First Drive: 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost Review

The old Rolls-Royce Ghost came in for a not insignificant volume of flak. As good as it was, and as much as the people who actually bought the car enjoyed it, it was criticised for being ‘just a BMW 7 Series’ underneath. Regardless of the fact that it was built at Goodwood and almost everything about was made by hand, that the chassis, engine and a few other bits and bobs came from BMW was, seemingly, a mountainous issue for some. With the new Rolls-Royce Ghost there shouldn’t be as much of an issue. The chassis, for example, is all new and bespoke to Rolls-Royce.

Design is subjective – what one person considers beautiful could be to someone else an absolute shocker. Which is in part why you’ll hear Rolls-Royce talk at length about ‘post-opulence’ with the new Ghost, a concept that has materialised after customers explained they wanted the new car to be the very best without shouting about it. Size and grille aside (let’s be honest, it’s unlikely there will ever be a sleeper Rolls-Royce), the new Ghost is subtle and rather pretty – the front end is much flatter than before, less busy. The rear, to my eyes, is much less impressive, but as I said it’s all personal. What you will notice in profile is the generous dash to axle ratio (it’s a short walk from the dashboard to the front wheels), and the pretty ‘waft line’ that runs along the lower third of the car’s side – how odd would it look, and how much fatter would the car appear, if that wasn’t there? As usual with a Rolls-Royce, the rear doors open in reverse. This will never get old. Ever.

Two big new features when it comes to performance and handling are the all-wheel-drive system and the all-wheel-steering. With 571PS (420kW), 850Nm (629lb ft) of torque and so much mass, it would be all too easy for the wheels to spin or start lunching the tyres. The all-wheel-drive system means that, whatever the condition, you really shouldn’t have any slip at all unless you really wanted to provoke the car and had a lot of space to do so. But nothing about the driving experience encourages you to be a yob, and what’s more, even with all-wheel-drive and sufficient performance (0-62mph takes 4.8 seconds, a fine figure for a car that weighs 2,490kg) you never feel rushed. I have a hunch the Ghost could be quicker off the line (look at how fast the all-wheel-drive and similarly heavy Bentley Flying Spur can accelerate), but what would be the point of that?

All-wheel-steering, meanwhile, improves the car’s turning circle by pointing the front and rear wheels in the opposite direction at speeds below 40km/h (24.9mph) and in the same direction above that speed for extra stability and a reduction in weight transfer. At both ends of that scale you can feel the system working, with five degrees of steering in either direction at the rear axle, and particularly at higher speeds, while there is some lean, there’s a less weight moving around than you might expect.

Another feature, and one of the most interesting, is a new and patented upper wishbone damper. Although the springs and dampers do a very good job of turning the road into a seemingly never ending pillow of marshmallows, there were, according to the Ghost’s engineering team, little bumps in the road that they couldn’t seem to protect the cabin from. So one weekend an engineer had an idea, and came in, out of hours, to work on something. The result was a 3kg weight on the upper wishbone at each corner which is free to move as the suspension moves, effectively absorbing energy that would otherwise just go up and into the car. Data, as well as ‘blind’ tests, proved the system worked. The result is a ride that is noticeably less choppy than the previous Ghost, and a system that will no doubt make its way onto the Cullinan and Phantom, too.

All in all, the drive is as you’d expect it to be. The steering wheel is thin and communicates very little, but, with a Ghost, that isn’t necessary. The performance is more than adequate (especially when there’s very little wind noise to give you a gentle reminder you’re actually going quite quickly) and the ride near-perfect – what more could you want? And although the Ghost is heavy and, relatively speaking, a big, big machine, behind the wheel it doesn’t feel intimidating, too large or unwieldly. It makes wafting from corner to corner rather than darting quite good fun.

Carpets. That’s one of the first things you notice as you step into the new Ghost, and indeed any new Rolls-Royce – the carpets are so thick you could lose a shoe. Then, as you relax into the driver’s seat, you feel immediately comfortable. It isn’t just that the seats are well padded or are heated and cooled and can give you a massage, or that they are seemingly infinitely adjustable, but it’s the sheer quality of the leather. Then you look around. It isn’t just the leather that’s superb, is the metalwork of the speakers, the stitching that is ever so slightly imperfect and clearly the product of a real person rather than a machine, and the reassuring weight to every button and dial. This is the kind of thing Rolls-Royce does so very well, and when you’re paying more than a quarter of a million in any currency for a vehicle, it’s the attention to detail that really matters.

Then, on the move, there’s the silence and stillness of the thing. The windows are double glazed, which reduces wind noise, but, again, the attention to detail everywhere makes the new Ghost totally serene. Rolls-Royce engineers noticed, for example, that once they’d added in the extra sound deadening compared to the old Ghost (there’s 100kg of sound insulation overall, 25kg more than before, including liquid insulation in the pillars) that they noticed other noises. Some came from the front seats, for example, as they’re effectively tall weights rocking on a lower pivot point. So what did they do? Added a mass damper to the base of the seat, obviously, that counteracts the top-heavy rocking from the seat back. The engineers noticed a low frequency noise coming from the boot, too, and so created little ‘ports’ that allow air to circulate out of the boot more easily, therefore eliminating the sound.

Sit in the rear and you’re more comfortable still. The seats recline to a silly level, the headrests are nicer than any pillow I’ve ever had, there are electrically lowering trays on the back of the front seats, and, because Rolls-Royce, there’s a champagne cooler. There are so many details that might seem to be so over the top but for those who want the very best everything is exactly how it should be.

There’s the technology you can see and use on a day-to-day basis and there’s the technology that’ll make every journey better without you even realising. Hidden features, well the new architecture means that the cavities of the sills, and even the headliner and roof, can be used as resonating speakers, for example. The umbrellas in the doors, one of the few items that carries over exactly from the previous Ghost, are heated once seated in the door, so the next time you open them you won’t get showered in stale water too. The air-conditioning vents, meanwhile, are now internally coated with felt, so unless you crank everything up to full whack you shouldn’t hear the fans at all, and the ‘Micro-Environment Purification System’ can clean all of the cabin’s air using a ‘nanofleece filter’ in less than two minutes. There’s also what Rolls-Royce calls the ‘Flagbearer system’, which uses cameras to scan the road ahead and prepare the electronically-controlled dampers accordingly. There’s also the Satellite Aided Transmission, where the eight-speed ‘box uses GPS data to pre-select the best gear for the road ahead, meaning you’ll be in the right gear for every hill and every corner.

As for the tech you can see and use yourself day to day, well within reason you could have whatever you want in the car if you’ve got sufficient funds. Suffice to say, however, that the more regular features on offer are very impressive. Some might not like that the dials are now a digital-analogue mix, but they’re digital without being distracting or confusing – indeed none of the car’s tech is distracting or difficult to use. The infotainment system is simple to operate, the navigation clear and elegant, and the sound system fantastic, helped by the fact there’s so little noise from everything else. Of course there’s the basic stuff you’d expect, too, like 360-degree cameras, radar-guided cruise control, night-vision, LED headlights, a head-up display, Wi-Fi and more.

The new Ghost was supposed to be better than the old car in every single area, and there’s no denying that’s the case. At face value you might see that the engine is similar to that of the old Ghost and wonder ‘how much of it has changed, really?’ But it’s when you talk to the team behind the car and hear the stories they have to tell of the cars development, some of which I have mentioned here, you realise how much effort has gone in to making the new Ghost more enjoyable to own. If anything, it’s sad that so much of this work, these little details and engineering brainwaves, might go unnoticed to those who own and drive these cars on a daily basis.