Downtown Abbey: across London in the electric Lunaz Phantom

Everyone’s looking. Million-pound cars nearing Harrods on the Brompton Road invite an audience. But up front, splay legged under the hula hoop steering wheel, I’m invisible. That’s the thing about chauffeuring. Everyone’s looking – but not at the driver.

I could have royalty aboard. Hollywood A-listers or Grammy winners practising speeches. Heads of state or absolute states. But I’m a model of discretion. You wouldn’t believe who I had in the back of my Rolls-Royce last week. And anyway, I’ll never tell. But I will tell you about the car. Magnificent, isn’t it? My office is a 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V wearing James Young coachwork.

Mr Young made it long enough to rack up yellow box fines in three junctions at once and fitted a half-scale Parthenon at one end. On tyres more thickly cushioned than a super king mattress it wafts imperiously over the potholes of Mayfair without clinking the crystal whisky glasses in the sideboard.

Photography: Jonny Fleetwood

Somewhere back in Kensington is the cavernous boot, offering space for my client’s weekly rations of peach and peacock, Royal Ascot hat boxes... and a charging cable for its 80kWh battery. This Roller appears to be almost 65 years old but its powertrain is from right here in the present.

Today we shall discover if the electric age makes life easier for the traditional chauffeur. All that torque, such effortless smoothness and silence. Rolls-Royce has fervently argued e-motors are the ultimate in luxury propulsion as it has whispered into the EV era with its spectacular Spectre, but even before the £300k coupe arrived, there was a way to drive a ghostly quiet e-Roller. It’s the sourdough bread and butter of Silverstone’s restoration and electrification specialist Lunaz.

It’s been a tumultuous time for the fledgling company, which founder David Lorenz named after his daughter Luna. Governments have played hot potato with EV policy. That didn’t stymie demand for lottery win resto jobs, but it played havoc with Lunaz’s spinoff effort to electrify dirty stop/start diesels like bin lorries and buses. A round of fundraising went wonky and Lunaz Technologies was forced to send staff home and shutter the workshop. It’s been a rough couple of years for a startup that thought its annus horribilis was behind it when operations began about 10 minutes before the first COVID lockdown.

Thankfully for the restoration waiting list, Lunaz is now back up and running. The aircraft hangar sized workshop teems with the five marques Lunaz specialises in – Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, Range Rover and Rolls-Royce. There’s not a work bay to spare, conversion of DB6s has been subcontracted to a satellite outpost and bespoke battery production is buzzing away in a standalone cabin out back.

“We’ve had to learn to do what we do best and specialise in that, rather than trying to do everything ourselves,” explains boss David partway through a whistlestop factory tour. Could’ve fooled me, the only thing Lunaz doesn’t appear to make itself are the tyres. 

Well groomed, even better spoken, floating across the workshop in sockless suede loafers, David doesn’t look like the oily hands type. But as we visit every zone of the operation he’s brimming with a deep knowledge of what his workforce is up to.

“Every single one of these is always rusty,” he laments, brandishing a crusty Rolls-Royce wing in the body shop. “The metal’s quite thin and by now they’re often more filler than metal. It’s so important that we don’t just electrify these cars – we return them to better than new condition.” In a ‘here’s one we made earlier’ moment, he points out a Lunaz’d bumper. The repair is invisible, the finish immaculate.

Elsewhere there’s a room for reconditioning the ladder chassis and reinvigorating classic Rolls-Royce adaptive suspension. I never knew Rolls invented a system that softened the ride for passengers then firmed it up for slightly less boaty handling once your employer had disembarked. “Usually once it goes wrong people don’t bother with it – too expensive, too complicated,” notes David.

Business seems healthy. The 50th commission is being finessed and the waiting list is “manageable”. David reckons they’re balancing a 50/50 split between British buyers and exports. Feedback from owners is a pleasant surprise. “We have owners with huge collections who write in to tell us their Lunaz has accidentally become their daily driver.”

The Phantom isn’t designed for driving. It’s designed to be driven in. It seats up to seven and the driver compartment is a squeeze. But you won’t hear me complaining. You won’t hear from me at all, because after the factory tour, Lunaz suggested I meet a chauffeuring teacher. And above all else, discretion and manners are the name of the game.

My driving butler Yoda is Shaun Jeffery. After stints as a mechanic on Royal Navy helicopters and at two F1 teams (really) he set up his own driving business, The Modern Chauffeur. And while he wears tweed instead of tails and drives a BMW X7 not a veteran Bentley, the principles remain the same. “I like to serve but I’m not a servant. My clients are in charge, but I’m the one in control,” he explains, as I note down the soundbites thick and fast.

“Be assertive but never aggressive. Clients are always late, but for us, 10 minutes early is on time. Practise your poker face for traffic wardens and doormen – they’ll want to move you on, so smile and ask politely for another five minutes, even though you know your client won’t come downstairs for an hour.”

Shaun patiently coaches me on technique: releasing the brakes as the car rolls to a stop to avoid a champagne spilling jerk is a must. Leaving space to traffic so I’m never boxed in is a clever tip. Look ahead and anticipate hindrances to smoothness. Feed the wheel – never palm it. Know your route and three alternatives. Ladies are invited to disembark kerbside. Stand in such a way as to block any view of a potential wardrobe malfunction. It’s all common sense stuff really, but the key is to remain totally unflappable and in character.

Lunaz will shortly begin partnering with London’s bougiest hotels to offer cars like this as a classy concierge service. It’s a neat idea – a limo like this exudes timeless cool in a way a modern S-Class couldn’t hope to match. And saving a combined £27.50 on congestion charge and ULEZ? That’s how the rich stay rich.

I’m not going to pretend the Phantom is easy to drive. The steering responds within 28 working days and from where I’m sitting the Spirit of Ecstasy is a dot on the horizon. The turning circle just about fits within the North Circular and the wing mirrors are hopeless. Breathe. Unflappable, remember?

This is a super EV born to waft along like a cloud, not zap through town like a lightning bolt

But electrifying it has snipped many of the chauffeuring newbie tripwires. With around 400lb ft of torque to whoosh it along, the Phantom keeps up in traffic with much more vigour than its old 6.2-litre V8 and GM-derived 4spd slushbox would’ve allowed. The throttle’s been calibrated with attention to detail, because this is a super EV born to waft along like a cloud, not zap through town like a lightning bolt.

Handover between regen and friction braking is better than plenty of contemporary global car conglomerates manage. I know e-conversions are a thorny subject for many classic car fans but believe me when I say this one feels wholly appropriate, while the rest of the restoration work has been carried out with scrupulous respect to the original machine. As you’d expect for a price rumoured to be north of a cool million. Actually, cool isn’t the word – the Phantom needs heavier duty aircon for the suited one in the boiler room. While fetching luggage from the rear quarters I notice it’s icy in the pricey seats.

My shift over, I slope off to the Tube. London is sweating in a summer heatwave and it’s stifling underground, but as the driver tells us to mind the doors, I’ll tell you what. Being driven around London by some other poor mug? Could get used to that.