Gereden: Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge

On the road with the smallest Rolls-Royce in the model range. Small is relative because Ghost is 5.5 meters tall. So it cannot be called small. The Ghost has been around since 2009 and has been upgraded several times since then. The current generation is also eligible for an update that will come later this year. Still, we came out with the Ghost Black Badge 2021. If only we could see the color in real life.

Completing the best even more. Rolls-Royce says it’s possible and is now testing the next-generation Ghost Series II. This generation has been active since September 2020 and that was already a major update on a technical and optical level. The Ghost had four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, a so-called “Planar” suspension and a new illuminated grille. “Planar” suspension includes additional dampers and mass designed to absorb high-frequency vibrations. The illuminated grille, the first of its kind to appear on a Rolls-Royce, features illuminated speakers and lights at the top of the traditionally shaped triangular grille. With the arrival of this new generation in 2020, the end of the first generation was concluded, but not before several compliments were paid to this model. The first spirit was a response to a new generation of customers, in terms of age and attitude. These men and women asked for a Rolls-Royce in a smaller, less glamorous way to own a Rolls-Royce. The success of the product that Rolls-Royce made for them met the highest expectations. During its ten-year run, which began in 2009, the Ghost has been the best model in the brand’s 116-year history.

Now four years later, here we are with Ghost Black Badge. Not black, red or silver. Rolls-Royce’s PR department loves extreme colors and what if you have the option of choosing the color ‘Illegal Pink’. If the illegal word appears in something, it is provocation and that is what it was. Customers are free to choose one of the brand’s 44,000 ready-to-wear colors or create their own completely unique shades. However, the majority of women and men who requested this darker expression of Ghost chose the black signature. Rolls-Royce’s PR department doesn’t, so we get into the pink Rolls-Royce Ghost at CITO Motors in Eindhoven and pull into the Rotterdam area. It’s clear that the least desirable way to own a Rolls-Royce has been completely thrown overboard this way. People do not know what they are going through and the thumbs of young and old cannot be counted on one hand.

Driving around a Rolls-Royce is like taking a warm bath. Step inside and everything is instantly recognizable. This may be due to the influence of a certain German brand, but that is beside the point. Rolls-Royce does its best to overcome that by throwing its sauce on it. More luxury and better, that’s what Spirit is all about. Big comfortable seats. Large but narrow steering wheel and lambswool floor mats. However, with the introduction of this generation, an option was also added that was only available on the Phantom at that time. Roof and starry sky! And the development doesn’t stop here either, because Rolls-Royce has been producing beautiful lights for some time now. It is also possible to watch a shooting star pass by. It’s the details that the people at Rolls-Royce pay attention to and this is just one of them. We already wrote, the interior feels like coming home. The touch screen works intuitively, and the climate is still controlled by large chrome buttons. There are no digital screens on which you set the temperature, but buttons that you have to replace. It has some merits, but it also takes a while to get to the right temperature when driving.

Driving with the Ghost Black Badge is cool enough. Don’t expect it to be able to corner like a Porsche 911 or McLaren, but with the addition of rear axle steering, it has become a much more agile car. The turning cycle has been reduced significantly, but more everyday actions have also become easier. Consider parallel parking or driving through small parking garages. With the arrival of this generation, the Black Badge package was also revised. The driver and chassis were redesigned, making the car more dynamic. This was achieved by changing the suspension to reduce body roll. No worries about drying. Every bump is finely tuned to continue to provide the feeling of ultimate comfort. Not only that, the power of the V12 was increased to 600 hp and 900 Nm of torque. 29 hp and 50 Nm more than normal. Not that you see a more sporty character with the V12. This provides force like a knife through hot butter. In addition to technical improvements, the Black Badge also gets a number of optical features. You can recognize it by the (lit) Dark Chrome Spirit of Ecstasy, Black Badge door trims, 21″ carbon aluminum wheels and black brake calipers.

Driving a Rolls-Royce Ghost comes with a price tag. The Specter is the cheapest at under 400,000 euros and the Ghost shown here costs 420,658 euros excluding tax. You can increase that price by visiting Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke department and, for example, having your seat belts covered in alpaca wool. Whatever you have in mind, the professionals and women at Goodwood can make it happen. If you have the familiar yellow plates fitted to this Ghost Black Badge, you can be sure to spend over 500,000 euros. This leaves the Spirit in a lonely classroom. You can wear a BMW 7-Series or a Mercedes-Benz S-Class all you want, but you’ll never get these prices. However, you won’t have the Spirit of Ecstasy up front and you’ll be limited to what Rolls-Royce has to offer.

Photography and Christian Kalse.