Rolls-Royce Specter Drive Review and Photos

We get it, there is a certain image when you are in a Rolls-Royce. The brand has been synonymous with elegance, luxury, timelessness and heritage dating back to the early 1900s. And it’s not every day we get to have a great seat time with one, but that’s what happened with the new Spectre.

Announced in 2022 and now making its way into owners’ hands, the Rolls-Royce Specter is a brand new, luxury two-door electric car that’s different from the big V12s of yesteryear. . Beyond its striking looks and massive presence, the all-electric RR is no show-and-go. Quite the opposite: the Specter’s powertrain produces the same 577 horsepower, 664 lb-ft of torque, and accomplishes 0-60 in 4.6 seconds. The technology used combines with Rolls-Royce’s luxury features and design elements, thus combining its powerful driving capabilities with the kind of elegance you’d expect from a luxury yacht, or a private jet perhaps.

We were invited by Rolls-Royce by exclusive invitation to Burlington, Canada and had a private seat in our very own Rolls-Royce Spectre. We were able to drive it on long stretches of freeway as well as back roads, and our six-person caravan even ventured into a few Toronto suburbs. After our full day, we were able to distill our thoughts and feelings into five key words that clearly describe how we would sum up the Rolls-Royce Spectre.

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“Silence”

The quiet interior of the cabin is the kind of thing Rolls-Royce is known for, where its customers don’t need to whisper to have a full conversation. But Specter takes things to a whole new level.

Previously in RR cars, engine noise entered the cabin a little, along with tire noise. The Specter however – being fully electric – has completely removed the former element from the equation. As with most modern EVs, there’s no indication that the system is burned out, and the Specter is no exception. While you’d also expect tire noise to seep in, we were shocked at how barely audible we were when driving on Toronto’s expressways. The most surprising thing was when we discovered that our car had Pirelli winter tires which are often so loud you’ll need to turn up the volume on the stereo with a few clicks just to beat it. However, even with a small ball, we couldn’t hear anything.

Motor vehicle and Edmonds both recorded noise decibels of around 50-57 dB at normal to cruising speeds, and down to mid-30 dB when idling – these levels are equivalent to a light rain hitting the windows, to stop the rumble in the field isolated somewhere. Discussing these numbers inside a coupé is less interesting – most modern cars, EV or not, easily record 60-80 dB.

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“Comfort”

What is the result of a quiet interior? Comfort, of course. Let’s start with the review.

The near silence means you can have deep and pleasant conversations with your passengers, enjoy your music more clearly, or simply enjoy the sunset on your way home from a long drive. There’s no need to worry about feeling tired or headachey after riding out — even after the nearly four-hour traffic ride back to our hotel in Burlington, we felt sane and relaxed.

Very soft, smooth leather upholstery: check. Heated and cooled massage chairs: a piece of cake. Everything inside the Specter achieved an incredible level of refinement and luxury, which continued the trend of comfort and beauty. There were also additional touches of attention to detail that we liked while behind the wheel, such as the ease of access to all the controls, the dexterity of the buttons and stalks never made any impression on our fingers when we engaged them, and even the height of the armrests felt as if they took our measurements before building the car. The only parallel we can draw that even remotely compares to our comfort level would be us sitting in a full-body spa chair, in Cabo, in June.

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“Strong”

What? remember when laptops started ditching hard drives and started adopting SSD (Solid State Storage) storage? That model is Spectre, for short.

The Rolls-Royce Specter has a 102kWh lithium-ion battery, which powers the front and rear electric motors. This means that there is no engine in the front, no oil flowing, no alternator spinning, no belts spinning. For all intents and purposes, the Rolls-Royce Specter felt like one solid, crushed piece of aluminum, unfortunately broken by four tires and two doors.

What does this mean for local people? Well, imagine a car with nothing moving around. There are no flexible internal parts, or cracking of plastic when you go over the hump. In fact, the one and only instance of shock was when we went over a big pothole on the Queen Elizabeth Way, and even that felt like someone had stomped on the floor in a bit of anger – nothing more. If you’ve ever complained about chassis flex or a car’s NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) being too high, drive a Specter and be totally spoiled for life.

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“Driver”

As we spoke to executives and representatives at Rolls-Royce about the Spectre, one thing became clear – it’s a driver’s car.

The lines of the coupé body, the two-door configuration and the overall generous seating position mean that the Specter is a car that RR expects you to drive and enjoy, rather than being driven in by a driver like other cars in its range. And we got this feeling easily when we climbed in, set our driving position perfectly with the steering wheel, and familiarized ourselves with the accelerator pedal. The power was well-fed and well-tuned, and the handling – while not “sporty” – behaved like a car you interact with personally and not a car ‘you can have for a ride.’ To put it simply, you wouldn’t have to worry about driving the Specter, like your limousine to pick others up, get to the office or, dare I say it, run errands or even travel long distances as a grand tourer.

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“passenger”

We could not deny ourselves the pleasure of sitting in the passenger seats, front and back.

Let’s start back. The rear seats were a little disappointing, as the coupé body style limited headroom and space in general around our arms and legs. We really didn’t have room, but compared to the Ghost sedan, there was a big difference laterally and vertically. This also meant there were no folding tables behind the front seats or heated/cooled cup holders, as that’s not really what the Specter is about. But consider that you’re picking someone up from the aforementioned airport – its seating capacity for a coupé that’s heated and capable of massaging (if possible) can’t be rivaled by competing cars and brands.

The front passenger seat, however, might be the best seat in the Spectre. Take everything we said about the driver’s seat, comfort, stability and smoothness of the ride, and if you eliminate the need to stop, point, and go – this becomes the ultimate situation. Our side passenger once rubbed it when we were stuck in our 200+ minute traffic jam; when we announced that there’s no better place to be stuck on the highway “than here in the Spectre,” he gleefully replied “well… my seat is better than yours right now” as he leaned back and closed his eyes. Touché.

The Rolls-Royce Spectre available for viewing now, with prices starting at just over $422,000 USD.