The 2021 Rolls Royce Ghost is a driver’s car hiding in a tailored English suit

so most of us would agree that last year 2020 no matter who you are where you live was challenging at best what is lesser known very fancy car manufacturers like lamborghini bentley rolls-royce they sold cars in record numbers now that would tell me perhaps we should be a bit more positive about 2021 and check in with the folks at goodwood [Music] unlike the rest of this ghost that engine is not entirely all new it is the 6.75 twin-turbo v12 we have experienced in other rolls-royces here 563 horsepower and 600 627 pound-feet of torque it comes in at 1600 rpm that drives all four wheels through an eight-speed zf automatic and then there are the performance figures now before i share this with you i do need to give you a basis of comparison the length of this vehicle is longer than that 2021 mybach we just looked at yet zero to 60 4.6 seconds v-max is electronically limited to 155 miles an hour so two things number one hopefully you did not expect this to be a lightweight 5540 pounds depending on your express your weights and measures 2 512 kilograms number two i'm going to show you something you were not expecting this has a crazy amount of power it's not explosive it is freight train like the personnel the vehicle is one that is more relaxed that engine is anything but relaxed yes the power delivery is relaxed but no way does it mean that it is slow i'd love to be able to tell you the engine speed but there's a power reserve on a rolls royce not a tachometer i'm guessing somewhere between 2 000 and about 4 4 500 rpm that's the sweet spot for this engine in this car okay okay i understand it looks a lot like the ghost that came before it just with a much sharper more james bond looking tuxedo however significant amount of changes yes this is an entirely new car let's start with how it's constructed it is virtually all aluminum the platform itself is made of aluminum body panels are all aluminum as well but something interesting they've done they share the platform with both the phantom as well as the cullinan but here they take the concept of a modular platform a bit farther than most other manufacturers like for example volkswagen with their mqb they can adjust the length of that platform for different vehicles like a golf or a passat here they take this platform and yes they can lengthen or shorten the wheelbase of the vehicle remember this is the entry-level rolls royce but the interesting thing about ghosts and dawns and wraiths most people that own these things they also drive them phantoms most of those are driven so what they've done here is not only changed the length of the vehicle made a little bit shorter than the phantom they've changed the placement of where the front wheels go the struts in the front the actual very unique casting that the struts go into that is moved forward in this platform to give it a more sinister look i think it's the only way to describe it as well as change the wheelbase to give it a lower center of gravity which makes it more of a driver's car now bringing all this together something rather unexpected in a rolls-royce 50 weight distribution and that's something i find fascinating and that is the construction of the vehicle if you look at the side of the vehicle you will not see any shut lines and that is because there are folks at rolls royce that weld the body panels together so the only shut lines you see are the doors the trunk and the hood now that's all fine and good but what are the underpinnings connected to this new platform well starting in the rear it's a five link setup but then in addition to that they add a four wheel steering system than in the front it is a double wishbone setup but the best way to describe it it's a different upper wishbone so the whole car has an air strut system and what they've done is they've put these air struts on all four corners but in front the top of the air strut is not connected to the upper a-arm instead the air strut is connected to the top of the strut tower which is part of the platform we just discussed that enables the following the connector between the upper arm and the lower arm can separate out the jobs of placing the wheel on the road from damping the car but believe it or not it gets more complicated than that remember the last ghost and dawn that we drove that had a computer-controlled transmission that was connected to the navigation system and the navigation system could in turn feed gis data to the transmission to change gears or at least change to the most optimal gear dependent on what the upcoming road is going to do well this ghost has an updated version of that that now includes another layer of data that is fed from cameras in the front of the car that scan the road and it's all this layering of data that takes the place of different drive modes so like in bmw m cars we have all those different drive modes we can change into this only has one drive mode and there's no button for it you just hit the start button put the car in drive and you're on the drive mode this is the first big turn and believe it or not it ain't terrible it actually kind of worked there now granted there are a certain amount of limits and you have to respect its limits but once you do you realize this is not about driving dynamics it's about road presence and that's where the weight kind of helps us here usually almost 6 000 pounds that's a problem but in this case the weight is working to our advantage to counteract the waft there's really no other term to describe it that is prevalent in vehicles of this size and as such it kind of cleans up the planes of motion now i do need to make myself abundantly clear here there