Ghost II stormed up the mountain and proved he was capable of such a big girl. Steering is heavy † [+] amplified and sensitive coming “off center”, meaning you need a soft hand in a straight line on the highway.
Penetrating lonely high mountain pastures on miles of straights, pavement glistening with the faintest gleam of dew in the light of dawn, my Gray Mind raged with astonishing ease to extra-legal speed. Speed sweeps the periphery, just like in a supercar, but it’s experienced not through a mail slot windshield and hips hanging just inches above the tarmac, but instead from Gray Ghost’s high and mighty observation deck.
Any car of this size will look huge when viewed from behind. Roof over into a high aft deck. Trunk † [+] is huge, enough for the luggage of two people during a month-long trek through the Rocky Mountains. It swallows suitcases.
With its air suspension and heavily beefed-up fingertip steering, a Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost isn’t a supercar or super-sized sports sedan, but on my mountain test run with the sharper calibration selected, this 5600-pound sporty luxury cocoon proved manageable when guided with a soft hand, shrinking with every mile, with every curved curve. Ghost is an interstellar battlecruiser of the imagination.
Rear coach doors, a Rolls signature. Some may scoff, but it really fills the kids up † [+] in safety seats an opportunity. Push buttons control motors that close the huge doors, which is not only a wonderfully luxurious touch, but also handy. Even with my 35-36 cover, reaching the open driver’s door to pull it shut is a big task.
Beneath that bonnet billiard table sits a twin-turbo V12 with 664 lb of torque. ft. available from 1700-4250 rpm, grounded via a four-wheel drive system. Ghost takes the company to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, about half a second slower than BMW’s Z4 M sports car.
Ghost’s bone structure evolved from the same highly volatile aluminum spaceframe underneath † [+] Phantom and Cullinan. Rolls calls it the Architecture of Luxury, but these are fine bones, strong, long and elegant. The result is a solid bank vault and excellent mounting points for the multi-link suspension, providing waftability, the ‘magic carpet ride’. It functions.
Still, Ghost is 0.7 seconds FASTER than a standard Z4 roadster. Ghost has the point-it-and-punch-it acceleration of a muscle car, but with the sweet sounds of a V12, not a raw V8. Hammer down in a straight line, Ghost is the iron fist in a plush, padded velvet glove.
The chairs are constructed to standards that no furniture maker can match. In the city or in two hours † [+] highway driving, the seats are the most supportive and comfortable you will find.
Across the pitifully hard highways of Los Angeles, Gray Ghost delivered the famous Rolls-Royce ‘magic carpet ride’, expansion joints and hideous tarmac patches felt like nothing more than subtle timpani slamming through the dense blankets of sound-absorbing material. Ghost is a boulevardier first and foremost, like any Goodwood Rolls-Royce, designed to float along Sunset Boulevard, PCH, or Huntington Drive.
The bus doors open 90 degrees, creating a sense of opportunity even for kids climbing into their Chiccho booster for the 10-minute ride to the summer swim camp. Every time little feet land on deep-pile lambskin, screams of delight fill the air.
No child will ever complain about a trip to summer camp in this chair.
Ghost’s considerable length, taller than a BMW X2 CUV, is masked by the steep angle of the windshield, the sweep of the rear roof pillar into a high trunk and the sheer length and width of the car.
Rendered in a groovy update to classic fonts, digital gauges look timeless on a digital flat screen † [+] and of the 21st century all at once. The speedometer needle dips slightly red, which probably indicates how far you’ve exceeded the speed limit.
Seats are anything but the thin shells of a supercar. If Ghost’s hefty front seats were wedged into that BMW Z4 M roadster, not only would some drivers be looking over the windshield frame, but the 0-60 sprint could soar above 4 seconds, such is the weight. Lyrics of Peter Gabriel’s old song, “Big Time” are coaxed from the far corners of the mind – these are huge pieces of furniture.
The chairs are constructed to standards that no furniture maker can match. In the city or in two hours † [+] highway driving, the seats are the most supportive and comfortable you will find. The frames of the front doors are not as large as you might suspect, the steeply sloping windshield that cuts inwards.
