It’s so good, you can’t even hear it!: The new Rolls Royce Ghost

The veils were first lifted on the current Rolls-Royce Ghost (series II) almost a decade ago, and since then, it has started showing its age when parked next to its bigger brothers in the lineup. Now, you certainly don’t want to buy an old car for a quarter-million dollars, do you? Thankfully, Rolls-Royce have just updated the Ghost for the 2021 model year, and it’s better than ever.

The Design

Rolls-Royce aren’t particularly famous for updating their cars with (*cough*) revolutionary designs, and the new Ghost is no different. In fact, if you haven’t actually been around an old one before, you’d think Rolls Royce is ripping all of us off. However, the car has indeed gone through a complete redesign, but through the evolutionary route. So, the changes do need a keen eye to actually be pointed out. The biggest of which is the grill. yes, it lights up, though not quite as ostentatiously as the BMW X6’s light-up grill, in fact, the effect is more subtle as the lights are actually hidden under the top portion of the grill. Think luxurious hotel, instead of Japanese tuner cars. Another substantial change is that the body panels have all been hand-welded together, which basically means that the car has almost no panel gaps, now that screams understated luxury.

The Interior

The interior seems like a slightly sized down version of those found in the Phantom and The Cullinan. Which is hardly a bad thing considering both of them are more expensive than the Ghost. Apart from all the obvious luxury features you find in competitors from Bentley and Mercedes, you now also get open-pore wood trims, ambient-lit headlining that mimics a starry night sky and an illuminated dashboard inlay. But perhaps, the most remarkable feature of the Ghost is the noise or lack there-of. Rolls-Royce have stuffed more than 200 pounds of sound insulation in the Ghost. In fact, during testing, they found that the Ghost was indeed so quiet that the passengers often found it disconcerting, and motion-sickening. So, they did what anyone would do, elaborately tuned everything in the Ghost to resonate at the same frequency while it is moving. They then went one step further and designed the doorsills to double up as acoustic resonating chambers to amplify the low-end frequencies from your bangers. Quite the jazz musician’s car, isn’t it?

The Dynamics

The Ghost now gets Rolls’ clever Flag Bearer system, which uses cameras and sensors to look for pot-holes and bumps on the road and accordingly makes adjustments to the suspension in real-time to make the ride smoother. The Ghost also gets a redesigned suspension with two shock absorbers on each wheel (which is about twice as much as any car, really) and Rolls’ modular Architecture of Luxury Platform, which lighter as well as stiffer than the outgoing car. The Ghost also gets a four-wheel-drive system which is rear-biased while cruising along but can send more power to the front wheels when you need to accelerate for better grip.

The Engine

The Ghost still has a twin-turbo 6.8 litre V-12 which they quite convincingly tell you is their own and not BMW’s. It produces 563 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque which peaks at just 1600 rpm which propels this 2490kg palace of opulent luxury from nought to 60mph in just 4.6 seconds.

Price and Availability

No official word on the price has been given, however, it can be expected to start from just above $300,000. India Launch is expected somewhere in 2021