Rolls-Royce calls it a day with Dawn

The luxury marque has ceased production of one of its breeziest rides

The last Rolls-Royce Dawn models are rolling off the production lines now. Photo: Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce has announced the demise of the Dawn, a vehicle that has been a prominent fixture of the luxury marque’s line-up since 2015.

You didn’t need to be an aficionado of the manufacturer’s offerings to spot one – the car was only available as a convertible and many owners opted for striking colours in keeping with the model’s generally breezy feel.

The Dawn was the one in the Rolls-Royce fleet often likened to someone in a Hawaiian shirt turning up to a party filled with rather more soberly attired guests.

As such, the car was designed to be ultra-contemporary and geared towards a specific, youthful demographic.

Rolls-Royce chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos had challenged the company’s designers to create a super-luxury convertible that had a romantic and glamorous feel.

He also wanted a vehicle that combined the “thrill of adventure” with the “peace of quiet reflection”.

A tough ask, one might think, as many of these statements seem at odds with one another.

The engineers, however, pulled it off and, in the process, developed a body shape that allowed the occupants to feel cosseted even at high speeds – something a significant number of open-top cars have resolutely failed to achieve before or since.

When the Dawn was introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the manufacturer announced it as a replacement for its earlier two-door Phantom Drophead Coupe.

The styles of the two were very different, though – Rolls-Royce had succeeded in its aim of creating a vehicle markedly different to anything it had produced before.

It was also a practical supercar option (noting that the words “practical” and “supercar” almost never appear together), with seating that allowed up to four people to travel in comfort.

Over the years, Rolls-Royce released a series of limited-edition Dawn models, notably the Landspeed and two-seat Silver Bullet variants, while also giving the vehicle its performance-orientated Black Badge treatment.

It was notable as being one of the first models that embraced the marque's bid for both coolness and modernity.

But there it goes then, off into the sunset. It's a Hawaiian shirt that will be missed by many, and that's not something you hear every day.