New Rolls-Royce Ghost unveiled

Rolls-Royce claims the second-generation Ghost is the most advanced car it has ever made.

That’s a bold claim coming from a car-maker with a heritage like Rolls-Royce, but believable when you consider the car it replaces was the luxury British brand’s best-selling car in its 116-year history.

With the arrival of the fast-selling Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV, the pressure is off the Rolls-Royce Ghost from repeating its sales success, but that hasn't stopped the team of designers, engineers and craftsman at the BMW-owned company’s Goodwood HQ from pulling out all the stops to ensure the latest Ghost is the best it can be.

Back in February, carsales was treated to an exclusive up-close-and-personal audience with the car built to battle the upcoming new Mercedes-Maybach S650 and existing competition from the significantly cheaper but still impressive new Bentley Flying Spur.

Back when the first Rolls-Royce Ghost was launched in 2009, its maker openly admitted the concept of a limo to sit below its flagship Phantom was a huge challenge.

While owners of the big Phantom usually lounge in the rear, in markets like Australia, Europe and the US owners preferred to do the driving themselves.

Today, nothing's changed, so the Ghost must be both a true driver's car while, at the same time, the quietest, most comfortable luxury limousine available.

It also must have longevity. Rolls-Royce can ill-afford to match lesser brand's lifecycles, as evidenced by the first generation staying on sale for more than a decade.

That all explains why, when we meet the all-new Ghost in a non-descript photographic studio in south-west London, it comes as no surprise its designers have not rocked the boat aesthetically.

The white-car-on-white-background isn't helpful, but catch a glimpse of the latest Rolls-Royce and your brain instantly picks out the familiar Ghost profile, despite not a single body panel being carried over.

It's only as you adjust to the light that you realise how different it is to the current car.

Reflecting trends already happening in the world of fashion, architecture and million-dollar yachts, the 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost has been developed for a 'post-bling' world.

I'm initially dubious, but a careful walk around the car with one of the men who designed it reveals how Rolls-Royce went to great lengths to ensure it treads the fine line between being imposing, but not obscene.

The reductive approach extends to simple surfacing, which could have resulted in a slab-sided look if the lower, gloriously-named 'waft' lines hadn't been employed.

A delicate pin-stripe, meanwhile, stretches all the way across the body, done by hand, and accentuates some of the muscle to this body.

Up front there's a pair of slimline LED laser lamps and the car-maker's trademark 'Pantheon' grille. Unlike the Phantom, it misses out on the bonnet chrome finisher, but gets unusual LED downlighting that's either kinda cool or gauche, depending on what side of the tracks you grew up in.

Speaking of brightwork, around the Ghost chrome has been used sparingly – well, for a Rolls-Royce at least – with the car-maker even going so far as considering getting rid of it completely, using other materials like titanium in its place.

It seems foolish to use names like 'reductive' and 'sparingly' for a sedan that measures in at 5546mm long (+89mm) and 1978mm (+30mm) wide but, trust us, in the flesh it works.

It also helps ensure the Rolls-Royce Ghost is as handsome as the Cullinan is gawky.

The big news is that beneath the skin the Ghost is based on an all-new full aluminium space-frame chassis – the same underpinnings that are shared with the bigger Phantom sedan and the Cullinan SUV.

The architecture, which will never be used by a BMW model, has helped Rolls-Royce move with the times, introducing state-of-the-art technology and achieving a class-leading driving experience, plus some of the highest levels of refinement of any car on sale today. At least that's the claim.

Handily providing an ideal 50:50 weight distribution and body rigidity that far surpasses the last version, for the first time the small Rolls gets all-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. Rear-drive isn't and won't ever become available.

Beneath its stretched bonnet lurks a 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12, lifted from the Cullinan and Phantom, that produces 420kW of power and 850Nm of torque – matching the flagship limo for power but some 50Nm down on the Phantom's peak torque.

Not that many will notice. There is no official weight claim, but the new Ghost is apparently only fractionally heavier than the current version and that peak torque figure is delivered from just 1600rpm.

Performance figures haven't been quoted yet either, but we expect a sub-5.0sec 0-100km/h sprint time and a limited top speed of 250km/h.

