Rolls-Royce “All-Terrain Motor Car” Prototype Looks Amazing—and Best

Reading Rolls-Royce press releases is best done in an old-timey, 1920s-era newsreel voice. And so it goes with the most current update on the upcoming Rolls SUV—a.k.a., “high-sided, all-terrain motor car”—which the firm is referring to as Project Cullinan. Following “an undertaking to inform stakeholders of the progress of Project Cullinan,” we’re now becoming given a appear at the very first prototype for the new SUV it will be used to test the rig’s all-wheel-drive method and “on-road behaviour from suspension throw to high-bodied stability” on “all kinds of international road surface specification.”

Let us just commence by saying that if Rolls-Royce were to freeze its SUV’s development correct right here, we’d be extremely okay with it. That is since standing in stark contrast to the prototype announcement’s Rolls-Royce presents the march . . . of war! vibe, the prototype itself is a hugely bizarre but incredible-looking modern, uh, factor.

Primarily a shortened Phantom Series II sedan, the test mule looks ready for sale: Aside from what appears to be a slightly raised ride height, it boasts a full paint job and the shortened rear doors even wear chrome trim around their daylight openings. Our favored element? The perverted yet alluring Rapidly & Furious—or would that be Quick & Really Bothered?—rear wing, which most likely is there to simulate tall-automobile aerodynamics. There’s none of the common camouflage, no uncouth cut lines, just pure class.

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However, as Rolls-Royce points out—get that old-timey radio voice going in your head again—”The body may possibly hint at the size of the new auto, but it features no design aspects of the eventual higher-sided, all-terrain motor car announced by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in February this year.” The prototype will be subjected to appropriately deluxe variations of pavement, Rolls says, like Belgian Pavé and cobblestones, as nicely as “corrugated concrete, noise improvement and measurement surfaces, resonance road, and acceleration bumps.” Rolls-Royce is aiming to inject its signature “effortless” ride high quality to the SUV each on- and off-road, and we look forward to assessing the Roller’s waftability when it goes on sale sometime in 2017 as a 2018 model. Now, please return to reading our “electronic magic motor car periodical” (web site) in a regular voice.

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Rolls-Royce “All-Terrain Motor Car” Prototype Looks Amazing—and Best

Frank Costanza and the Browncoats: Rolls-Royce Introduces Outstanding Phantom Serenity

Not content with the Jack White fab of the Al-Adiyat series of cars announced mere days ago, Rolls-Royce has pulled the wraps from a one-off fancy-plus-fancy sled whose name will have the tickers of Seinfeld and Firefly fans alike all aflutter: Serenity.

While the new Bugatti Veyron La Finale uses a leather called “Silk” to evoke luxury, this latest Phantom EWB uses actual silk. According to Goodwood, their muses were Rollers of days gone by—the sort of vehicles used by global potentates a century ago—contemporary furniture design, and the robes of Japanese bigwigs, both royals and merchants.

Unlike the functional-rattletrap interior of the Firefly-class transport that served as a setting for much of Joss Whedon’s short-lived space western, this latest Phantom is centered around a blossom motif. Like Whedon, who posited the language of the future would be a blend of English and Chinese, Rolls-Royce looked to the Middle Kingdom for inspiration. It wasn’t language they were after. In the tradition of wealthy European traders, it was raw material. In this case, silk thread. After being dyed, the thread was transported to the United Kingdom to be hand-woven into 10 meters of fabric at a rate of 2 meters per hour. From the mill in Essex, the Smoke Green fabric went to London for embroidery and “unconscious painting”, which sounds for all the world like one of Cosmo Kramer’s hare-brained schemes.

Serenity’s wooden accents are crafted from smoked cherrywood inlaid with bamboo. Mother of pearl marquetry uses a mixture of laser-cutting and hand application to mimic a Paul Reed Smith fretboard. MoP also finds its way to the clock’s face, as well as to the speedometer and power-reserve gauge. The stuff is inlaid with rubies, because Rolls is not screwing around. Further proof? Any old schmuck who buys a Rolls-Royce these days gets a pair of umbrellas that pop out of the doors, but only Serenity has a matched set of parasols fastened to the inside of the trunklid with leather straps. Opulence? Adequate. Serenity? NOW!

