A massive Rolls-Royce Phantom saloon, seen in central Beijing back in 2013. The Phantom looked brilliant, painted in a pretty and very dark shade of black, and further sexed up with completely dark windows and shiploads of shiny chrome.
The seventh generation Rolls-Royce Phantom, as it was called to count in historic Rollers with the same name, was manufactured from 2003 until 2017 with an update in 2012. Our black Beijing car is a pre-update example.
Power came from the famous 6.7 liter V12 engine with an output of 453 hp and 720 Nm. Horses went to the rear wheels via a 6-speed automatic gearbox. Top speed was limited at 250 km/h and 0-100 was gone in a stately 5.9 seconds.
In China, price of the pre-update Rolls-Royce Phantom started at 6.58 million yuan in 2011. Fuzzily, in China, the standard-wheelbase car is actually rarer than the even more expensive extended-wheelbase version, which had a base price of 7.68 million.
Note the pink building on the left in the background. This was a somewhat famous apartment building in those days, because of its cool color and its proximity to the Sanlitun bar district. I once checked out an apartment there too but in the end I just kept living at my good place at Dongzhimen.