AUTOCAR ROAD TEST 5756

Facelifted junior Rolls gains the sporting flavour of a Black Badge fettling

With this week’s road test, we check in on the latest developments concerning two of Rolls-Royce’s more popular modern inventions. The Ghost limousine – now on sale as a facelifted Series II take on its second-generation form – is the first of them and the anti-traditional Black Badge derivative phenomenon is the other.

The Ghost first arrived in 2009 as a slightly smaller, more usable and less formal foil for the traditional Phantom. It broadened Rolls-Royce’s customer base significantly and also attracted a significantly younger audience.

That car became one of the first to receive a Black Badge design treatment, in 2016. Intended as an effective counterpoint to the more traditional luxury design idioms of the firm’s ‘mainstream’ models, Black Badge variants adopt subversive, alternative materials and features to appeal to buyers less enamoured of the ‘age of grandeur’ that Rolls-Royce has typically catered to and more motivated by contemporary design trends.

The Black Badge Rolls-Royce has proven a commercial success and now accounts for 25% of the firm’s sales volume. With this Ghost Series II, it takes a subtle but significant development step in sporting character and engineering scope. The resulting car has been described by its maker as the most agile and driver-focused limousine the firm has created. Stand by to find out what, precisely, that means.

DESIGN & ENGINEERING

★★★★✫

PROS Subversive-looking but not OTT; some hardware and chassis mods lift the application of ‘Black Badge’ above the cosmetic

CONS No more power than the pre-facelift Black Badge

Launched in 2020, the second-generation Ghost has become a key technological demonstrator for Rolls-Royce. The first-generation car was criticised for its adoption of a BMW Group model platform and V12 engine, but the second could hardly have been more different.

It uses Rolls-Royce’s own Architecture of Luxury (an allaluminium spaceframe-style chassis) and a different version of the 6.75-litre V12 that powers the Phantom, but it also blooded an innovative Planar active air suspension system. This not only adapts its spring and damper calibration for the road surface ahead based on input from a camera (technology that, in inimitable fashion reminiscent of motoring’s earliest days, Rolls-Royce calls ‘Flagbearer’) but also has dedicated mass damper countermeasures on both axles intended to absorb lateral shocks that might otherwise disturb the car’s ride.