If the Phantom and Cullinan are a little too big and a tad too brash, the new Rolls-Royce Ghost is here to tempt you with a less shouty exterior and a star-filled whisper-quiet cabin.
Australian pricing starts from $628,000 before on-road costs.
Under the bonnet the Ghost is powered by a 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 with 420kW of power at 5000rpm and 850Nm of torque from a lazy 1600rpm.
The 12-cylinder motor is connected to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission, which uses GPS information to pre-select gears for upcoming corners.
Rolls-Royce claims the Ghost can hit 100km/h in 4.8 seconds, if you’re so inclined. All-wheel steering is standard, as are 21-inch alloy wheels with Pirelli P-Zero tyres.
In addition to automated door closing, the Ghost is now available with a power-assisted door opening system.
Other available features include LED and laser headlights, 20 LEDs illuminating the top of the grille, and all-day wildlife and pedestrian detection.
There’s also a wood dashboard fascia illuminated with 850 “stars” and a Rolls-Royce monogram, all of which are invisible in daylight.
The new Ghost is said to be one of the world’s quietest cars and includes around 100kg of sound deadening material, including double-glazed windows.
According to Rolls-Royce, its acoustic engineers also assessed all the car’s components and tuned each element so they would permit a faint whisper to permeate throughout the cabin, as complete silence was deemed to be too “disorientating”.
The Ghost can be specced with a 1300-watt 18-channel Bespoke sound system with active noise cancellation.
This sound system uses the resonance chamber in the body’s sill as a giant subwoofer, and an exciter in the roof to transform the Starlight Headliner into a large speaker.
The Ghost rides on a new Planar Suspension System with what’s claimed to a world’s first upper wishbone damper unit, as well as a five-link setup at the rear with heavy-duty air suspension.
The system controlling both ends uses road-scanning cameras in the windscreen to proactively adjust the suspension setup at speeds up to 100km/h.
The new Ghost measures 5546mm long, 1978mm wide, 1571mm tall, and has a 3295mm wheelbase.
Compared to the vehicle it replaces it is 89mm longer, 30mm wider, and 21mm taller. The wheelbase is unchanged.
The new Ghost is built upon a cut-down version of the aluminium spaceframe architecture employed the Phantom and Cullinan. The original BMW-developed Ghost used a modified version of the 7 Series platform.
