All Entries Tagged With: "ghost"
Rolls Royce 2011 Ghost
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Rolls-Royce Motor Cars / imcdb.org ::: 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost
ROLLS-ROYCE is making marvelous headway with the attractive new Ghost.
It’s a brand new model that’s set to increase production volume, pit wits with Bentley, and play to a broader clientele. The Ghost also shares more in common with BMW than any previous Roller.
Based on the F02 generation long-wheelbase 7-Series (but nearly twice the price @ $245K) Goodwood insists that its new headlining model shares only 20% of its components with the big Bimmer. Almost 100% of this 20% are functioning bits which are tucked away, working with Teutonic efficiency behind the scenes.
The Ghost’s body is assembled at the same factory in Dingolfing that builds BMW’s flagship sedan. And like the Goodwood built Phantom, the Ghost drafts a BMW V12 into service, but only after it’s gone through several rounds of steroid injections and then gagged with silencing engineering to keep all that bruit down to smallest of decibels.
Still, it’s nothing new for a Rolls-Royce (or indeed rival Bentley) to share components with “lesser” marques.
During the Crewe years, GM provided transmissions and electronic systems. The first generation Silver Cloud, for example, shared the same hard shifting 4-speed autobox that the General first used in 1930′s Oldsmobiles.
Recently, the omnipresent and ever snarky Dan Neil wrote for the Wall Street Journal that driving the BMW 7-Series back-to-back with the Ghost could give the driver an acute sense of déja vu. That said, Mr. Neil seemed to appreciate the Roller’s charms more than its Bavarian twin.
“Everything good that the Bimmer is, the Rolls Ghost is that, amplified and anglicized exponentially—quieter, smoother, more luxurious and veddy, veddy powerful,” he wrote.
When your correspondent ventured to the Ghost’s premiere in New York last spring, I couldn’t help but feel the same way just from sitting in the car and feeling about lustily as I did. Still, it was only a brief taste so, it’s hard to tell just how British this Teutonic Ghost really manages to be.
Rolls Royce Ghost: Details Waft In. Gently.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG RR
SOME months have passed since the Rolls-Royce Ghost’s (né 101EX, a.k.a. “Baby Rolls”) intro and we’ve heard little from Goodwood about Ghost developments.
Yours can confirm that last autumn Rolls-Royce’s small marketing team paraded the Ghost around these United States in a whirlwind tour to showcase what will be Rolls-Royce’s bread and butter “entry” model to potential and current Rolls clientele.
So far, only CAR magazine has actually reviewed the new Roller.
With production set to produce road going stock later this year, what’s left to know is just what’s available to the public on the Rolls-Royce website. The details are tantalizing, if incomplete.
Let’s delve, shall we?
Stock colo(u)r options smartly range from “Diamond Black” to “Claret”; Austrian bull hides tanned in anything from “Dark Spice” to “Moccasin”; and wood veneers as exotic as “Malabar” to “Dark Wenge”. To wit- Rolls promises slick decadence.
The Ghost’s weight curbside will be on the same scale as the much-larger Phantom – 5,445 lbs (compared to 5,798 lbs). Performance, though, will be swifter: 0-60 mph happens in 4.8 seconds (compared to 5.7 seconds).
This step up is thanks to the 563 hp V12 that takes aim at the Bentley Continental series. It also eclipses the pricier Phantom by more than 100 ponies. Still, despite this righteous power, the Ghost is classified as ULEV II.
Oddly, MPG figures have yet to be published. Not that the Rolls client would care, but us enthusiasts do.
As Rolls-Royce increases output, (1,700 Ghost inquiries worldwide, according to The Times) the bulk of new orders are likely to be Ghosts. Whether this will undermine Phantom sales (hopefully not, but probably) and, for that matter, rival Bentley Continental Flying Spur sales, remains to be seen.
Watch this space.
In Motion: Rolls-Royce Ghost
By Gunnar Heinrich | YouTube
DESIGNED to impress.
But not boast.
In this promotional video, entirely devoid of comment or ambient sound, but treated with electric guitar strains, we’re given visual clues – or cues – as to the new Rolls-Royce Ghost’s character… charm, wit, and the rest.
It looks the part of a remarkable motor car. The camera and post work is impressive: flowing gracefully low to high, from one street corner to the next, from inside to outside to inside again, and then jarring between shots as if to prove that the subject’s modern and edgy.
We see people, but they do not turn to stare at the newest Rolls-Royce. Instead, we’re given to infer that they are paying attention – peripherally.
Again, the Ghost impresses without boasting.
That said, the Ghost is taking Rolls tradition and shaking it by the scruff of its lambswool neck. Out with the staid, and any references to “silver cars” certainly, and in with the fresh new direction set for by Ian Callum & Co.
The Baby Rolls looks even better in motion.
Rolls-Royce Site Shows 200EX Not Ghost
200EX? Still?
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
ARGUABLY, Rolls-Royce has the finest car maker’s website.
Not the fastest (it uses Flash) nor funnest (Lamborghini’s more playful), mind you, the website’s nonetheless statuesque, beautiful, and imperiously above-it-all.
Just like the cars, come to think of it.
Quite right, well, there is one detail that seems un peu trop bizarre. The homepage (which you partly see above) pictures the “200EX” in all its photo-shopped splendor. Except, the 200EX – the name given for the concept car which was introduced earlier this year – hasn’t been the 200EX for some time now.
The baby Rolls is now called “Ghost”. Indeed, you have to dig deep into the 200EX microsite’s confines to find news about the “Ghost”. Though all of the pictures you’ll find will still say “200EX”. I suppose no one found cause to photo-shop the name along with the technicolor surroundings.
Isn’t it time for the best car maker’s site to update?
[Linked: 200EX Microsite]