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At this moment, Goodwood would like to take pains to point out that the 3-stage mother-of-pearl paint job on this sucker is the most expensive one-off color they’ve ever developed and required a full 12 hours of color sanding, cutting, buffing, and polishing prior to its big debut at the Geneva Motor Show. For the sake of Frank Constanza’s delicate heart, we hope the car’s new owner doesn’t con his local automotive-registrar’s office into issuing an “ASSMAN” license plate.

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Frank Costanza and the Browncoats: Rolls-Royce Introduces Outstanding Phantom Serenity

Velvet Wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Here’s something you don’t see daily, a velvet wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe spotted by our guy Shmee1500 on YouTube. As he rolls about the back of the auto, the velvet appears to look a bit inexpensive if you ask us, but nonetheless has you wanting to touch it.

You can also wash the velvet without having ruining it, so hopefully it can keep up with mother nature. Verify back for far more distinctive Rolls-Royce tuning projects in the future!

Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Video

[embedded content]

Velvet Wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Velvet Wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Here’s some thing you do not see everyday, a velvet wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe spotted by our guy Shmee1500 on YouTube. As he rolls around the back of the vehicle, the velvet seems to look a bit inexpensive if you ask us, but still has you wanting to touch it.

You can also wash the velvet without having ruining it, so hopefully it can preserve up with mother nature. Check back for more unique Rolls-Royce tuning projects in the future!

Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Video

[embedded content]

Velvet Wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Velvet Wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Here’s some thing you do not see each day, a velvet wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe spotted by our guy Shmee1500 on YouTube. As he rolls around the back of the vehicle, the velvet seems to look a bit low cost if you ask us, but nonetheless has you wanting to touch it.

You can also wash the velvet with out ruining it, so hopefully it can maintain up with mother nature. Check back for far more unique Rolls-Royce tuning projects in the future!

Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Video

[embedded content]

Velvet Wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Velvet Wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Here’s something you don’t see daily, a velvet wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe spotted by our guy Shmee1500 on YouTube. As he rolls around the back of the vehicle, the velvet seems to appear a bit inexpensive if you ask us, but nevertheless has you wanting to touch it.

You can also wash the velvet with out ruining it, so hopefully it can hold up with mother nature. Verify back for a lot more unique Rolls-Royce tuning projects in the future!

Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Video

[embedded content material]

Velvet Wrapped Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

2015 Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II Driven: The Roller You Drive Your self Got Better

Very first Drive Review

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When nothing at all less than second-best will do.

If you’re really wealthy, you are not visiting your neighborhood Rolls-Royce dealership to purchase a Ghost, but rather a Phantom, at a value that starts just above $ 400,000 but can demand adding a 6th digit. The Ghost, even though nonetheless outrageously high-priced at $ 291,350, is for the merely rich. To far better delineate the difference, let’s paraphrase comedian Chris Rock: LeBron James is rich Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who indicators James’ paychecks, is wealthy.

Recognizing that income can be a sensitive subject in the wake of increasing revenue disparity in the United States, Rolls-Royce executives incessantly throw about the word “entrepreneur” to describe their Ghost customers. Everybody still loves the myth of the bootstraps.

Other myths punctuate the Rolls-Royce narrative: 60 craftsmen in Goodwood spend some 450 hours laboring over every custom, hand-finished automobile. Rolls-Royce says that in excess of 85 % of the 4000 vehicles it will sell this year are bespoke, which implies that if a buyer has a grove of trees on his estate, for instance, he could select to have some of that wood included in the interior trim. Or, in the case of Hong Kong billionaire Stephen Hung, he can just elect to have his wife’s auto painted completely pink.

With this clash in between the traditional staid Rolls-Royce idioms (“Fetch the car, Alfred!”) and the shamelessness of our global culture, the inconsistency of a proud British firm being owned and run by the Germans at BMW appears considerably less critical than it did a decade ago. That the underpinnings of the Ghost are borrowed from a 7-series does not matter what does is the option to personalize your fitted umbrella with up to 2 canopy colors and a further option for the beading.

Yes, that’s a feature newly obtainable on the 2015 Ghost Series II, one of fairly couple of adjustments from what we can now start calling the Series I Ghost, one particular of the 2010–2014 models. As inducements to upgrade go, the Series II is left wanting, even though according to Rolls-Royce, that is by style. Consumers who have spent large sums as not too long ago as final month do not like to be told that their impressive ingot has been made significantly less impressive by a new one particular.

