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Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II review: The satellite-guided cathedral on wheels

Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II review: The satellite-guided cathedral on wheels

When creating a sequel to a blockbuster movie, it is in the producer’s best interest to create a plot, and populate the cast with actors that do not stray too far from the original. Boyishly handsome shrinking violet/subverted rage monster Tobey Maguire is to boyishly handsome shrinking violet/subverted rage monster Andrew Garfield as Doc Ock is to that pulsing cerulean-zombie thing played by Jamie Foxx. Familiarity breeds compensation.

So it is with Rolls-Royce and the follow-up to its hit Ghost sedan. Before the invention of this “entry level” ne plus ultra-luxury cruiser in 2009, the venerable double-R brand was selling just over 1,000 cars a year worldwide, and losing lustre. This year, based in no small part on the success of the Ghost—and its more sporting two-door sort-of variant, the Wraith — it's soaring toward the 4,000-car mark. Spectre breeds specie?

Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II
Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II

It would thus be unwise to mess with success, and the newly released Ghost Series II is nothing if not devoted to the original. In fact, if you didn’t know better, you might not be able to discern the differences. Which is precisely what Rolls designers are going for. If you’ve just shelled out over a quarter-million dollars for entrée to a brand’s “volume” vehicle, you’re not going to be happy if the new model comes out and renders yours immediately and visibly archaic. A Rolls-Royce is an occasion car, and that occasion is “I’m rich and I always get exactly what I want.”

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Fortunately for you, we were present at the recent press introduction of this car in Dallas and are thus expertly trained in identifying the markings of this newly minted (emphasis on the mint) super-species. For expert spotting, look ahead of the thigh-thick A pillar where nearly all of the exterior changes are concentrated. Twin contrails, like those emanating from a private jet’s turbines, now flow down the center of the prodigious hood. Chrome inlays surround the air intakes below the iconic (Ionic?) “Parthenon” grille, which has itself been moved up in the nose, and is topped by an ever so slightly canted version of the silver-winged Spirit of Ecstasy. There’s also been a bit of cold laser body contouring around the fenders for a crisper, more defined appearance (and no recovery time!)

Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II
Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II

But it’s in the face of the car that the differences are most noticeable. As usual, it’s all in the eyes. Here, new LED headlamps with teardrop LED daytime running light surrounds have been implanted. They’ve also been moved closer to the edges of the front fascia in order to give the car slightly more menace. Just what a $287,000, 5,760-lb. über- sedan requires.

All that weight is aptly dispensed with by the output of the tuned 6.6-liter twin-turbo V12, borrodwed in basic form from corporate parent BMW. The 663 hp and 575 ft. lbs. of torque mean that this biggest of babies will scamper to 60 mph in a number of seconds more befitting something with an M badge. (Think around 4.7.) Assisting in this scoot is a “satellite-aided” version of the wonderful ZF transmission that is in every single other high-end luxury car on the market. Here, as elsewhere, it apparently has eight speeds, though you’d be hard pressed to count them. It doesn’t shift; it glows.

Also receiving a satellite-aided update is the infotainment system, which is now available with the kind of swipey-touchy-pinchy controller top that is de rigueur in the category, as well as treats like deer-spotting night-vision cameras, a heads-up display that helpfully tells you how fast you’re going (too fast), and an integrated WiFi hotspot allowing busy entrepreneur owners to transfer funds from the comfort of the newly refitted, and massaging rear seats wherever they might need to — likely some illicit offshore tax shelter.

 In a day of flat but occasionally curvy driving around the urban byways, state parks access roads, gravel-filled construction sites, and (especially) freeway on and off-ramps of the New Jersey-sized chunk of the Lone Star State known as “The Metroplex," we found the Ghost to be, um, spirited. In an afternoon of being chauffeured around in it by a professional racetrack instructor, we found it about as impossibly cosseting as a mink-lined cashmere onesie. In a lifetime of scrimping and saving, we could never afford one. Perhaps we’ll wait for the straight-to-Redbox sequel?

Disclosure: For this article, the writer’s transportation, meals and lodging costs were paid for by one or more subjects of the article. Yahoo does not promise to publish any stories or provide coverage to any individual or entity that paid for some or all of the costs of any of our writers to attend an event.