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1. The new Roller Ghost- Rolls Royce Builds a Real Car
Blimey! It's certainly tempting. The new Roller Ghost, based on the chassis and electronics of the BMW 7-series (Rolls-Royce is now a wholly owned subsidiary of BMW) might be thought of as a 760Li shouted through God's holy megaphone, in a voice that sounds like Ian McKellen.
Everything good that the Rolls Ghost is that, amplified and anglicized exponentially—quieter, smoother, more luxurious and very powerful. With a bored-out version of BMW's direct-injection twin-turbocharged V12 (displacing 6.6 liters here) the Rolls rides a glowing mainspring filament of horsepower and torque unprecedented in company history, 563 hp and 575 pound-feet of torque.
In a car dedicated to serene sensations and sheer, gliding effortlessness, calling on this kind of thrust feels very much like going over Niagara in a beautifully appointed, leather-lined barrel. Zero to 60 mph goes by in 4.7 seconds and if you keep your Allen Edmonds fully planted in the shearing wool carpeting, you'll reach 120 mph in about 12 seconds. The eight-speed automatic transmission dispatches full- tilt gear changes with the barest perceptible flutter. There's a warm gathering sound inside the cabin, woodwinds more than brass, but it's not what you would call an exhaust note. Rather, it's the sound of inspiration.
The express elevator stops at an electronically limited 155 mph but there's little doubt the car could achieve 190 mph with nary a bead of sweat on gunner’s stiff upper lip.
Base price: $245,000 Price, as tested: $300,000 (est.)
Powertrain: 6.6-liter, direct-injection, twin-turbo V12 with variable valve timing; eight-speed automatic transmission; rear-wheel drive.
Horsepower/torque: 563 hp@5,250 rpm/575 pound-feet@1,500-5,000 rpm
Length/weight: 212.6 inches/5,445 pounds
Wheelbase: 129.7 inches
Cargo capacity: 14 cubic feet
EPA Fuel economy: 13/20 mpg, city/highway
The synergies between parent company BMW and Rolls-Royce are near-perfect in this car. The Germans have handled the engineering and the British designers have ruled over matters of luxury, taste, craft and the breathtaking delights of ruling-class privilege.
The Ghost in all ways is a more measured, more realistic car. It is, first of all, much smaller—17.7 feet in length (17.1 inches shorter), 76.7 inches abeam (down 1.6 inches), 61 inches high (down 3.3 inches) and weighing 5,445 pounds (down 353 pounds). The Ghost suffers from none of the hypertrophic weirdness of the Phantom. It fits on two-lane roads and parking decks, and doesn't make babies cry.
It's also quite pretty. The front of the car—with its narrow horizontal headlamps and tight rectangular grille—looks like the Jetsons' robot cleaning woman, Rosie. But overall, this is a strong styling effort.
The Rolls proprieties are observed, of course: the tall, long hood ending in a chromic bluff; the short front overhang; the tapering rear quarters drawn back from the wheels; the steeply sloped C-pillar; the high body-to-glass ratio.
And there are moments of genius here, too: the mirror symmetries between the doors, the reflective balance between the lower accent line trailing behind the front wheel arch and the chrome bow of the roof line.
Like the 7-series, the Ghost is a steel-bodied car with the approximate ductility of a submarine hatch. The Ghost's chassis stiffness—the source of its fantastic rides quality, dynamic competence and hushed—is all the more remarkable considering the four enormous holes in the body. These are where the doors go. As with the mega-Rolls, the Phantom, the Ghost has vast rear "coach doors," hinged at the back. Americans call them suicide doors on account of how much they cost.
In any event, the doors swing to nearly perpendicular to the body, making it possible to alight gracefully on the tall, upright chairs, rather than execute anything as low-born and cloddish as "sitting." Among the options is the choice of lounge chairs in the rear cabin, fully reclining, massaging, and climate controlled.
