2010 Rolls-royce Ghost Automatic 4-door Sedan on 2040-cars

Auto blog

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 builds one of its smallest cars ever

Kid-size versions of expensive cars are nothing new, and a handful have come out in the past year. McLaren released a tiny iteration of its P1, and Morgan did the same with its EV3. Rolls-Royce has joined the crowd with its new Rolls-Royce SRH. Unlike those other British automakers, though, Rolls only built one, and it went to a good home. The car was built for the St. Richard's Hospital Pediatric Day Surgery Unit, located in the same town as Rolls-Royce headquarters. The car also gets its SRH name from the hospital. It was provided to St. Richard's for patients to drive down to the operating theater. The hallway to the theater is decorated with road signs, too. Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos said in a press release, "We hope that the Rolls-Royce SRH will serve to make the experience for young people during treatment a little less stressful." Also, just because the SRH is small doesn't mean less care was taken to build it. The same attention to detail Rolls-Royce brings to its large vehicles is on display here. For one thing, it was built by the Bespoke Manufacturing division, which builds specially customized models for clients. The car also features contemporary Rolls-Royce design features such as self-righting wheel centers, and an interior designed to precisely match the red coachline along the blue and silver body. Of course, there's also a small example of the Spirit of Ecstasy on the hood. Rolls even had a special unveiling for a couple of the hospital's patients at the factory, and allowed them to motor around the factory floor. Powering the little car is an electric motor coupled to a 24 volt battery. Speed is controlled via paddles behind the steering wheel, and it has a top speed of 10 mph, though that speed can be limited to 4 mph. After all, the car is going to a hospital, and there's no need to have inexperienced drivers causing additional injuries. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Featured Gallery Rolls-Royce SRH Image Credit: Rolls-Royce Toys/Games Rolls-Royce Electric Luxury

2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost has a fascinating new part to make it one of the most comfortable cars in the world

One of the neat things about Rolls-Royce is the extraordinary lengths the company will go to for maximum comfort. It's like how supercar builders will look for every little advantage to make their cars a tenth of a second faster. On the 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost, the company is employing something called the Planar Suspension System, a nebulous designation for the collection of systems and parts employed. Some are straight forward, such as the four-wheel independent air suspension, and the way the GPS and forward cameras inform what level of firmness should be employed on the road. But one part left us perplexed: the upper control arm damper. We spoke to Jon Simms, lead engineer for the Ghost, for more information, and now we have a better grasp on what it is and what it does. As for what it is, it's the roughly horseshoe-shaped object highlighted in purple in the above photo. The yellow parts are bumpstops, and it's mounted on the same joint as the upper control arm. And it turns out it's a pretty simple piece of equipment. It works very much like the harmonic balancer on the end of an engine. It's a weight with a rubber-y flexible hinge, and going over smaller bumps, it absorbs some of the extra vibration and movement from the suspension. Those bumpstops in yellow give the damper some extra purchase on the control arm, and they absorb impacts from larger bumps that may move the control arm suddenly so that the arm and damper don't bang into each other. This may seem like a pretty minor thing, but remember, Rolls-Royce and its buyers are out for maximum comfort, so there's reason to invest in ironing out every possible ride quality issue, no matter the size. And even if it's a minor improvement, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Simms told us that existing Ghost customers they talked to during development had one key request about the driving experience: "don't break it." So making sure that the new car was basically like the last one, but a bit better, would seem to be what customers would want. 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost View 29 Photos The Ghost is the first Rolls-Royce to adopt this full suite of Planar Suspension System parts, though other Rolls-Royce models have had pieces of the system. And considering the fact the Ghost shares its platform with the Phantom and Cullinan, now, we wouldn't be surprised if later versions of those models pick-up parts like this damper. Related Video: