Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Dallas explores Fort Worth art museums

 
After my family, my two great loves are cars and art. A perfect day for me would be admiring a magnificent automobile, then strolling through an art museum. So imagine my delight when I received an invitation to the Rolls-Royce Art Drive. I quickly cleared my calendar and accepted the generous offer of lunch at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Dallas followed by the opportunity to drive my choice of a Rolls-Royce Phantom (valued at approximately $495,000), Ghost II ($395,000) or Wraith ($295,000) to the Museum District in Fort Worth.
 
I arrived at Park Place Premier Collection on Lemmon Avenue early so I could photograph the cars before lunch. Rolls-Royce product specialist Drew Hollowell used a fashion analogy to describe the ultra-luxury cars. “If Rolls-Royce were a line of men’s suits, the Phantom would be a tuxedo, something you’d wear to the Opera. The Ghost would be a business suit…still very distinguished, but a bit less formal. We describe the Wraith as a loosening of the tie…distinctive but with a little edge. And the Dawn (premiering Spring 2016) would be a bomber jacket with no tie…relaxed sophistication.”
 
I’ve had the pleasure of driving a Phantom and Ghost before, so I chose the edgy Wraith, which perfectly fits my style.
 
The Wraith is a daring 2-door coupe with a sweeping fastback roofline. Open the coach-style door to find the ultimate in perfection. But while the Phantom is more about classic elegance, the Wraith features more modern luxuries such as night vision and a heads-up display. The upholstery is the softest, most supple leather I’ve ever touched. And each stitch is still sewn to within one millimeter of perfection. The wood in the console and doors is expertly matched by specially trained craftsmen and includes up to 28 layers to create the perfect veneer.
 
Under the hood, the 624-horsepower, twin-turbocharged V-12 is the most powerful engine Rolls-Royce has ever put in a production car. It'll go 0-to-60 mph in 4.3 seconds. Okay, I didn’t time it, but I certainly tested its acceleration! This magnificent machine leaps at the touch of the throttle. Yet, even at highway speeds I couldn’t hear engine roar or road noise inside the sumptuous cabin. It’s impossible to describe the incredible smoothness and responsiveness of driving a Rolls-Royce. The closest would be to use a term often associated with Rolls-Royce: waft (verb) to send or convey lightly, as if in flight.

It is said that you don’t purchase a Rolls-Royce, you commission one…much like you would commission an original work of art. “Bespoke” is the term used to describe the process of making a Rolls-Royce uniquely original. It can include anything you might imagine: from specialized audio-video equipment to a refrigerated cooler compartment; a cigar humidor to full partitions; or from special embroidery to your family coat of arms. The exterior paint palette alone extends to more than 45,000 different colors. They’ve even been known to match a particular shade of lipstick. And the coach line that runs perfectly straight more than 15-feet along the side of the car is still painted by hand with a very fine camel’s hair brush.
 
According to Rolls-Royce, “There’s no substitute for the trained human eye and the sensitivity of the human finger tip to ensure only the highest quality hides and the finest wood veneers are used in creating a Rolls-Royce.”
 
It is this attention to detail and pride in building the world’s finest automobile that makes each Rolls-Royce an original work of art.
 
After a fabulous ride west along I-30, turning heads and receiving smiles and thumbs up from my fellow drivers along the route, we toured the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, followed by a personal tour of the Kimball Art Museum by director Eric Lee, who had fascinating insights into every art work in the collection.
 
By the time we were ready to return to Dallas it was rush hour. So, when they asked which Rolls-Royce I’d like to drive back, I opted for the one experience I haven’t had: riding in the passenger seat in the back of a Phantom while being chauffeured back to Dallas. Did I mention what a perfect experience this was? Thanks, Rolls-Royce! You truly are a work of art.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Dallas is part of the Park Place Premier Collection at 5300 Lemmon Avenue near Love Field.

Ken Schnitzer founded Park Place Dealerships in 1987 with a single Mercedes-Benz dealership on Oak Lawn. Today, Park Place Dealerships employs more than 2,100 people and operates 18 full-service dealerships representing luxury brands including Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Infiniti, Volvo, smart, Jaguar, Lotus, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, McLaren, and Maserati. For more information about Park Place Dealerships, visit parkplace.com.