is a significant difference between composure over planes of motion and control over planes of motion for the avoidance of doubt there ain't much control over the planes of motion here and you really wouldn't expect that in a rolls royce instead the composure helps fix a couple of things that cars these size are susceptible to for example squat in the ass end or plow in the front end from there it's pretty good considering what this is we do need to discuss some party tricks here the first most people know about is the electric closing doors however for this model the changeover the doors now can open electronically so you kind of have to have your hand on the door handle in order for it to work and the idea is you don't want to open the door and someone then drives next to your car and smashes your rolls royce then while we're discussing the exterior here clearly it retains the look of a ghost but in my eye it is much sharper in design think about the long low and mean looking gangster cars from the movies depicting the 30s that's kind of what this reminds me of the only thing i would change here is lower the height of the greenhouse to give it an even more sinister look and change the ratio of glass to the metal on the side of the vehicle speaking of metal the width of the vehicle is increased by 30 mils then the interior which is the home to the majority of the party tricks here and most people are very familiar with the starlight headliner and here they've made some changes to it so the structure of it has more density it now has something like 850 stars it's made up of 127 leds and then a party trick i may have not noticed in other ghosts the area over your head can be highlighted when you turn on the reading light so the light over my head it's almost like a halo in the starlight headliner they take this concept and they apply it to another part of the interior and to me the most successful part of the redesign of this vehicle is the dashboard and i say that because they pick up themes from 30s error rolls royces very upright dashboards and they pick it up with this high-tech idea and they repeat it in the passenger side of the dashboard then they render the word ghost in light and to do that the stars and the word it's 20 separate leds one more item while we're still inside the vehicle you guys know i'm a sucker for those birdmaster stereo systems in porsches and mercedes rolls royce they kind of go in a different direction where they create their own in-house high-end audio system like they do crazy things like 1300 watts magnesium cone speakers but here they've tied two themes together that has some of the speakers mounted to the structure of the vehicle rather than just the door panels and the reason they do this is to create a resonance in the top of the vehicle making the starlight headliner a speaker unto itself the ride quality here is to a completely different level and yeah you can't expect it to drive like a cloud excuse the pun however this is beyond expectations in that it doesn't disturb the occupants even when we push it somewhat aggressively there is unusually good composure yet here's what surprises me about that yeah there's some sort of composure going on through the setup of the suspension which you would think would make an overly soft suspension and thus the ride quality would be improved but in reality the way it goes down the road there is an unusually good balance between ride quality and composure to the point that there still is some confidence again this is not an m car but it's better than the cloud you would expect yes it was indeed that time again to play your favorite game of mine the options game well sort of you see here's a script the car you and i have been driving throughout this episode she's been a busy gal so so she's been at all these media events around different countries and as such a window sticker that breaks out the options and the pricing does not exist at least at the time of this shoot so what we're going to do is we're going to go through the base price which i have the options which i have as well as the full price which i have so with that let's just dive into the 2021 rolls royce ghost for a base price of 332 800 to that we had surprisingly english white now for the life of me i don't understand why someone would buy a special car many other firms use the term bespoke and that doesn't apply to their cars this is one of the few cars where it does why would you get white i don't understand this but believe it or not they doubled down on this not special the interior seashell which is like off-white and then arctic white and then a black dash top the only thing i'm just saying grace about this interior is the blue stitching on the dashboard and the seats as well as the piping then there is a darker wood it looks like a black wood but it's a natural finish and that is obsidian may i suggest that is a good option perhaps with a different color interior then we add effortless doors this is not just the doors that close at the touch of a button this is the doors that open at the touch of a butt then the four place seating package why that is optional on a 300 000 car i have no idea uh then the immersive seating package with the occasional third seat what this is is a center seat between the two bucket seats that sits under the armor so you could put the armrest up and you could put someone in the middle kind of like the unwashed masses do then we move on to something that is curiously entitled the central cool chamber put another way that is a refrigerator between the back seats of your rolls-royce they come with champagne flutes then the comfort entry system i really hope that the touch the button to open the doors not