This isn't a car that requires a review. Rolls-Royce customers do not concern themselves with the views of the unwashed proletariat. If they did, they'd have waited to hear what it's like, instead of already ordering so many it's sold out until the middle of 2025.
The car is the Rolls-Royce Spectre, and it's not just the first fully electric product of the modern Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd which BMW seeded in 1998. Since Charles met Henry 119 years ago, no production spec car in their marque's potted history has been battery powered.
Occasionally, Rolls-Royce itself likes to pay attention to journalists. In 1907, a writer in Britain's The Autocar declared the underwhelmingly named 40/50hp model was "the best car in the world". Granted, he only had about three to choose from back then, but Rolls was only too happy to adopt that verdict as the company's semi-official slogan, emblazoning it prominently on its marketing materials for most of the ensuing century.
Claude Johnson, the cofounder who styled himself as the hyphen in Rolls-Royce, also saw the value in pinching a hack's nickname for his marketing car, which was decorated with aluminium-coloured paint and polished brightwork. That's how the 40/50hp became the Silver Ghost. So, the latest Rolls named after a supernatural apparition might not need validation, but you never know. Could come in useful...
The Spectre is a truly immense coupe. That glinting grille is lower and wider than a Phantom's Parthenon-esque facade and the corners of its bonnet taper gently downwards instead of standing as upright as a bearskin-topped guardsman, but these nods to slippery aerodynamics don't diminish the gravitational presence this mighty two-door generates even when painted one colour rather than the oddly indecisive combo of Salamanca Blue with Arctic White in Aero Two-Tone.
Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av BBC Top Gear UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av BBC Top Gear UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
HEAD TO HEAD VANTAGE vs 911 TURBO
For as long as we can remember the Porsche 911 has been the default best sports car money can buy. Does the new Aston Vantage represent a changing of the guard?
BOSS LEVEL:PART TWO
In a world exclusive, three makers of the world's most powerful hypercars are cordially invited... to drive each other's creations
THE THEORY 0F EVOLUTION
Ridged bladder seats, an inflating steering wheel and an AI track day coach... has Lotus hit on the supercar's future, or gone mad?
Koenigsegg Jesko Attack
The Jesko Attack drives like a conventional supercar. Brakes like one, turns like one, grips like one. But it doesn't accelerate like one.
STIC LAPS are back!
It's a 1.75-mile figure of eight on an old Canadian Air Force base just south of Guildford. Hardly Monza, or the Mulsanne straight, and never in a million years - you'd think a place that would become one of the most sought after performance benchmarks in the motoring world.
URBAN OUTWITTERS
Does the solution to city motoring lie in designs from the past with powertrains from the future? TopGear goes in search of answers... at rush hour
FUTURE FERRARIS
If you thought Ferrar's past was colourful, wait until you see what it's cooking up next. The future's bright, the future's rosso
DIRTY DOZEN
Ferrari's new super GT makes no secrets about what's under the bonnet, but can it swallow five countries in just a few hours? Better get on with it...
MYTH BUSTER
\"ADAPTIVE DAMPERS ALWAYS NEED TO ADAPT\"
The S2000 from a parallel universe
Meet Evasive Motorsports’ Honda S2000R, the car the Japanese firm should have built itself
