Sprung: Budget drop-top Roller steps out

ROLLS-Royce is preparing to rip the lid off the cheapest car in its range, the two-door Wraith.

A development mule for a Wraith convertible – which the uber-luxury British marque describes as a “drophead tourer” – was caught by one of our photographers wafting around German parent company BMW’s headquarters.

Due in mid-2016, the open-top Wraith – the sixth model in the growing Rolls-Royce family – appears to use the same seven-layered cloth roof as its larger Phantom sibling, judging by a lack of joins that would signal a move to a folding metal roof.

Like the regular Wraith coupe, the drophead will share much of its rear-drive underpinnings with the equivalent BMW 6 Series, although with Rolls’ usual twin-turbocharged 6.6-litre V12 under the long bonnet.

According to Rolls-Royce, the new model is “currently undergoing a rigorous process of prototype testing as it enters its next stage of development”.