The ironwork under the car is direct from Bavaria, including the front and rear pneumatic suspension (the 7-series has air springs only in the rear); active roll stabilization; smart brakes; and dynamic chassis control, which automatically tightens the suspension to complement what the British love to call more "spirited" driving.
One system that the 7-series has that the Rolls doesn't—and could use—is the integral active steering, which at low speeds tightens the car's turning circle by deflecting the rear wheels up to 2.5 degrees. At nearly 18 feet, and with a lazy steering ratio of 19.9:1, the Ghost does not exactly caper through tight midtown traffic.
What's surprising, and gratifying, is just how unalike each the cars feel, the tactility of the cars, the sensory presence. Everything about the Rolls feels gusseted, wrapped in velvet, strung with silk, double- isolated with hydro-elastic this-and-that and suspended on bushings made of fetal pigskin.
For all their similarities, they are just very different cars. The BMW is lean. The Rolls is lush.
The specialness of the Rolls resides in its exquisite selection of interior materials. The piano-black trim on the steering wheel, the faux Bakelite, the chrome key window switches and organ-stop vent pulls, the frosted glass around the iDrive indicators, leather and veneers galore. I count among my favorites the luminous blue-white gauges in the instrument cluster—including the cool but irrelevant "power reserve" gauge. Also, the thin-section steering wheel rim—very like a Rolls—wrapped in leather of somebody's most sacred cow.
2. Rolls-Royce 102 EX (2011)
CAR This is the Rolls-Royce 102EX. Also known as the Phantom Experimental Electric, it swaps V12 petrol power for a massive block of batteries and electric motors to create perhaps the least-likely EV conversion ever.
a. Rolls-Royce 102EX: the rationale for an electric Roller
Rolls-Royce is a firm is very keen to stress, a ‘green’ concept. This is not about environmental sustainability. It’s far more important than that: it’s about the sustainability of Rolls-Royce as a business.
Rolls-Royce is more than a luxury good; it’s meant to be a supreme piece of engineering too, and the firm is remarkably candid about being unsure how important an actual engine is to its reputation for engineering. That’s why it has built the 102EX.
One more thing is 125 miles in the 102EX. It’s actually less of a problem in a Rolls-Royce than almost anything else. They do lower mileages than other cars; they’re typically used to move around city centers, or go from town to the airport or a suburban home. Nobody runs a Rolls-Royce as their only car; buy an electric Phantom and you’ll have another car (probably another Rolls) for trips longer than the battery can manage. And because a Rolls-Royce is already so furiously expensive, the cost of the battery, which usually distorts the price and economics of ordinary electric cars, is much less significant, and Rolls can simply fit the biggest the car will take.
b. Rolls-Royce 102EX: the EV powertrain
So up front is what Rolls believes is the biggest battery ever fitted to a passenger car: 96 snappily-titled lithium-nickel-cobalt-manganese-oxide cells arranged to mimic the shape of the absent V12 and gearbox. Total capacity is 71kWh, peak current 850 amps delivered at 338 volts. Three chargers sit on top of the pack to allow for three-phase charging; a full charge takes between eight and 20 hours depending on supply. There’s a five-pin socket that glows and flashes as it works in the hatch in the C-pillar vacated by the fuel filler, and an induction-charging plate underneath that will allow you to charge up by driving over a similar plate in the heated floor of your garage, doing away with the need to ever stick anything the side of your car. High-voltage cables run back through the space vacated by the prop shaft, but because they need less space the floor of the car is now entirely flat. Two 145kW AC motors sit above the rear axle and drive it through a single reduction gear and an open differential.
It isn’t a technologically radical drive train; Rolls looked at adding a flywheel based on the system developed by Williams for the F1 KERS experiment to recover more energy, and a torque-vectoring diff, but decided that just electrifying a Phantom was enough to begin with. The styling isn’t radically different either, again to keep the focus on the tech. There’s a gorgeous new sixteen-layer Atlantic Chrome paint finish, and a new, more environmentally-friendly vegetable-tanned chestnut leather trim that shows more of the hides’ natural creases and even extends to the floor.
