HAUTE-COUTURE POWER ROLLS ROYCE GHOST BLACK BADGE
HAUTE-COUTURE POWER
TEXT: FLORENCE JACQUINOT
DRIVE
70
More than any other car company, Rolls-Royce embodies the quintessence of sumptuousness. The Black Badge versions, whose success has now materialized in a third of the emblematic brand's offerings, satisfy all requirements. An elegant expression of unbridled power, the Black Badge Ghost, more like a UFO than a car, reinvents itself with the fantasy of a new yet not so ghostly personification. This latest opus offers more power, finishing, and handling, all in a darker aesthetic, with more charisma and personality to align itself with new codes of desirability. This seduction takes into consideration a paradigm shift. A new market where the rules of success have been redefined: streetwear, virtual money, and digital companies, are just as important as the more conventional fortunes or the traditional spirit of ecstasy. With 44’000 different colors to select from, the car is ultra-customizable, although their signature Black is the most striking. This shade of black is the darkest in the industry. The bare structure is first covered with forty-five kilograms of paint, before being electrostatically charged and then oven-dried. Two coats of gloss complete the process, followed by five hours of hand polishing by a team of experts to achieve a Steinway sheen. Even if the black absorbs the light, it is restored in the depth of the lacquer. This brightness is carried elegantly into the fairing and the interior of the car. The interior layout is composed of wood, leather, and carbon, and the constellated Starlight headliner releases occasional shooting stars. The glow here is more muted, the moving silhouette letting a stealthy shadow pass through, the sensation of a mysterious object that gives the impression of sliding. Refinement and opulence also manifest in a 6.75-liter twin-turbocharged V12 engine with six hundred horsepower and an eight-speed transmission. Thanks to four directional wheels, a modified brake, an exhaust system, and twenty-two-inch custom wheels, sportiness asserts its sovereignty and leads the direction in anticipation of the future.