optional on a 300 000 car if it is please rethink that then front and rear ventilated seats is a separate option from front and rear massage seats this car has both then the chrome plated exhaust tips this is a very nice finishing detail on this vehicle especially one with black finish wheels then there is the driver's assistance package this is the adaptive cruise control stop and go in traffic then the rear theater configuration for the avoidance of doubt this is just the tv screens in the back not the picnic tables the picnic tables are an additional option then there's the lambswool floor mats this is a very rolls royce thing and they are magnificent when you take your shoes off but in a white interior may i suggest changing the color because i looked on the configurator and one can do a contrasting color in the lamb's wool mats may i suggest a black or maybe a dark blue that would really work better than white and you can also configure the umbrellas which are fitted to this car you can configure the color of the handle the stitching and make it even a two-tone umbrella may i suggest doing that as well then there is the polished stainless steel package this makes my heart a flutter it is the polished door jambs which i love on porsches and amg's and that kind of stuff but here it's polished to a chrome-like finish but these they can be personalized so this one says ghost you can have it say your name you could have it say assalamu alaikum you could have it say have a good day this is one of the reasons why one would want the rolls royce and then last but not least the vin plate i do not understand why this is optional on a 332 000 car but it is a very nice detail at the base of the b pillar may i suggest that all of them should have it and that leaves us with the full retail price i do not know the shipping and handling from goodwood england but it is four hundred and twenty eight thousand six hundred twenty five dollars there's something else going on here that makes this thing a time warp and it's kind of the interaction with the vehicle like for example the steering wheel on an m car something with this kind of power it's like this thick chunky steering wheel here it's this very thin steering wheel that you could steer with just one finger and then the stocks they're very thin kind of like an old car from like the 30s and then there are a wonderful amount of toggle switches throughout the vehicle there are big chunky knobs for the hvac system but the bees the resistance is the very large centrally located knob that is the volume control and then last but not least is the stunning clock over there on the upright dash it really more car companies need to be doing analog clocks but enough about me pontificating on the details that touch my heart need to get to the point of the matter here and that is the intersection of modern ux design and safety you and i have discussed for a long time now how unsafe all of these screens and modern day cars are this for the voice doesn't even have wireless apple carplay but i digress the reality is by bringing in this bit of history that is very much tied to rolls-royce it makes this vehicle safer to operate when you have all these real toggle switches and organ stops even though it's very fancy is significantly safer to operate because you have real buttons may i suggest other car companies that might not be as fancy perhaps they should be copying rolls-royce as we close out today's experience i cannot help but giggling because me a guy who's totally not into these types of cars comes away thoroughly impressed this is a very special driving experience i would argue it's a more special driving experience at night because of all of that starlight lighting on the dash as well as on the ceiling and i forgot to tell you there is additional lighting for the 2021 ghost in the front of the car the parthenon grill has like 20 leds at the top and it sheds light through the different columns of the parthenon grill really looks magnificent at night but that's not the driving experience the driving experience is better than what i expected to the point that it separates itself from some of its german competition and yes even the bmw m760 that said we do need to press on to the wish list and here other than a change in color even with this blue coach line here i don't have much to add the only thing i could think about and this is me really pushing it and asking for a lot is for the folks in goodwood to come up with a solution to have the starlight headliner and the panoramic sunroof coexist peacefully that would mean that whatever sun shade they put in there would contain the starlight headliner i know that would be incredibly hard to do but that to me would be the best solution going forward that said i will turn this around to you feel free to opine what we should add to the wish list in the comments below or via our social media moto man tv all one word moto man tv all more facebook twitter and instagram and with that i do need to leave you with one thing and i probably shouldn't be saying this about a rolls royce this thing when you drive it you feel like a badass until i see you next time bishop you

Channel: MotoManTV

Views: 23,926

Rating: 4.9346557 out of 5

Keywords: Rolls Royce, Rolls, Rolls Royce Ghost, 2021 Rolls Royce Ghost, 2021 Rolls Royce Ghost Review, Mercedes Maybach S580, 2021 Maybach S580, 2021 Mercedes Maybach S680, 2021 Mercedes Maybach S Class, BMW M760i, BMW 760i, Bentley Flying Spur, Bentley Mulsanne, Review, MotoMan, MotoManTV, Car Review, Bentley, Maybach, #OptionsGame, Rolls Royce Ghost 2021, rolls royce review

Id: Pqi1Oitk4WQ

Length: 18min 31sec (1111 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 16 2021