The Spirit of Ecstasy is made of translucent Makrolon polycarbonate and lit with blue LEDS, and the RR logo is red, as it always has been on ‘experimental’ models. The numbers do stand out. The 102EX makes a total of 388bhp, down from 453bhp with the V12, but torque goes up ten per cent to 590lb ft. At around 2700kgs, mass is up less than 200kgs but that monstrous torque figure means the Phantom will still hit 60mph in less than eight seconds, and is limited to a top end of 100mph.
c. Driving the Rolls-Royce 102EX But forget all the figures.
Numbers can’t describe what it’s like to drive an electric Rolls-Royce. The 102EX makes a strong claim to be the most refined car ever made, and driving it is one of the weirdest experiences at the wheel. The effortless, almost silent way it surges away from standstill will be familiar to anyone who’s driven a modern electric vehicle. There’s a faint, Star-Trek sigh from the twin electric motors behind the rear seats; the engineers could have damped it all away.
Because a Rolls V12 is so refined anyway, the contrast between petrol and electric isn’t as great as it is in other electrified cars. In those other cars, the absence of the noise and vibration of an engine means you notice more suspension, tire and wind noise; they’re not louder, plainly, but just more noticeable, and not good to listen to. But because the Rolls still has arguably the best chassis refinement of any car, even after eight years on sale, there isn’t anything much left to hear or feel.
d. 102EX’s future technology- a wireless charging system
Simply by parking over special pads buried in the ground, Phantom drivers will be able to use a technology known as 'induction charging’ - already seen in the home with some electric toothbrushes and kettles. It uses 'magnetic coupling’ instead of a physical connection such as a cable. Rolls-Royce says it will offer 'greater convenience’ for owners and 'hints at the potential for a network of remote charging facilities’. The system is around 90 per cent efficient, when measured from the mains supply to the actual battery.
According to Rolls-Royce the special finish accentuates the car’s chiseled looks, giving a 'wet’ impression. Atlantic Chrome will also appear on the dashboard dials, including a battery charge indicator - which replaces the fuel gauge - and a separate dial next to the speedometer, indicating how fast the batteries are recharging.
As an option to wireless charging, the one-off Phantom also has a plug and five-pin socket taking the place of the normal fuel filler and there are three-colored LED lights in the see-through filler-flap cover, confirming the car’s charging status.
“Today, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars begins an exploration into alternative drive-trains, seeking clarity on which technology may be suitable to drive Rolls-Royce motor cars of the future”, said Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös.
e. Forgetting the limitations of the 102EX's battery pack
This car, as the CEO said in that speech is the future of the company. But like any other Phantom, the 102EX drives with an ease and grace that belie its size; the high driving position and great square plateau of bonnet – surely the best view in motoring – imparting complete confidence.
Like other good EVs the Rolls is an immensely relaxing thing to drive; not only is there no noise and only one gear, but you seldom need to shift your foot to the brake as the gentle braking effect of the motors as they become generators generally slows you enough anyway. In the 102EX the button on the steering wheel that usually locks the transmission in low instead gives stronger regenerative braking, recovering more energy and slowing the car firmly enough to bring it to a halt if you time it right, so you drive this vast, priceless car with just a flex of your right ankle and a flick of the thumb.
f. Going the distance in the 102EX
It feels pretty good; deliberately gentle up to about 20mph, when the vast weight is overcome by even greater torque and you get that lovely, irresistible, guilt-free surge of torque. It might not be as fast as a V12, but it’s fast enough.
g. Verdict, however…
By putting such a big battery in such a big car, Rolls-Royce shows the limits of the possible. It’s the first real exploration of how super-luxury cars might drive in 20 years’ time. And despite its protestations, Rolls-Royce is going to find it very hard to resist the customers who will come to it with open check books once they’ve driven this extraordinary car, asking for a 102EX of their own.
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