Shortly after launch, a torquier, more powerful Black Badge version will also be offered, offering sportier and menacing styling plus added dynamism.

Not that the standard version will be a dynamic dullard. Far from it: the addition of rear-wheel steering will do the usual trick of boosting agility at low speed and increasing high-speed stability.

Except that with the Ghost its responses will be deliberately subtle, with the rear axle only pivoting a maximum of five degrees at low speed, while at highway speeds the system reduces the unpleasant jolting feeling of changing lanes.

Rolls-Royce says it's avoided the temptation to ramp up the Ghost’s sportiness, but active anti-roll bars should make it indecently quick cross-country, if you're in a rush.

New suspension tech introduced to enhance the last car's cossetting Magic Carpet Ride include Planar and Flagbearer. The first is a novel mechanical damper solution for the upper wishbone that, along with hydraulic bump stops, filters out the worst imperfections of a poorly surfaced road.

Flagbearer insulates occupants from big bumps, like potholes and manhole covers. It works by scanning the road ahead with dual cameras. If it detects an obstacle at speeds of up to 100km/h, it pre-arms the dampers and even disconnects the anti-roll bars to cushion the blow.

Ensuring the eight-speed automatic operates under the on-board occupants' radar, Rolls-Royce uses data from the sat-nav to map out the topography of the road ahead and ensure the tranny is always in the right gear for the conditions.

From launch, the 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost’s array of sensors hidden below the grille will allow basic Level 2 autonomous cruising, although a year or two into its life it's thought this will be upgraded to hands-off Level 3 driving capability on the highway.

So that's the exterior and oily bits covered, but most will buy the 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost for its cabin, and it's easy to see why.

Now accessed via four doors that electronically open or close themselves, the rear-hinged 'suicide' doors carry over alongside the previous Ghost's olde-world charm.

For the new model, those who travel in the Ghost will benefit from an advanced in-car cabin air filtration system that constantly monitors the quality of air your breathing. If contaminants seep in, the system kicks in and takes just two minutes to scrub the air clean again.

It's within the cabin that you can begin to truly appreciate the attention to detail that has been lavished on the new Ghost.

For those who desire huge touch-screens and minimalist-designed cabins, buy a Tesla, because Rolls-Royce's latest sedan is a four-wheeled digital detox.

Not that the tech isn't there, it's just hidden, or redesigned to be savoured. An example is the chrome-ringed digital panel or the completely hidden rear-seat infotainment system.

Sure, there's on-board wifi and the latest sat-nav tech, but engineers and designers would rather you savour features like the updated starlight headliner, which every so often now involves 'shooting stars' darting across the roof lining.

As you would expect for this money, the fit and finish is incredible and the choice of materials impeccable.

Swap to the second row and Rolls-Royce happily admits engineers got so carried the Ghost was too quiet, it (appropriately) spooked those travelling in it.

To lessen unwanted noise engineers claim the properties of the stiff aluminium spaceframe mean it's a poor conductor of sound frequencies but, despite this it didn't stop them adding a double skinned bulkheads, acoustically tuned climate control, a reprofiled propshaft, sound wave vents in the rear 507-litre boot and carrying out a complete redesign of the intake for the V12.

Finally, more than 100kg of sound insulation used in the doors, roof and tyres, plus new low-resonance seat mounts were all introduced with the end result of the Ghost being too quiet.

Now, when the 18-speaker 1300W sound system isn't pumping, the Rolls-Royce plays out what is calls whisper quiet noise to help reduce driver and passenger disorientation.

Despite that, the Ghost will almost certainly be the quietest and most refined in its class.

When it arrives in Australia in early 2021, Rolls-Royce is expected to once again position the Ghost at least $100,000 more than its supposed rivals, with pricing set to commence from $750,000 (plus on-roads) – not that any will leave the showroom at that money.

On average, Australians plough yet another six-figure sum into personalisation and the car-maker's bespoke division to make their Ghost their own.

That's a sobering amount of cash, but if you’re rich and want the best, and with the latest second-gen Rolls-Royce Ghost, you’re probably going to get it.