Driven: Rolls Royce Ghost Series II

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Seat coolers and seat massagers turned on. Cruise control set at 138kmph, and the 17-feet long Ghost is sailing across the Dubai – Abu Dhabi highway. After a long, tiring day, I removed my shoes and kept my bare feet on the soft lambs-wool floor mats. Every single car ahead of me is moving to the right lane the moment they notice the broad front grille topped by the Spirit of Ecstasy. The passengers in the other cars looked at me so respectfully and waved with a smile too. Yes it happens only in a Rolls! I lived with the beautiful Ghost for the whole of three days, and I was given the treatment of a king wherever I went. I got around 30 positive reactions from people I met over these three days when they saw the beautiful, blue Ghost with me. The ‘Wow! Awesome car, Sir’ comment came straight from the down-to-earth security guards to the rich car guys in town. The amount of respect you earn is impressive. This is just the way you get treated when you travel in a Rolls Royce across in one of the richest cities in the world.

The Ghost is brilliantly beautiful from every angle and the road presence offered by any of the Rolls Royce cars are simply out of the world. Step inside and you can spot a lot of well-polished wood and acres of high quality leather. You notice the hand-embroidered monogram and the gold rimmed clock. The Ghost is a 7-star luxury apartment rather than a car. They call it the Baby Rolls – something I feel is so wrong. A car with almost 17 feet in length shouldn’t be suffixed with the ‘Baby’ tag. The interiors have a simple approach; it hides what you don’t want behind the wood. Things slide out, in, up and down when needed while lesser cars boast screens, buttons, toggles and switches.

The new Ghost’s front fascia that’s been made to look ever so slightly more substantial by moving the grille higher and emphasizing the character lines on the hood. New adaptive LED headlights help widen the look of the nose, just as they put Rolls-Royce back on the lighting-technology lead lap. Similarly, the Ghost Series II sees its interior electronics updated to use the current iteration of BMW iDrive, with a Spirit of Ecstasy–festooned controller that supports touch input.

The Ghost owners are expected to be out driving it rather than just making giant business deals in the back seat. The Ghost is powered by a 6.6-litre, twin-turbocharged V-12, which produces 563 horsepower and 780 NM of torque. This powerhouse, based on the BMW 760i’s 6.0-litre V-12, is mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. On the Ghost, this gearbox is “satellite aided” in order to predict the driver’s next moves and shift or hold gears accordingly. Eight speeds mean a lot of shifting, and the process is quick and almost seamless. When prompted, the rear-wheel-drive sedan sprints to 60 mph in just 4.7 seconds leaving a mellifluous gargle behind. A firmer suspension setup is now offered as an option on the standard-wheelbase Ghost SII. While the retuned settings certainly allow less listing than with the standard configuration, the Dynamic package is best identified from the driver’s seat by the thicker steering wheel. Pitching the two-and-half tonne Ghost into a corner still results in tire-squealing understeer.

The Ghost is an utterly brilliant man-made machine which demands respect wherever we travel. While the best thing you can do in a Ghost is travel across continents in style, the pampering luxurious leather seats with massagers offer you amazing comfort, and it’s the brand’s mission of making cars with ultimate luxury. Everything feels premium; from gearboxes to floor mats. Everything is hand-built by the brilliant craftsmen at Goodwood.

In case you aren’t aware, everything is customisable in a Rolls Royce. The owners can choose the paint job, or leather shade, or anything of the sort. The only limitation will be the ability of the owners to think. While Rolls Royce Bespoke offers you to have your own unique car from the rest of the world, you can actually choose some wood from your estate to be included in the interiors if you wish. If you are a billionaire and wish to surprise your girlfriend with a Barbie-pink Ghost, then yes Rolls Royce Bespoke is listening. It even allows you to personalize your fitted umbrella with up to two canopy colours and a further option for the beading.

For over a century, Rolls Royce Motor Cars have been building spectacular automobiles. They say it takes six months to build a Rolls Royce, and it is a thing to be experienced at least once in a lifetime, and we (journos) are blessed enough to experience cars like these. In a Rolls, you never hear the engine, you never feel the gear change, and unless the driver stomps on the brakes, you will not be able to feel the car coming to a halt as well. You are unlikely to meet a Rolls Royce owner unless you are likely to meet a plethora of CEOs. And if you own one, you will be respected, no matter where you go, because the car demands respect!