1997 Silver Spur One Of The Nicest I've Seen, Over $24k In Services And Repairs on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Check out King Charles III's $17.6 million car collection

King Charles III's coronation will take place in England on May 6, and being crowned a monarch comes with a long list of perks with four wheels. He will gain full access to the Royal Family's fleet of cars, which is valued at about GBP14 million (approximately $17.6 million). The two most expensive cars in the collection are nearly identical: they're a pair of Bentley State Limousine models (pictured) built for Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III's mother, in 2002. Only two units were made, and they're both part of the Royal Family's fleet, so they're difficult to put a value on; it's not like one is going to end up listed on your favorite auction site anytime soon. British company Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, which compiled the list, estimates that each armored, 245-inch long sedan is worth at least GBP10,000,000 (roughly $12.6 million). Dropping below the eight-digit threshold, the second-most-valuable car in the Royal Family's fleet isn't really a car. It's the Gold State Coach, which Matchbox recently released a 1/64-scale replica of, and its value is estimated at GBP1.6 million (about $2 million). At 275 inches long it's even bigger than the Bentley limousine and it weighs about 9,000 pounds. It's 261 years old and designed to be pulled by eight horses, and has been part of every coronation since 1831. The rest of the Royal Family's vehicles are relatively mundane. There's a 1965 Aston Martin DB6 Volante that Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Phillip, bought for King Charles III on his 21st birthday. It's worth GBP1 million (about $1.2 million). The collection also includes a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI (about $627,000), a Bentley Bentayga (about $201,000), a Land Rover Range Rover long-wheelbase Landaulet ($133,000), a Jaguar XE (about $41,000), and a Land Rover Defender ($38,000). "Luxury cars have long been associated with the monarch and King Charles III, in particular, is known for his fondness of motor vehicles. His impressive collection features sentimental value with motors passed down from his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to cars bought for him by his parents," explained Keith Hawes, the director of Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, in an interview with CBS News. Being at the head of a car-making nation's royal family also comes with drawbacks: Every vehicle in King Charles III's fleet is British.

2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom First Drive | When only the best will do

Lucerne, Switzerland – Every car, regardless of where it is designed, built, or sold, can be described as a series of compromises. From economy hatchbacks to midsize sedans, fullsize pickup trucks to hybrid supercars, meeting a very specific set of criteria means intentionally missing all the rest. And so it is with the Rolls-Royce Phantom. Except that the only compromise worth talking about is that the buyer must possess a price-is-no-object desire for perfection. Before handing over the keys to a brand-new, eighth-generation Phantom, and shortly after rattling off nearly every positive-tinged adjective in the English language, Rolls-Royce communication director Richard Carter tells us that this car represents "the best that humankind can do in terms of luxury automobiles." A heady claim, but as it turns out, one that is difficult to dispute. Perhaps the biggest single element that advances this new Phantom past the model it replaces is Rolls-Royce's new Architecture of Luxury, a ground-up spaceframe platform that doesn't share its bones with any other product currently under the BMW umbrella. Not only is it 30 percent stiffer than the seventh-gen Phantom, the new architecture is flexible enough that it will form the basis for all future Rolls-Royce products. "Project Cullinan and eventually the next Ghost, Wraith, Dawn will ride on this architecture, as well as future coachbuild projects," said Philip Koehn, Director of Engineering for Rolls-Royce. Rolls-Royce goes to great pains to make the Phantom as malleable to the whims of its customers as possible. Besides the obvious paint and interior color choices – of which there are a great many – there's now a so-called Gallery option that makes up a large portion of the dashboard. It's a glass-enclosed space designed to house just about anything a Phantom customer could possibly want to put on display. We saw some beautiful ceramic work, jewel-like shell designs, and even a swath of iridescent feathers. Directly in front of the driver is a digital gauge cluster designed to mimic the look of traditional dials. It's resolution is high enough that individual pixels can't be made out from the driver's seat. We think some classically styled gauges would be more in keeping with the Phantom's mission statement, but that's our only gripe inside, and it's minor.

Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II rolls in with some subtle updates [w/video]

Downsizing is a relative term - especially when it comes to a Rolls-Royce. But that's just what the British luxury automaker did with the release of the Ghost in 2010. Sure, it's over seventeen and a half feet long (over eighteen in Extended Wheelbase form), but that's still shorter than the 19 feet the standard Phantom stretches, and that much shorter than the twenty-foot-long Phantom EWB.
The Ghost has now been on the market for four years, high time Rolls gave it a little refresh - and that's just what it's done here in Geneva with the release of the Ghost Series II. It's essentially the same vehicle as the outgoing model, but the Ghost Series II (like the Phantom Series II released in 2012) benefits from a host of minor updates. The styling has been subtly revised, and the sumptuous cabin space has been updated with such features as a new infotainment display, rotary controller and trim.
Although Goodwood hasn't released official output figures, the 6.6-liter twin-turbo V12 (only the second twelve-cylinder engine in Rolls-Royce history) carries over from the existing model. We might hope for some of the power upgrades released for the Wraith or the Ghost V-Specification, but what we know for sure is that it's mated to a Satellite Aided Transmission that uses GPS data to 'read' the road ahead and choose the right gear for the turns coming up. It's a nifty technology pioneered by parent company BMW, and along with the other updates rolled out for the Series II, promises to make the hyper-luxurious driving experience that much more so.