But this new Ghost is a lot more ingot than before, with a front fascia that is been created to look ever so slightly more substantial by moving the grille greater and emphasizing the character lines on the hood. New adaptive LED headlights support widen the look of the nose, just as they place Rolls-Royce back on the lighting-technologies lead lap. Similarly, the Ghost Series II sees its interior electronics updated to use the present iteration of BMW iDrive, with a Spirit of Ecstasy–festooned controller that supports touch input.

Possibly recognizing that the Ghost’s ride could use a small a lot more BMW in it, as well—since the introduction of the Wraith, the Ghost’s role as the driver’s Roller has been undermined—a firmer suspension setup is now provided as an alternative on the regular-wheelbase Ghost SII. While the retuned settings definitely allow much less listing than with the regular configuration, the Dynamic package is greatest identified from the driver’s seat by the thicker steering wheel. Pitching the 5600-pound Ghost into a corner nonetheless final results in tire-squealing understeer.

With the exception of the transmission, the rest of the mechanical package carries over, which includes the 563-hp, 6.6-liter twin-turbo V-12. The SII replaces the old ZF 8-speed automatic with basically the same transmission, but now it’s wired into the navigation method so that it can predict when to shift, a setup that first appeared on a Rolls in the Wraith. Shifts in the Ghost have been currently a nonevent, so it is hard to tell whether this is legitimate technologies or an apparition. What’s indisputable is that the SII Ghost still drives like a Rolls-Royce, wafting along like 100-dollar bill caught in a powerful updraft.

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2015 Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II Driven: The Roller You Drive Your self Got Better

5 Cool Rolls-Royce Design and style Information, As Illustrated by the 2014 Wraith Coupe

What tends to make Rolls-Royces unique, besides astronomical price tag tags, hedonistic luxury, minuscule production numbers, and outsized presence? Clever specifics, of course! We had a 2014 Wraith coupe in the workplace this week, and we believed it would be enjoyable to show some of what Goodwood place into its cars to make them unique. Enjoy—preferably with Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Significant playing in the background.

Bent-Wood Door-Panel Trim: Currently exclusive to the Wraith, these gorgeous wood door panels are simply gorgeous. Every section is grain-matched—with the grains angled at precisely 55 degrees—to the a single fitted to the opposite door. Interested? That’ll be $ 12,500, please.

Built-In Umbrellas: Fitted as normal gear, these umbrellas function inlaid “RR” logos on their handles and deploy from inside the front fenders at the push of a button. Accessible when the doors are open, this function debuted on the Phantom, where they pop out of the doors themselves. They are ejected with surprising alacrity.

Electronic-Closing Doors: Indulgent, maybe, but fairly helpful when the portals in query are wide-opening—and really heavy—suicide doors. In the Wraith, the driver and passenger can press and hold a button situated close to every quarter-windows to motor the doors closed. The driver can also control the passenger’s aperture, as nicely as the power-operated trunklid. We’re quite sure the doors have sensors so they won’t chop off an errant paparazzo’s arm, but we have been also chicken to truly test it lest we bruise the Wraith’s $ 9450 paint job.

Weighted Rolls-Royce Wheel Caps: One particular of the far better-identified Rolls-Royce information, the wheel centers are weighted so the “RR” logo never suffers the indignity of becoming displayed upside-down. Soon after all, you’d never see a member of the Royal Family members in such a compromising position.

Starlight Headliner: We’re split more than regardless of whether Rolls’ glitzy headliner is Lincoln Town Auto limo cheesy or Fifth Avenue cool. But it’s certainly impressive provided how considerably time and effort go into the hand placement of 1340 fiber-optic nodes in the Wraith’s leather headliner. The choice costs a staggering $ 12,925.

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(Bonus) Spirit of Ecstasy: A Rolls-Royce isn’t a Rolls-Royce with no the Spirit of Ecstasy perched in her usual location above the iconic grille. As with all contemporary Rolls-Royces, the Wraith’s lady can be set to automatically lower into the body when the auto is parked. (If you select to leave her in place, she will speedily retract if tampered with.) What’s a lot more, the settings menu in the 10.3-inch central infotainment display will let you to raise or lower the ornament although on the move, which is each hugely entertaining and massively distracting. Wraith buyers can choose from the common chrome Spirit, one particular with an LED ring at its base that lights when the car is parked ($ 3635), a gold-plated version ($ 9100), or a crystal-like polycarbonate instance that glows with embedded LED lighting ($ 7100).

5 Cool Rolls-Royce Design and style Information, As Illustrated by the 2014 Wraith Coupe