How do you tell a luxury car from a supercar?

While they are united by their unreachable price tags, the two are separated by what they offer in terms of experience. In the world of automobiles, price doesn’t necessarily imply luxury and nothing exemplifies this better than a Rolls-Royce and a Ferrari

What’s common between the Rolls-Royce Dawn and the Ferrari 812 Superfast? At ₹ 5.92 crore for the bog standard Rolls-Royce Dawn and ₹ 5.2 crore for the Ferrari 812 Superfast, both are beyond the reach of even the well-to-do, and only the super-rich can really afford to buy one. Yet,the two are as different as chalk and cheese. To club them together simply as ‘super luxury cars’ just by virtue of their price tags is a fallacy of epic proportions. What they offer in terms of experience is completely different and it is precisely this difference that defines one and not the other as ‘super luxury’.

The dawn of luxury

To even begin this discussion, we should first lay down the rules of what exactly qualifies as luxury. It’s a tough one, really, because what qualifies as luxury to one person may be something else to another. For instance, a vast majority would agree that the massage seats in a Maybach-Mercedes is something luxurious, and the same goes for the stretched out business class seating that we first saw on the Audi A8L some years ago. That used to be my understanding of luxury as well, until I had the opportunity to drive the Rolls-Royce Dawn one intensely lucky day.

Strangely enough, the Rolls-Royce did not have either the stretched out seating or the massage function in the seats. Yet, the air of luxury it exuded defied belief. I remember opening the reverse opening suicide door–which has been a Rolls-Royce signature for decades now–and stepping into the cabin. As I put my foot down on the carpet, it sank a full inch, or maybe more.

The first thing that tells you somewhere deep in the back of your head that driving this car is going to be a surreal experience is the lack of sound when you switch on the engine. In the deep recesses of knowledge I knew that inside the engine, petrol and air were being mixed and made to explode frequently, yet on the outside there was no indication of anything. The power, when it arrives as you step on the throttle, isn’t violent but silky smooth. The suspension is so magical that you do believe at one point that you might be gliding over everything under the wheels. And mind you, all of this on Indian roads.

The price of performance

Cut to Dubai, a year after my tryst with the RR Dawn. I am handed the key to a bright red Ferrari 812 Superfast. Again, I had driven Mercedes-AMGs, BMW’s M-badged cars and Audi’s RS range, in addition to Porsches and a Lamborghini or two, so I wasn’t a complete stranger to performance per se. But there is something sacred about a Ferrari, especially for me, a diehard Tifosi since childhood.

The first thing that tells you that this car has nothing to do with luxury is its shape. The silhouette informs you without a moment’s hesitation that this car is built for speed. And mind you, the 812 Superfast is a road-going Grand Touring (GT) car with the engine at the front unlike Ferrari’s supercars that place the engine behind the driver’s cabin, usually between the front and rear axle, for better weight distribution that helps outright performance on a race track.

When you step inside, the cabin gives off the impression of functionality more than luxury. The seats will hug you like a mother hugs her baby, which will prevent you from being buffeted around as you throw the car from one corner to the next. Nearly all the buttons that you’d need to drive the car are on the steering wheel itself. Clearly, the makers of this vehicle knew that driving this is serious business and want both of your hands on the wheel at all times.

While the Dawn gets a 6.6-litre twin turbo V12 petrol engine, the 812 gets a 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 petrol engine. So on paper, at least, they seem to be evenly matched in the beginning. But as you delve deeper, you realise that the character of these two cars will be completely different. The Rolls-Royce puts out 563bhp but 820Nm of torque from 1500rpm onwards, making it respectably fast but more importantly, effortless to drive. The Ferrari, on the other hand, puts out a mere 718Nm but a humongous 789bhp!

The experience of driving this tail-happy, rear-wheel driven Ferrari is nothing like what I had felt from the driver’s seat of the Dawn. When you step on the throttle in this, your mind better be prepared for everything in front of you rushing at you muh too quickly. It’s a head-rush, like few other things in life for a car nut. The steering is such that you feel you’re directly connected to the two front wheels. Handling is as sharp as the cutting edge of a Katana and you’re never short of entertainment. It really is that engaging and involving to drive. But what it isn’t, is effortless.

The chalk and the cheese

The Ferrari demands a certain amount of skill and, most importantly, respect for the machinery. The Rolls-Royce is more serene, effortless and calming. Where the Ferrari makes you grin, the Rolls-Royce will make you smile. In one you feel alive; in the other you feel like a god–and  that, essentially, is the difference between the two, even if they cost nearly the same.

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