If you liked that sentence, you should know Ghost’s press release is filled with expressions like that. You might also find interesting “Captains of industry, entrepreneurs and successful business men and women who are the wealth and job creators in our economy”, which is nothing but how the automaker describes the public it intends to keep attracting with its entry-level sedan. Keep attracting because Ghost can already be considered a success among luxury vehicles. Rolls-Royce started to attend that new part of the public in 2009, but always worked very hard to deal with the additional customers without losing anything of the identity it has proudly carried over many decades. Not any company can do that.
The changes Ghost receives now can be considered a half-life facelift, but Rolls-Royce did it in a different way. This is one of those cars whose sales come mostly from the image they build over the years, rather than what is shown at its first appearances. Therefore, any partial updates must be directed to enhance that image, never try to change it. In other words, this facelift was taken as an opportunity to improve the same model. This is why you’ll have a hard time spotting the differnces from the outgoing Ghost, actually; the biggest ones concern the daytime LEDs added by the headlights. The bumpers were also revised; there are chrome inserts and bigger air intakes up front, the latter having the function of improving brake cooling.
Other changes are the new wake channel at the hood, which supposedly “evokes the sight of a jet's vapour trail”, and an improved infotainment system. It’s much easier to input commands now, whether using a touch pad or the simple voice. There are more chrome inserts, tweaked seats and a reworked Spirit of Ecstasy Rotary Controller, which operates the 10” central screen. But besides wi-fi connection and better satellite navigation, Ghost brings the same satellite-aided transmission that debuted on Wraith: the GPS is used to predict the ground on which the car is about to travel, in order to adapt the eight-speed automatic transmission’s behavior: it’s able to anticipate or delay shifts accordingly. Ghost can “see beyond what the driver sees”, to use Rolls-Royce’s words.
Such transmission is paired to the same twin-turbo, 6.6L V12 engine, which isn’t expected to increase its 563 hp of power nor its 575 lb-ft of torque. But if you’re thinking these numbers are wasted on a 1980s-limousine pace, Ghost proves you wrong in three ways. Two are the outgoing car’s numbers of 4s7 on 0 to 100 kph and 250 kph of limited top speed, and the third is the fact that such sports-car performance level can be paired to even better handling, through the optional Dynamic Driving package: it features updated front and rear struts and reworked dampers, among other items, in order to offer “a more involving driving experience with no compromise to ride quality”. This is what it takes to execute Rolls-Royce’s succint, yet extremely hard, task of meeting “its owner's every need”.
Lançamento no Brasil (25/03/2015)
Modelo mais vendido da Rolls-Royce, o Ghost agora é importado ao Brasil em sua versão atualizada, chamada de Series II. Além de levíssimos retoques de estilo, o modelo traz bancos reprojetados e com funções de aquecimento, resfriamento e massagem, touchscreen de 10,2” com GPS, conexão Wi-Fi e armazenamento pessoal de 25 GB. Ele também teve a dirigibilidade melhorada como um todo, o que se torna ainda mais interessante ao lembrar do motor desde carro: seu 6.6 V12 usa dois turbos para gerar 570 cv e 79,5 kgfm, acelerar de 0 a 100 km/h em 4,9 segundos, e alcançar o limite eletrônico de 250 km/h – o câmbio é automático de oito marchas. Já há uma unidade disponível no Brasil, mas as demais virão sob encomenda, com entrega em até seis meses.