Rolls-Royce Ghost
Debut: 2009 |
||||||||||||||
A couple of years ago, we were told that BMW was developing a "baby Roller" to rival Bentley Continental Flying Spur. It shall sit below the £280,000 Phantom, but above the £100,000 mainstream luxury cars like Mercedes S600. Considering Bentley's best selling saloon is priced at £120,000 to £140,000, it was easy to assume the baby Roller occupy the same territory. Market analysts described this territory as a sweet spot – on the one hand it may attract up to ten thousands customers a year, on the other hand it is still totally free from the competition of mainstream luxury car manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Jaguar and Lexus. In fact, in the past few years Bentley found big success with its Continental line and turned around its fortune. So the £200,000 Rolls-Royce Ghost struck us to the concrete ground. It is only £80,000 cheaper than the flagship RR, and way more expensive than Bentley Continental Flying Spur. Its target rival seems more like Bentley Mulsanne, which will go on sale at £220,000 this summer. Rolls-Royce' salespersons will find a hard time to meet their sales target. To most of us, however, this is not a bad thing. Basically, £200,000 or £130,000 make no difference to us. Both are unimaginable figures and both are out of our reach. What matter to us is how the £70K difference reflect in the car's looks, build quality and ingredients.
From this point of view, I would say the baby Roller (well, maybe not so baby now) is definitely worth the extra money over Bentley Continental. While the Continental is fine, it doesn't feel too different from Mercedes S600. Style aside, it may just happen to be a Volkswagen or Audi flagship. In fact, some Continental Flying Spurs were once assembled by the Dresden plant in Germany when Crewe ran out of capacity. These cars looked and felt exactly the same as those built in England. Rolls-Royce Ghost is very different. It looks and feels nothing like a mainstream luxury car, but rather like a 90-percent scale Phantom. For sure, there is a little deviation in its character - it looks slightly rounder, lighter and more performance-minded, probably more suitable to customers who would occasionally drive their cars - in this way very much like Bentley. However, its bloodline is so obvious to be an extension of the flagship Phantom. It preserves the prestige and dignity as the best-built car in the world. Subjectively, its superiority over Continental is more than £70,000 can explain. From this perspective, we can even describe it as a bargain.
The Ghost started life in BMW's Dingolfing plant, where its steel monocoque chassis is built and painted. However, its final assembly and interior trimming are performed at Goodwood by British craftsmen in good old tradition. Unlike the aluminum spaceframe Phantom, Ghost employs conventional steel monocoque to cut cost. This hasn't reflected on scale though - the Ghost weighs 2360 kilograms, some 125 kg lighter than the standard-wheelbase Phantom, primarily because it is 430 mm shorter, 40 mm narrower and 80 mm lower. Nevertheless, "small" is probably the last word you would use to describe this car. Despite of the downsizing, it still measures some 5.4 meters in length, 1.95 meters in width and 1.55 meters in height. Even in short-wheelbase form, its wheelbase easily eclipses the long-wheelbase Mercedes S-class by 130 mm !
Rolls-Royce keeps the most prestigious features of Phantom intact in the smaller car, i.e. the rear-hinged "suicide" passenger doors and the nice umbrellas stored inside which. So you enter the rear cabin with unrivaled grace, sit "on" the high-mounted sofa and discover the cabin isn't much smaller than the concert hall of Phantom, thanks to the superior space efficiency of steel chassis. More differences lie on the front though. The driver sits much lower than that of the large RR, although the view over the road is still way more "commanding" than other luxury limousines. The environment up front is snugger than Phantom's, although that is relative again. The dashboard looks more modern and conventional, with large pieces of wood flowing smoothly from one side to another. The cabin design is simple and elegant. Needless to say, woods and leather are top notch items, with good craftsmanship to match. Nevertheless, a few glitches show signs of cost saving, such as the chromed switches (which are actually plastics) and the plastic door pulls. Besides, the Phantom's wooden dashboard looks more like a hand-built furniture. These areas still put the Phantom in superior position.
The Ghost has 20 percent components sourced from BMW 760Li. One of which is the direct-injection twin-turbo V12. However, to show the superiority of Rolls-Royce, BMW enlarged its displacement by 10 percent to 6592 cc - what a pity they couldn't quite achieve 6750 cc - hence boosting its output by 26 hp to 570 hp and its maximum torque by 22 lb-ft to 575 lb-ft, and the latter is available from as little as 1500 rpm ! Moreover, coming together with the twin-turbo V12 is the latest ZF 8-speed automatic transmission. Now you can see what the Ghost excels over Phantom... 24 percent more power, 5 percent less weight, smaller frontal area and a couple of extra gears to use translate to 0-60 mph acceleration in 4.7 seconds, more than one second ahead of its supposedly superior sister, and most likely faster than Bentley Mulsanne as well. Smaller and cheaper does not equal to slower. On the contrary, these qualities give the baby Roller a more suitable basis to pursue a performance character never attempted by Rolls-Royce. Apart from powertrain, the Rolls-Royce also shares the 7-series' electronic systems, climate control and suspension parts - the things you cannot see. However, it is not to say it rode on the 7-series platform. Far from it actually. Its very different proportion, weight and ride characteristic require a unique platform to realize. Even the shared parts are altered to work better on the Roller. For example, while the 7-series has adaptive air springs at its rear axle only, the Roller has them on both axles, and they are tuned to deliver roughly the same frequency response as that of Phantom.
On the road, the Rolls-Royce feels so different from a 760Li. Its ride is truly cosseting, gliding over the poorest surfaces with little drama and noise. The cabin is so well insulated from the world outside. The V12 is incredibly smooth and quiet. The superb level of refinement reminds us what made Rolls-Royce so famous in the early years. Now we know why it reuses the name "Ghost". Ultimately, Phantom can still teach its little sister a thing or two in ride quality, especially over big potholes, but Ghost is about the only car that comes close to it. However, what surprises us is the sporting flavor found on the new Rolls-Royce. Once you prod the gas pedal, you will be amazed by the strong stream of g-force and the uncorrupted acceleration achieved by its V12 and eight-speed automatic. From the magnitude of g-force, we can say the 0-60 mph claims of 4.7 seconds is every bit believable. If not the lack of noise, you might even confuse the car with a sports saloon.
In corners, the Roller is not as agile or as flat as a 7-series, of course. But it still amazes us with new found level of body control, thanks to the adoption of BMW's active anti-roll bars. As pitch and roll is greatly reduced, it feels much much smaller than Phantom. Some American motoring journalists even described it as "sporty", which is probably exaggerated. The Ghost does provide a good steering though – surprisingly accurate and feelsome. Its huge brakes also provide exceptional stopping power and good pedal feel. As a result, it will give the forthcoming Bentley Mulsanne a hard life. However, to ask it to handle like the smaller 7-series, S-class, A8 or XJ is unreasonable. No cars at this weight and with so high center of gravity can do that. I guess Rolls-Royce does not bother about that at all. If not, it should have already provided a "Sport" button for sharpening its suspensions, steering, gearshift or throttle. In fact, "comfort" is the only mode on offer. It is the basis of all Rolls-Royces in the past 100 years, and has no reason to take second priority this time around. We are glad that RR has not forgotten about its core values while pursuing to steal sales from Bentley. |
||||||||||||||
| The above report was last updated on 4 Mar 2010. All Rights Reserved. |
| AutoZine Rating | ||
 Rolls-Royce Ghost |
| Specifications | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Performance
tested by: *Autocar,
*MT |
Copyright©
1997-2010
by Mark Wan @ AutoZine