Despite being based on the F01/F02 7-Series chassis, the Rolls-Royce Ghost brings alot more to the buyer’s table. Firstly, it looks completely different. Retro-futurism isn’t only confined to modern incarnations of old musclecars – its quite clear that classic Rolls-Royce design cues are executed well here.
The kind of switchgear employed inside look of a completely different standard compared to what you get in BMWs. They look more like they came out of a luxury yacht or helicopter, and you can also say the same about the look of the wood, it’s just a grade above. Frosted lamps, chrome door handles, traditional violin key switches, eyeball air vents, frosted white dials, the works! The interior uses deep-pile carpets and there are even optional lambswool floor mats.
Leather comes only from bulls raised in pastures free of barbed wire to help reduce leather imperfections. Marks are avoided by the laser cutters. At least 8 hides are used in each interior, and a set of hides are drum-dyed in batches at the same time to ensure colour consistency. Seats and interior panels are hand-stitched.
Producing a Ghost requires it to pass through 60 pairs of hands, 2,000 individual operations, and 20 days. 7 days consist of painting and polishing. The Ghost body is first applied with a phosphate electro-coat to protect against corrosion. Then on comes a layer of primer, a colour coat, and two coats of clear lacquer. Between each layer, the body is hand-sanded and once the final cost is on, it is hand-polished for 5 hours.
The Ghost rides on air suspension at all four points. The electronically adjustable air suspension is so sensitive that it can sense the movement of a single rear passenger from one side of the seat to the other and compensate accordingly. Dampers can self-adjust every 2.5 milliseconds. The car can also raise and lower itself by 25mm.
Power comes from a new 6.6 litre twin turbo V12 engine mated to an 8-speed ZF transmission. 0 to 100km/h takes just 4.7 seconds thanks to 563 hgorsepower and 780Nm of torque from as low as 1,500rpm. The dash does not feature a rev counter but a “power reserve” gauge.
I like how they’ve added umbrella storage compartments integrated into the two front doors. The umbrellas are provided too and are Teflon-coated.
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The government is currently having a 20% toll rebate scheme for those who register 80 toll transactions and above on a single Touch ‘n Go card. This scheme begins this month.
For those of you who still want to continue pumping RON97 if your car requires the higher octane, are you having luck finding the fuel where you stay or work?