For 116 years, Rolls-Royce has been crafting automobiles synonymous with luxury and exclusivity. Now it’s debuting its most technologically advanced automobile yet with the brand-new Ghost. Originally released more than 100 years ago, the Silver Ghost was named “Best Car in the World,” a reputation later iterations of the Ghost aimed to hold onto. The previous model was last updated in 2009 and was the most successful Rolls-Royce car ever built. Here are 10 things to know about the new Ghost.
1. The new Ghost will feature more minimal styling, a reflection of the brand’s post-opulent design philosophy, which relies on quality and substance as opposed to flashier details like large branding or busy stitching.
2. Doors will electronically open and close.
3. The rigid, aluminum, Rolls-Royce spaceframe architecture—also used on Phantom and Cullinan—is exclusive to the brand and allows for a super-luxury product with interior acoustics aimed at serenity and noise reduction.
4. The design team increased the width by 30 mm, with a streamlined front end featuring sharp lines that help build a commanding presence, along with 20 LEDs below the radiator grille. To make sure the lights weren’t overdone, the design team brushed the backs of the metal grille bars to be less reflective.
5. The car’s lower “waft line” was inspired by boat design and uses reflection to create a sense of motion.
6. As a response to clients’ previous desire to not just be driven in the Ghost, but to drive the automobile themselves, emphasis is on the driving experience, creating a hybrid that speaks to the owner as passenger and as driver.
7. The signature brand emblem is down lit on the Pantheon grille, and the Ghost nameplate is encompassed by more than 850 “stars,” the result of designers spending more than two years and 10,000 hours to create.
8. The first-ever Planar suspension system increases agility and complements the all-wheel drive.
9. Above and beneath the fascia are 152 LEDs, each matched to the cabin’s clock and instrument dial lighting. A 2 mm-thick light guide featuring more than 90,000 laser-etched dots disperses the light evenly over the interior in a starlight effect.
10. An amplifier controls 18 speakers that provide a 1,300W output, and precision magnesium-ceramic compound speaker cones allow for a plethora of changes in sound. Two interior cabin microphones can activate an adaptive function that detects the absence or abundance of frequencies before launching the amplifier to adjust the volume of other frequencies to counteract it.
