Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé on the roads

There was a moment, while driving a Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé on the roads of Abu Dhabi, when a family in a rust-speckled Toyota Corolla overtook me on the outside lane, a look of abject disappointment on their faces as they realised the person behind the wheel was neither a shaikh nor one of the A-list movie stars appearing at the film festival taking part in the city that week. When the little boy in the back seat suddenly brandished his mobile, it was presumably to report the vehicle stolen,not take an impromptu snap.

It was an understandable reaction, considering Rolls-Royce has long been an essential accoutrement of the mega-rich. Along with the yacht, the private jet/helicopter and an SAS-trained bodyguard, it's almost an obligatory requirement for anyone with a few hundred million in the bank to own a car adorned with the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy. It is not, after all, a car usually driven by an unshaven man with an off-the-peg shirt and a Dh600 watch.

Before getting into a Rolls-Royce you feel the urge to wipe your feet, inspect your fingernails and ensure the studs on your jeans don't snag the soft full-grain leather seats. The natural wood veneers and thick carpets that give the interior its luxurious charm are worthy of a library from a more genteel era - one where people drank from crystal glasses and wore monocles. Then there's the act of getting comfortable, to which a whole set of knobs and switches - discreetly located under the central armrest - is dedicated. By the time I was ready to hit the road I felt snugly cocooned, confident that this muscular yet compact car could take anything Abu Dhabi's roadways could throw at it.

Not that it needed to. What is noticeable when driving a Rolls-Royce is that it terrifies other drivers into a state of mouse-like timidity. Convinced that you are someone important, people get out of your way, keep their distance and refuse to reprimand you with a furious blast of their horn for driving at an arrogantly slow speed - although due to Rolls-Royce's legendary smoothness it frequently feels like you're doing 70kph when you're actually touching on the legal limit. Still, despite the V12 6.75-litre engine, you feel like it would be sacrilege to put your foot on the gas. Being in a hurry is a state that hardly seems befitting for someone who can afford arguably the world's most revered car. Sedate cruising is the order of the day.

So what makes the Phantom a cut above almost anything else on the road? Well, there's the remarkable lack of engine noise for a start. It refuses to roar and insists on whispering, making it difficult to tell, when the car is stationary, whether it is actually turned on. Steering, brakes and suspension work in perfect harmony and its road-handling is superb, reassuringly hugging the surface on the sharpest bends. Despite its abundance of internal features, such as the twinkling night-sky headlining and a Logic7 Audio system with integration for an iPod, the Phantom somehow doesn't feel cluttered with technology and retains that old-world look which reminds you of the company's illustrious heritage. The picnic table in the trunk is a nice touch, offering seating and al fresco dining for two

There was little chance to really test every feature of the Phantom due to limited time - would it have been such a serene drive on the twisting roads of Fujairah, I wonder? But maybe that's a good thing. Comfort of such magnitude would be easy to get used to, and very hard to give up.

QUICK SPEC

Engine: V12 6.75-litre
Horsepower: 453bhp
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
0-100kph: in 5.8 seconds
Top Speed: 250kph
Cost: Dh1,850,000