CRAFTED TO BE THE BEST

What does it take for a car to be the best in the world? It is easy to define a favourite, for certain, but what makes a car the best? We believe Rolls-Royce has answered that question with the sublime Ghost, their most technologically advanced saloon yet, and certainly the best we have sampled. 

Defining what makes a car the best is something of a moving target. What, for one person, is the best will be different for another. It depends on how far you drive, how fast you want to drive, and your budget. But what if your budget is unlimited to all intents and purposes, and your requirements as unrestrained as your imagination? In that instance, you need a car that has been built with minimal compromise and an unprecedented level of attention to detail. For us, the only vehicle that could fit that bill is a Rolls-Royce Ghost.

SETTING THE SCENE

The Ghost is not the largest Rolls-Royce in the Goodwood firm’s current model line-up. At a basic level, it isn’t even the most expensive, but it is the newest (save for the all-electric Spectre that lurks on the horizon in 2024), and even Rolls-Royce dubs it the most technologically advanced Rolls-Royce yet. 

So, how does one review a car like the Ghost? We will discuss how it drives, of course, but what is more pertinent here is to ask what the experience of the Ghost is like, and what sets it apart from other cars that could bolster its case for being one of the finest automobiles ever made. 

The first myth to dispel is that one would only buy a Ghost because you cannot afford a Phantom. With a starting price of approximately R13 million (exchange rate dependent), no one is buying a Ghost because another Rolls-Royce is somehow beyond their budget. On the contrary, the Ghost is similarly priced to the Cullinan SUV.

Another fable is that the Ghost is a glorified BMW 7 Series. Unlike the previous Ghost, which used a BMW backbone, the new Ghost shares its aluminium underpinnings with both the Phantom and the Cullinan, meaning this is as much of a Rolls-Royce as any ever made.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE MAGNIFICENT

Under the Roller’s sweeping bonnet lies Rolls-Royce’s famed 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12, thoughtfully positioned behind the front axle for better weight distribution. With 420 kW of power and 850 Newton meters of torque available to the driver, the magnificent V12 has enough gusto to propel the 2,490-kilogram Ghost to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds and on to a limited top speed of 250 km/h. Granting additional traction to the take-off process, the Ghost is all-wheel-drive and, like its predecessor, uses an eight-speed automatic gearbox. 

Part of the Ghost magic is that you’ll never notice the gearbox working. That is because it uses satellite data to select the appropriate gear for the road ahead. 

When approaching a corner, for instance, you’ll find that the gearbox has already dropped a few ratios, or if you’re about to climb a steep hill, you’ll be in the correct gear without realising it. There are no options to tune or tweak anything on the Ghost; the steering weight is as it was set in the factory, as is the suspension, and the gearbox offers no paddles; you just let it do its thing. 

The Ghost also incorporates all-wheel steering, which sees the rear wheels turn up to five degrees in the opposite direction to the front wheels at up to 40 km/h and, in the same direction to five degrees, above that speed.

The engine is so incredibly smooth that most of the time you hardly notice it, and only when you put your foot to the floor does a slight growl escape the heavily sound-proofed engine bay. At this point, the nose pitches up towards the sky as the Ghost propels you forward so gracefully and with such ease that one needs to keep an eye on the power reserve dial for an inkling of how much power remains available. Unless your foot is planted fully in the plush carpet, there always seems to be more power at the ready. 

Considering that the Ghost is 5.5 meters long and nearly two metres wide, the four-wheel steering helps manoeuvre the large saloon in places and in ways that you wouldn’t think are possible. 

The Ghost will (and should) never feel like a small car, but this combination of power and agility gives one confidence to carry more pace down the road than you might expect. That said, this isn’t a car you want to hustle in; it is far better suited to relaxed driving, and the key to doing that is its advanced suspension.

There are, of course, the traditional double wishbones up front and a multilink setup at the rear, but what sets the Ghost apart from lesser cars is what Rolls-Royce calls the Planar suspension system, which works in tandem with the Flag Bearer system that uses cameras to scan the road surface and adjust the air suspension accordingly at up to 100 km/h.

Essentially, the Planar system is the result of several years of work. It is simple but also quite brilliant. In a nutshell, the system uses mass to dampen out low-frequency vibrations from the road. Above the upper front wishbone is a three-kilogram weight, which helps offset the very harshest bumps that the shocks and dampers on their own wouldn’t be able to do. The result is such a smooth ride that it is quite challenging to describe, but it transforms the smallest Rolls-Royce into the smoothest riding one.

BESPOKE AND BEYOND

One doesn’t, of course, invest upwards of R13 Bar for the engine, gearbox, suspension, and steering; there is a lot more to the Ghost than its mechanics. 

There’s the Spirit of Ecstasy that now resides inside the bonnet, whereas before, it was a separate panel, so she sat on the nose and the bonnet moved independently. Then there are the “RR” badges on the centre wheel hubs that remain upright when you’re on the move, and doors that open in the opposite direction to one another to make ingress and egress easier, and house full-sized umbrellas in a heated chamber so that it’s dry and ready for use the next time you need it. And then, finally, you climb into the back of the car…

There is so much going on in the back, but the Ghost never feels gimmicky or busy. The heated and cooled seats are superbly comfortable, and will provide one of the best massages we have ever encountered in any car. Likewise, the plush carpet is some of the thickest carpet we have ever experienced anywhere.

Being a Rolls-Royce, the Ghost can be optioned with almost any features and functions. Our test unit was fitted with large screens in the rear, allowing you to change the radio, navigation, or watch TV. There is also a champagne cooler that operates at two settings – six degrees or 11 degrees – because Rolls-Royce did the research and determined that six degrees is the perfect temperature for modern champagne, and 11 degrees is the appropriate temperature for vintage champagne.

Look up and revel in the beauty of the Ghost’s starlit ceiling, which can be customised to any constellation of your choosing. Every surface and every detail assures you that Rolls-Royce engineers have gone the extra mile to create an environment as exclusive and exacting as the car’s owner. The doors, for example, don’t just open and close at the touch of a button; you can open them on a hill as steep as you dare, and they will remain exactly where you left them. They will neither fly open in the wind nor fall back and knock the wind out of you.

SOUND OF SILENCE

The Ghost benefits from 100 kilograms of sound insulation spread throughout the car, including inside the tyres. All windows are double-glazed, and the floor and bulkhead are double-skinned to insulate the cabin further. Even the air vents have been entirely smoothed out to reduce unwanted noise. 

Like the Ghost’s front suspension, its seats also incorporate a mass damper to reduce vibrations and remove unwanted sound waves. Rolls-Royce is so particular about keeping the cabin whisper quiet, that the seats go through their own sound test before they even make it into the car. What noise there is in the Ghost has been tuned to be delivered at a specific frequency – a whisper, as Rolls-Royce calls it. Truly remarkable.

LAST WORD

There are better cars to drive out there in terms of how fast they are flat out, how the steering translates feedback from the wheels to the driver, and how powerful the brakes are, but those cars adhere to particular definitions of “best”. The irrefutable reality of this car is, when you drive it (or when you are driven in it), when you look into the details of how it was developed, and study how it is made, there are many areas where the Ghost is simply a jump beyond anything else available today.

Report by BERNIE HELLBERG JR | Images © HUNTLEYTOGRAPHY