Front door surrounds are high polygons thanks to the extreme swing of the windshield, requiring tall drivers to think carefully and plan to enter with grace. For people of average height, it only takes a slight bend of the knee to sit on the driver’s seat to lean forward and fall onto the wide leather surface. But for those much over six feet, the noggin has to pass through the back of the door frame. The doors are so big and heavy that they are closed by pressing a button on the center console, motors swinging gently in, the locking mechanism then pulls the last ¾ inch to seal the deal.
olls developed a unique carbon fiber pattern for Black Badge, which I remembered at launch in . about amazed † [+] Las Vegas several years ago. The original cartridge did not meet US safety regulations and was delayed. But the people of Goodwood finally reached the goal. And the mesh still evokes thoughts of the chainmail of a Jedi Warrior in a galaxy far, far away. Another reminder that you are in a car like no other.
Rolls-Royce engineers master the intricacies and installation quality of the luxurious plug-and-play interior. With the exception of all those black and dark green Phantoms being sold to the world’s major hotels to serve as A-list airport shuttles, almost every Rolls is a unique artistic expression, especially inside. Why buy one and not commission at least a few special features?
Craftsmanship is an important differentiator in a Rolls. My test car had black leather with “Tailored” † [+] Purple” leather accents. Note the quality of the stitching and the exact color match. Every time you sit down and see that, it is a reminder of the quality, the rarity. Armed with a diamond point tool, the cutter stretches the hides over a wide surface with vacuum holes that suck the leather flat to ensure there are no wrinkles or folds.Then a seamstress sews by hand, the hide spread out over a table the size of a platform.
My Gray Ghost’s black leather dash, door panels and seats were accented in a kinky shade, “Tailored Purple”, which would be ridiculous on a KIA or Camry, but in the Ghost’s mens study, the Tailored Purple blooms work beautifully . (The other Ghost I tasted had my favorite Rolls interior color, Hotspur Red.) Even the dash clock hands were in Tailored Purple; it is believed that the clock painter builds ships in a bottle as a relaxing hobby. And as a reminder of how special the car is, the impeccable hand-assembled work – not a single stitch of Tailored Purple thread fluffing, warped or loose anywhere in the car – is a perfect color match for the leather and hands. Every time I got behind the sturdy steering wheel, I reached for the cliff-like leading edge of the top dash to run my fingers over the wires.
Graphic presence of grille, a hipster interpretation of the classic Parthenon grille. With the 591 † [+] horsepower 6.75-liter twin-turbocharged V12 behind the grille, yes, the looming grille is a warning: out of the way. With a torque of 664 lb. ft. launches the car well. To borrow the expression from a century ago, she lifts her skirts and walks with style. Ghost isn’t a supercar, but she can pass lingers and gapers with ease. Beat it! A muscular luxury cocoon.
With tall people in the front, leg and foot room in the back is very good, but no rival to the acres of an extended wheelbase (EWB) Phantom, which is, of course, a driver-driven car, not an owner. Still, no one will complain during the 30-minute drive on LA’s 110 freeway to a concert at Disney Hall, or the 90-minute drive south to Laguna.
Press the “LOW” button on the shift lever and calibration for engine, transmission and suspension † [+] gets more aggressive, perfect for roasting gawkers at stoplights or attacking a demanding two-lane mountain road. On my mountain circuit, the car started to shrink. On the highway, you think of a missile cruiser called HMS Ghost, sure to sail the open seas. But put the hammer down and Ghost really does become a bank robber’s car.
On my second day with the Gray Ghost, I drove two hours south to San Diego’s Mission Bay for the Rolls-Royce Owners Club National Meeting, where I spent the morning in two 100-year-old Henry Royce masterpieces, a Silver Ghost. straight-sided Barker open tourer and a bulkhead Mayfair sedan, both built in the 1920s at Rolls-Royce’s short-lived U.S. plant in Springfield, Massachusetts. Both cars are regularly driven and the maroon car has completed “Wholly Ghost” rallies on several continents, logging ten thousand miles and more every year. These vintage cars helped define Rolls-Royce, helped build its image as one of the world’s best cars. Driven alongside these two ancient Spirits, my Gray Spirit seemed a fitting successor to our century.
On the mountain
Small details, such as the heavy chassis number badge, add character. Watch out for the Lions of Plantagenet.
Yes, it was worth getting up before sunrise. First up the mountain.