New luxury dealership in Bristol swings open its doors to showrooms exhibiting Rolls-Royce, Bentley, McLaren and Lamborghini motorcars

That was the question reporter Megan Titley was asking herself in the morning before she went on her way to test-drive a Rolls-Royce motor car worth over a quarter of a million pounds in Bristol.

ON ONE hand high heels would look classic and be in keeping with the opulent cars I would be driving.

But on the other hand the thought of my foot slipping off the pedal of a Rolls-Royce was unbearable.

Shamefully I went with the flat shoe option.

Rolls-Royce are one of the four luxurious car brands to be making a home for themselves at a new dealership at Cribbs Causeway, a retail park in Bristol, which opened at the beginning of June.

It is Rolls-Royce’ seventh base in the UK and it will be the closest dealership for customers as far as away Penzance in Cornwall and the south of Wales.

On arrival Wycliffe Year 13 student Natalie Newport and I were given a tour of the palatial showrooms.

Bentley, McLaren and Lamborghini were among the other exclusive brands at the swanky dealership, Rybrook Specialist Cars. I felt sheepish about my shoes and wished I had worn my heels.

I had kept the visit to the dealership a secret from Natalie, who was on a work placement with the SNJ, until she arrived at the office that morning.

She was over the moon at the news and entered into the spirit of the day discovering all the James Bond-esque gadgets the elegant motorcars had to offer.

“In the Dawn you've got the James Bond-style umbrellas that release from the doors,” said head of corporate communications for the UK and Western Europe, James Warren.

“For all of the incredibly clever engineering and the state-of-the-art V12 and all of the technology that sits underneath people get incredibly excited about the umbrellas and the lamb’s wool.”

Altogether five different Rolls-Royce motor cars have featured in the James Bond films. The first being The Phantom III and the most recent The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

It was particularly interesting to discover that a trend in Rolls-Royce sales is showing that self-made young entrepreneurs and professionals in their 40s are the company’s main buyers. Just 13 years ago the average age of buyers was those in their 60s.

I wondered if the man with the metallic sun glasses and tattoos of scales on his neck and peeking out from his t-shirt and shorts was one of the self-made businessmen who was custom-ordering one.

More to the point I wondered what he did for a living and wished I had thought of it first.

Would he customise The Spirit of Ecstasy, making it gold or illuminated crystal?

Would he get the coachline, the thin straight line which starts just behind the headlights and finishes just before the taillights, which is hand-painted expertly by Mark Court?

Mark was a talented artist painting pub signs before he was taken on by Rolls-Royce and it is his job alone to paint the coachlines.

But before I let my mind wander off Natalie and I headed outside. We had been promised the ultimate chauffeur-driven experience in a Phantom.

On the way we passed a white Rolls-Royce Dawn, it had such presence and was the stunning vehicle I was to be behind the wheel of later.

In the passenger seats in the Phantom we chatted to Simon Shaw, 34, chauffeur and driver trainer, who told us about how he had never been into football as a boy but passed his driving test within a week of turning 17.

He even gave Natalie a few expert tips on how to pass her up-coming driving test with flying colours.

Simon has a motorsport background and says the power in a Rolls-Royce cannot be compared to anything.

“The way the power is delivered is like a whoosh, it’s so elegant and effortless,” he says.

It was not long before I found myself at the wheel of the Dawn, the newest Rolls-Royce model, a four-seater convertible worth £264,000.

When I had asked James which car I should pick for a drive he had advised me to take the Dawn since it was open-topped and would suit the sunny day.

“As for driving her she will tend to shrink around you more than you more quickly than you imagine,” he added.

I had pro-driver and product expert Jonathan Giles by my side coaching me while I drove the Dawn and Natalie in the back.

I tried to ignore my jangling nerves and focused instead on the splendour of the interior which was lined with lamb’s wool and the Spirit of Ecstasy leaning forward her arms outstretched on the front of the bonnet as I took her out for a careful spin.

To my enormous relief I drove the winged lady and my passengers around safely and as my nerves calmed, I basked in the glory of the magic carpet ride.