The first thing you should know about the Ghost, the new, small, affordable Rolls-Royce is that he's less or more affordable. Okay, he is both smaller and cheaper than a Phantom, but since when was the Phantom in that respect a good criterion? Smaller and cheaper than a Phantom - that's like saying that your new home is not as big as a palace Soestdijk.
Well, that figures. The Ghost is 540 inches long, 40 cm shorter than a Phantom, but more than two meters longer than a Ford Focus hatchback. To get an idea of the exact measurements, which are 19-inch wheels. In other words, he is great. Price? Nearly 352,982 euros in the Netherlands, and then you have nothing to put on a dazzling array of expensive options.
"We never want to make an affordable Rolls," says Dan Balmer Ghost Project. "It is still a Rolls-Royce. Pare simply not fit for this brand. What we intended with the Rolls-Royce Ghost is to make less formal. We know that the Phantom an over-the-top statement, that many people "to find exaggerated. The Ghost should be an accessible car. The Phantom is a car for special occasions, while the Ghost might use every day. "
An everyday Rolls-Royce? Loosening of any screwball his children from soccer practice would pick a car of 350,000 euros, it's not such a ridiculous assertion. Besides the Phantom possesses the Ghost, though he has many physical characteristics inspired from his stately, big brother, clearly a friendlier and more open appearance. Granted, it differs only subtly from the design of the Phantom - if he can on the highway overtakes cost you driven a few times to see that it is a ghost - but you expect no flame surfacing in a Rolls , right? Some Ghost will perhaps find a little subdued, but hey, it's much less gaudy than the Highest Class Bentley Mulsanne. He looks - sorry, sorry, but it must be said - very out of 007.
Rolls with the prevalent idea that their models, at least from the eighties and nineties, a little too sober, too were subdued. The Ghost, they say, offers the chance to swing a Rolls something ends and ongedwongens it. Not that we are right now shorts and slippers have to pull, but it should be collar stud loose.
The new engine will take you at least in those spheres. The Ghost is powered by a 6.6-liter V12 engine with twin turbochargers and direct fuel injection, which has nothing to do with the V12 from the Phantom, but comes from the engine of the BMW 760Li, but then boosted and refined to him a more, uh, Rolls-like character. Turbochargers match a thoroughbred Rolls, and they deliver cartloads of torque - up to 780 Nm at just 1,500 rpm, with the incredible number of 610 Nm is available from the neutral position. Its peak output is 563 horsepower, more than a Ferrari 612 and more than a Bentley GTC Speed. Speaking about figures: the Ghost reaches 100 km / h in 4.7 seconds. Four point seven. In a car with just about the size and weight of a small celestial body.
The transmission is provided by an eight-speed automatic, also from the 760. A manual transmission has never been an option. "This is still a Rolls Royce - and then you're talking about comfort and usability," says Balmer. "A manual transmission would have added stress, and we do not want."
"He has a Hollywood star the chance to dignity and style to get out without her knickers - or the lack thereof - in the eye of the paparazzi waiting '
That's the problem with the Ghost. How to unify your comfort and ease of use "with the performance of a supercar fit? Rolls with you every time they say that the Ghost 'dynamic, not sporty', which is like a movie described as funny, not entertaining.
"The difference is this," explains Balmer out. "If you look at a Mercedes S-Class with a price that even a little close to it, then you arrive at the AMG models - obviously racing cars in bands with virtually no profile, robust control and a lot of noise . But the Ghost, which is a quick and dynamic, yet also quiet and comfortable. Our goal was to give an unmistakable Rolls zoeverigheid coverage. "
The sight of the Ghost almost silently goes around the factory in Goodwood - we are indeed the first car may see, but even Top Gear does not have permission to the Ghost drive - makes it clear that what the hell 'zoeverigheid "may mean, the ghost does his best to make it happen. Like the Phantom, the Ghost air, with an aluminum front and rear multilink suspension. For example, the system senses when a rear passenger moves from one chair to another and then adjusts the suspension to the Ghost in perfect balance. Handsome.He holds more super-smart gadgets - cameras in the dark and sideways watching, plus a few cameras in the side mirrors to prevent you from parking curb scrapes - but you see at first sight. Balmer says that the design team has made every effort to "gadgets" in order not to run - no flashy sensors and lenses. The camera for night vision, for example, is concealed in the top left of the grille, invisible to any prejudice to the time-honored image of solidity.
Inside, the high visibility present technique. The dashboard and instruments have clearly been given a bit of BMW - the speedometer centrally arranged by the Ghost comes from the new iDrive, while the 10-inch flat-screen owners of a copy of the 7-series will be familiar - but everything what is visible, is specially designed for the Ghost. The trusted Rolls gadgets have remained in each front door is an umbrella stored, while the rear doors with their achterscharniering like the imposing Phantom, with its maximum angle of 83 degrees. This makes the Ghost - fun fact - the car with the very broadest step back. If you have a wide rump, then this is truly a car for you. And he has a Hollywood star the chance to dignity and style to get out without her knickers - or the lack thereof - in the eye of the waiting paparazzi.
Yes, the Ghost is in enormous. Two people from one meter row 80 is a breeze in here is enough room for four people at two meters and ten horns of a battalion around the ankles of the rear passenger.
However, Balmer says, the average owner of a Ghost - if that is not a oxymoron - a driver rather than a passenger. It is tempting to regard the ghost as an attempt by Rolls to a less exuberant this car for less exuberant times, a car that consumes less exuberant, even, than the Phantom. Ballmer emphasized that the ghost long before the Great Financial Knock-Out as a concept existed, but he admits that this car appeals to people who believe that the Phantom a wrong signal in this economic climate.
For the future of Rolls-Royce, it is vital that the ghost actually manages to be appealing. The factory in Goodwood reported that 2008 is the most successful year in times, with sales of more than 1,200 copies - the figures for this year will most probably take less because of that same Great Financial Knock-Out - but Rolls hopes that the annual production in 2011 increased to 3,000 units, which account for two thirds of the Ghost to take. It is expected that the Middle East and Asia, most of this growth will account, but the Ghost was also home to Europe to conquer a market that is less prone to the lavish Phantom style than, say , Dubai.
Do not expect all the four Ghosts will be. Like the Phantom sedan and then the Drophead Coupe produced, as has been hinted Rolls that this is the first member in the new Ghost family. A two-door? Open roof? Both possibilities would be cool. And Rolls, with your discovery of this new 'everyday accessibility "Surely there is also a ghost-estate on the role?
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