Dream Cruising a Rolls-Royce Phantom

Rolls Royce Phantom owners are typically multi-multi-millionaires with three or four homes and five or six other cars. Not counting royalty and heads of state, most are self-employed (famous writers, artists and athletes) or heads of privately held companies. Only about a third have names or faces we would recognize. Outside the U.S., about 80 percent of new Phantom owners custom-specify interior materials, like decorating a house. In America, barely 20 percent take advantage of that opportunity. U.S. gamblers and liability lawyers who hit a big jackpot want their new Rolls Royces right away.

The Cruise
The Woodward Dream Cruise started 12 years ago as a one-time opportunity for local gearheads to relive the golden years of Detroit motor mania, when cruisin' the famed eight-lane avenue between drive-in burgers and cokes often led to impromptu—and sometimes deadly serious—racing. Some summer nights saw people sitting along both curbs to watch.


That first Dream Cruise was such a hoot that one was not enough. It quickly became a long-looked-forward-to annual event that begins on a mid-August Monday and builds to a Saturday dawn-to-dusk automotive orgy. Organizers say more than a million enthusiasts show up each year, many from other states and some from faraway countries. When not showing off their four-wheeled (sometimes two- or three-wheeled) prides and joys in the creepy crawly traffic jam, they park and display them along the route and line nearly every inch of it to party and spectate as the world's largest free car show passes in review.


So here I am with my borrowed super-status symbol, wearing a rented chauffeur cap for effect, wondering how it will be received. Amazingly well, it turns out!

The Reaction
These are hardcore car guys and gals. Most know what it is and what it means. First, their jaws drop in amazement. They could watch all day and night and not see another new Phantom among the many thousands of classic, specialty, sports and exotic machines rolling slowly before them. They point it out to wives and kids and friends. Most break into smiles, and I smile back. Some shoot photos or video. A surprising number offer enthusiastic thumbs up. Some shout such things as, "Nice car!" A few hold up flashcards with the number "10," as if judging a perfect Olympic dive.


Assuming I'm the chauffeur, they strain to see who's in back...but the cavernous rear cabin is vacant. "Does he know you're out here with his car—" someone yells. One man asks, "How you doin'—" "Great," I reply with a grin. "You sho is!" he laughs back, shaking his head in amazement. One man in the next lane stares at the Rolls until he bumps smack into the car in front of him. No damage, luckily. Perhaps the best reaction comes from a group of 30-something women in a row of folding chairs. They hoot and holler while one flashes a "10" sign and another announces through a megaphone, "That's too nice for this road!"