As our self-enforced exile from very British Rolls Royce continues – we model ourselves on Napolean – we must retreat from the battlefield to draw breath and take stock of the continuing enmity between ‘them’ and ‘us’. Such a moment has drawn forth and as we momentarily set aside our differences to play a game of football in an apocalyptic, debris strewn field before our very British eyes resides a glorious vision of the past, present and future. Our heads turn in collective amazement as we set our sights upon the glory that is the all new (very British Rolls Royce) Phantom VIII. An elegant evolution of the Phantom VII, the very British Rolls Royce Phantom VIII continues the sheer peerless perfection set by its predecessor. What you will never see is the amount of time and work ethic that has gone into making this into a world class luxury car that quite simply has no rivals. The new very British Rolls Royce Phantom is built around an  ‘Architecture of Luxury’ platform which is a lightweight aluminium spaceframe that is 30 percent stiffer and lighter than the Phantom VII. Spaceframes have been in use since the earliest aircraft design, among car manufacturers Audi use this body architecture for the R8. That being so, the Phantom VIII’s new spaceframe will underpin all future Rolls Royce models including new versions of the Ghost, Dawn, Wraith etc and especially the new very British Rolls Royce SUV when it finally arrives in 2019. Powering the Phantom 8 will be a twin-turbo, 6.75-litre V12 engine which has been primed to detonate 563bhp, quite tame for a modern day ultra-luxury car weighing over two tonnes. However, the 900Nm of torque is designed to discretely deliver its power at low revs, 1,700 rpm. The Phantom doesn’t just use a ZF 8-Speed gearbox, this is the 21st Century, a Satellite Aided Transmission (SAT) ensures ‘Sir’ has seamless progress. Think of this technology as being Satnav for the gearbox. While very British Rolls Royce doesn’t develop the proprietary technology it does make do with the latest which is – probably – elegantly shoe-horned into the Phantom 8.  These include all-round visibility including helicopter view, Night Vision and Vision Assist, Active Cruise Control, collision warning. The Phantom 8 also includes pedestrian warning, cross-traffic warning, lane departure and lane change warning, an industry leading 7×3 high-resolution head-up display, WiFi hotspot, and of course the latest navigation and entertainment systems. If you have ever driven a Phantom VII then you will know just how quiet it is, but that’s not good enough for the Phantom VIII which is soundproofed from top to bottom, 130kg of sound insulation was used in addition to 6mm thick double layered windows. Very British Rolls-Royce’s Magic Carpet Ride is also improved by the use of the latest generation of self-levelling air suspension. The computer controlled suspension makes millions of calculations every second as it continuously varies the electronically controlled shock absorber adjustment system – reacting to body and wheel acceleration, steering inputs and camera information. So, the very British Rolls Royce Phantom VIII is loaded with a new spaceframe architecture, the latest driver safety and assistive technologies and the latest user technologies you could wish to have. But it’s the finishing that is the true hallmark of any very British Rolls Royce. Opulence is not enough to describe the use of the natural wood finishes and use of the finest leathers nor is it enough to describe the quality of the craftsmanship that goes into the fitting and trimming of a Rolls Royce. You think a Mercedes S CLass is luxurious? wrong, the S Class fails on every level especially the ride but for interiors, the very British Rolls Royce has no equals. Indeed Rolls Royce describes buyers of its cars as Patrons… Gits. Very British Rolls Royce says Patron’s of the Phantom VII typically spent up to £1m getting the full hand finished, bespoke/personalisation finish.  The price for the new Phantom VIII is expected to be in the region of £400,000.