The Ghost continues to tread a careful line between largeness and what many might consider excessive vastness. The car doesn’t stand as tall at the kerb as the more imposing Phantom so, although long, doesn’t have the kind of bulk that gives you pause for thought as you approach and then tug on the outsized handle of one of its ‘coach’ doors. It’s big – but not extraordinarily so.
From behind the wheel, you will find the cabin’s proportions conventional. Large, soft, broadly adjustable and suitably comfortable, the front seats offer abundant leg room and a hip point of fairly saloon-typical height.
Even in the Black Badge, the steering wheel remains large, with a slim, studiously round rim. Rolls-Royce’s preference for simple, traditional primary controls makes for an elegantly slender column shifter transmission control stalk, and an indicator wand matching in its lissom svelteness. Even here, there are no paddleshifters for manual gearbox control, however. On the digital instrument screen in front of you, Rolls’ famous ‘power reserve’ dial is in its familiar place; so there’s no rev-counter, either. These are your first clues that, while a dusting of extra driver appeal may be in the offing, some things remain sacrosanct.
That a regular-series Ghost would likely eschew a colour combination like our test car’s Phoenix Red on Black leather is hard to doubt, however. Added to this, the Black Badge comes with what Goodwood describes as ‘Technical Fibre’ cabin trim: a bolivar wood with layers of carbonfibre and metal leaf, and polished to a lusty sheen. It not only catches the eye, but very skilfully balances modern performance appeal and Rolls-Royce’s typical traditional craftsmanship.
In the back, our test car had occupant space typical of a large limousine, but was no bigger (an ‘Extended’ model some 170mm longer in the wheelbase can still be had if you desire more.) Even so, its motorised rear-hinged coach doors and set-back seats still conjured lots of grandness and sense of occasion. Visibility isn’t great because of the chunky roof pillars, but most passengers we drove said they appreciated the resultant sense of being cocooned.
The boot is big by saloon standards. It’s a little narrow but would be more than 1.2m long if you did without Rolls-Royce’s back-row drinks chiller and could swallow bulky luggage easily.
Multimedia – 4.5 stars
The Ghost’s infotainment system, called Spirit, has had an update for the Series II facelift but it retains a particularly old-school control regime. Rolls-Royce’s iDrive-style physical rotary input device continues on the transmission tunnel, surrounded by various menu shortcuts, and the same line of eight user-configurable chrome shortcut keys remains in place just under the screen.
So while the screen can be operated by touch, more often than not you find your way around it via other means and, with a little time to set up preferences, it’s really easy to use and not distracting at all. There are physical heating and ventilation controls, too, so the system doesn’t feel over-burdened.
For those in the rear seats, our test car came with individual multimedia displays built in behind its motorised picnic tables and each can stream media from a different wired device and connect to a different set of wireless headphones, if necessary.
