual appeal to a cloth roof that a folding hardtop can't ever capture. I don't ever remember seeing a brown or green top offered on a modern day MB, BMW or Audi drop.

M

That's what I've been saying all along. It looks too much like a sedan with two doors like an old fashioned two door Rolls. The design worked for the older slightly more boxy and bulky cars but in 2008 it ain't working out very well.

Yes, the DHC is just as gorgeous top up as top down...Because it was designed as a convertible, all the lines are perfectly flowing, and of course the top has a different colour/material so it is visually separated from the body. It makes it much lighter, much longer visuallywise, all lines clearly going from the front to the rear and everything converging. Onlz horizontal lines.
The eyes separates the body and the roof because the material and chrome line are clearly stting the two apart. So like I said, it appear much lower, much longer.

On the Coupe, roof and body are merged. No visual difference, same colour and material. So the eyes see the whole car as only one thing, and the car looks heavy, "short" and bold, too massive.

They tried to separate the roof, with the cut on the windshield that stops the eyes, the line in the metal separating the roof from the body. This is why it looks like a hardtop. Trouble is, it is not enough. You still see this as a whole, and it is too massive. The roof does not flow, but does not enlighten the massive design... That is why the two-tone paint, wonderul on the DHC, looks so out of place in the Coupe. Because of the roof that is integrated, but doesn't really flow with the overall design.

Just my thoughts about these two cars ans a try to explain why the DHC looks wonderful even with the top, and not the Coupe.

Very good analysis, Raoul.

M

I'm loving it, very much!

More than Brooklands? No!

Actually u can get colored rag top from MB but as adesigno option,i've see many CLKs and old SL wit colored top mainly drak red,brown and navy blue.

Yeah I knew that, my CLK has a "Ash", i.e. grey color top. For years and years though all you saw were black colored tops on Benzes. The C208 CLK started to change that as did the last few years of the R129. I've still never seen a green, brown or some other off-beat color top on a Benz in the U.S. Europe has full access to the designo options list, but I don't think we do.

M

Then blame MBUSA for that,as for me i'm not a big fan of colored tops sometimes it looks juvnile.I'd only go for navy blue,ash,dark brown or black

Oh yes I think a dark blue top is the ultimate or a dark beige. In my experience Jaguar and Bentley have the best I've ever seen.

M

Once i saw sky blue CLK with a gorgeous navy blue top with the right rims and it looked just sensational

Feel free to explain your views, EnI...

I've already done that ... in the other thread.

I just find it funny while my points are considered "doublespeak" by Marcus, while your points seem all valid to him.

Maybe because we share the same opinion on that?

You still did not answer, when I ask you why I (and obviously I am not alone) like the DHC and not the Coupe, if it still is because of the "post-modernity statement"?

Your points are empty words, I try to explain my views. Try to explain why I feel the Coupe is just a messed-up DHC. Try to explain it is not the "post-modernity statement" of the Rolls that I don't like, but the way the roof has been added to the DHC. Because I like the DHC a lot.

You are a funny guy, raoul.

Check the DHC with the roof up (preferable in dark color - so the roof is more in line with the body color) and the Coupe. There is almost no difference - except the chromed C-pillar line which is missing on the Coupe (coupe has the greenhouse chromed line instead). All the others details - including the silhouette & greenhouse - are identical (excl. exposed exhaust pipes & different wheels on Coupe). Identical roofline - not like eg. in 3er, 6er, 1er, Z4 case - where roof lines of coupe & cabrio are different.

So if that line makes the difference - making DHC "acceptable", while on the other hand making the Coupe "ugly, bloated, fat, truck-ish, etc" - I just can't help you. Because that's pure BSing.

And again: yes, both Coupes are identical cars - yet the DH features folding canvas roof, while Coupe has fixed (irremovable) hard top. Even the name is the same: Coupe (2 doors). No Convertible or Cabriolet nomenclature is used.

Now I'm resting my case ...

As I already stated, for me the play with colours and materials for the roof in the DHC makes all the difference. It makes the DHC appears lower, longer, sleeker because the roof is visually separated from the body. Even with a darker colour.
They tried to do it with the Coupe too, see the cut on the windscreen and very obvious C-pillar, but it failed.

Now, I am not the only one who thinks the DHC is beautiful even top up, and the Coupe isn't.

To each his own, like always.