Ghost of a chance

The new Ghost is the most powerful car Rolls-Royce has put into production and gives the company a more dynamic face. Photo / Supplied

Rolls-royce is pulling the wraps from its new, smaller luxury car at next week's Frankfurt motor show. The Ghost, which breaks with Rolls tradition in several areas, was introduced partly in a bid to better compete with rival Bentley.

But don't worry; the company is not abandoning many of its time honoured touches, like the champagne cooler and in-door umbrellas.

For years, Rolls and Bentley were bedmates, but nowadays BMW and rival Volkswagen own them respectively. Bentley, which has positioned itself to appeal to a younger market interested in a sportier type of driving, enjoyed some spectacular sales increases - at least until the recession hit.

The Ghost, named after a classic Roller first produced in 1906, is expected to cost around $425,000 in the UK. For our remaining captains of industry and recent Lotto winners, the car should be available here sometime next year.

"Ghost is one of the most revered names in automotive industry," said Tom Purves, Rolls-Royce's CEO. "It evokes images of adventure and technical innovation. The first cars to bear the Ghost name were known not only for dependability and refinement but also great flair and style."

Designer Ian Cameron and engineer Helmut Riedl, who had headed the fifth-generation Phantom, masterminded the car.

The Ghost will borrow 20 per cent of its parts from the BMW 7 Series, but these are well out of sight.

Although it's 400mm shorter than the Phantom, interior space is comparable. The monocoque body is constructed from steel sections wrapped in steel panels, brazed by hand. The bonnet and windscreen surround are honed from aluminium.

Ghost uses a double-wishbone front suspension and multi-link rear suspension with an "intelligent", four-cornered, air suspension system and electronic variable damping. Rolls-Royce boasts that the air suspension is so sensitive it can sense the movement of a rear passenger from one side of the seat to the other and compensate accordingly.

A new 6.6 litre twin-turbo V12 engine is unique to the model. Featuring direct fuel injection, it produces 420kW - enough to run 0-100km/h in under five seconds. Torque of 780Nm is available from only 1500rpm. Power goes through an eight-speed ZF automatic. A "power reserve gauge" on the fascia replaces the common-person's rev counter.

For all that "go", fuel consumption isn't bad at 13.6 litres per 100km overall. Owners may want to mumble the CO2 emissions, though; 317 grams per kilometre.

Ghost is the most powerful car that Rolls-Royce has produced, but the company takes trouble to distance itself from any performance-car image. "Rolls-Royce power is delivered in a very different manner to other cars," the company says. "It arrives in an elegant, cosseting way that some have described as being designed to lower the pulse, not raise it."


Housed within the wide front doors are integrated Teflon-coated umbrellas, as you'd expect. The rear doors are traditional, rear-hinged coach doors, opening to 83 degrees; to the uncouth they would be known as suicide doors. Once the passenger is inside, the doors can be closed at the touch of a button.

If it's not airy enough in the cabin, there's an optional panorama sunroof, which extends from the front into the rear compartment.

Other goodies include frosted lamps and chrome door handles, traditional violin key switches and eyeball air vents, frosted white dials and "refined" instrumentation. If deep-pile carpets don't suit, there's always the optional lamb's wool floor mats.

Ghost does not have an ordinary rear seat; instead, it has a "lounge seat" said to create a "convivial" environment. A slight curve allows its occupants to turn more easily towards each other. If that doesn't appeal, individual lounge seating is an alternative. This choice allows the addition of a massage function and perforated leather for a cooling stream of air from the seat surface. As you'd expect.

And yes, the leather is still sourced from bulls raised in pastures free of barbed wire, ensuring that there are fewer imperfections in the leather.

A cool box with interior illumination and integrated champagne glasses is available and potential buyers might expect no less than the appearance on the options list of veneered picnic tables. Fitted to the rear of each front seat, these tables are a traditional Rolls-Royce item and finished in a veneered surface with leather-covered backs.

The car's AV setup is better than most people have in their house. The sound system delivers 600 watts of output through a 10-channel amplifier and 16 speakers, including two floor-mounted subwoofers.