A 6.75-liter naturally aspirated V12 should sound pretty awesome, right? Only Rolls-Royce doesn’t make V12s to sound (or for that matter perform) like a supercar. The luxury automaker embraces the twelve for its silky smoothness, and silences it to the point that it’s barely audible. But what if it didn’t? What would the Phantom’s massive engine sound like if it were liberated to sing to its heart’s content?
That’s the question this video is here to answer. It was recorded while a Phantom limousine was undergoing service for its parking brake module. The procedure apparently necessitated the removal of the exhaust system, which left the engine free to clear its lungs and exercise the vocal chords it was never meant to unleash.
The ensuing cacophony, as you can hear for yourself in the clip below, sounds like quite a different beast than the serene purr for which it was designed. And this is with the catalytic converters, which are built into the header manifolds, still in place.
Just imagine how it would sound if it were tuned to perform at (not merely transport its occupants to) the symphony. But that’s something we’ll likely never find out, especially considering that the engine has all but been discontinued, with the company’s only production models now powered by an even further muffled twin-turbo unit.