Now, it seems that a BMW-Rolls partnership is something that we wouldn’t have thought of, but these guys have proven time and again that nothing is impossible for them.
According to Autocar, the ‘Rolls Mini’ is likely to come with added features unique to itself, including the commission of genuine coachbuilt features such as new interior fittings.
Details behind the partnership have yet to be released but sources have said the program will be announced sometime in the next year. If we can use history as a precedent, we can go back to the 60’s when bespoke coachbuilt MINIs became such a hot item, a number of celebrities like Peter Sellers and the Beatles commissioned tuners to make them luxury MINIs that had high-spec wood and leather-trimmed interior.
In an effort to hop aboard the hybrid bandwagon, perennial luxury carmaker, Rolls Royce recently announced of their plans to produce a hybrid drivetrain for the new Ghost sedan that will effectively cut the car’s gas-guzzling capabilities by as much as 15%.
The word floating around is that since the Ghost uses the a platform that was pegged from the BMW 7-Series, the new hybrid version of the Ghost will also use the same ActiveHybrid 7-Series from BMW.
According to Autocar, the hybrid model of the Ghost will still come with the same 6.2-liter V12 engine found on the traditional model, but with the addition of an electric motor that’s integrated into the Ghost’s eight-speed auto transmission, which if form holds, will amount to the hybrid Ghost saving 15% of its fuel compared to the traditional counterpart.
If plans move along – and they are moving rather quickly, as a matter of fact – we could very well see a hybrid Rolls Royce – who would’ve thought that day would come – rolling out of production lots sooner than we thought.
You would think that a car of this stature would not be subjected to this kind of harsh treatment.
Normally, destroying a Rolls-Royce Phantom is tantamount to an act of lunacy. But when you’re testing for the rigidity and sturdiness of an armored Phantom, ensuring that the armor is as good as advertised is more important than any price tag a car commands.
Mutec, a German coach builder that knows their way around armored cars, recently performed a ballistics test on an armored Phantom. We have to admit, it was kind of difficult to see such a luxurious – and expensive – vehicle end up like a shooting arcade game.
But then again, there’s no price tag for safety, right?
The automotive essence of luxury, Rolls Royce is releasing their latest model, the Ghost into one of the richest regions on the planet. Like all the Rolls Royce models, the new Ghost comes with elevated prow, long bonnet, short front overhang, sharply raked A-pillar and elegant tail, but adds self-righting wheel centers and the Xenon headlamps and curved intakes. It will be available in 12 exterior colors, contrasting with Silver Satin finish for the bonnet, grille and windscreen surround.
The 2010 Ghost will be powered by a 6.6 liter twin-turbo V12 engine that delivers 563bhp and 780 NM of torque (most powerful car that Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has ever produced). This power is enough to sprint the car from 0 to 60 MPH in 4.7 seconds and to hit a top speed electronically limited to 155 MPH. The engine is mated to an eight-speed, shift-by-wire, automatic ZF gearbox and has a fuel consumption of 20.8 MPG.
Last week, National Geographic premiered “Ultimate Factories”, a show that chronicles the creation of some of our favorite supercars. In the first episode that was aired on October 4, the boys from Discovery Channel were given an exclusive access to Lamborghini’s production facility in SantAgata Bolognese, Italy.
This week, Nat Geo moves across the country to Unterhallerau, Germany to get an inside look behind the production of the Rolls Royce Phantom. We’re not trying to give anything away, but this show is a must-see not just for Rolls Royce fans but for car enthusiasts of all shapes and sizes.
Combining state-of-the-art technology with old-world craftsmanship, these Phantoms are created in such a way where no detail is spared. The Phantom is so meticulously built that it takes an average of 450 hours and the skills of hundreds of dedicated craftspeople, artisans, designers, engineers, mechanics, painters, sewing machinists and others to hand-build each one.
Ok, we’ve probably given you more than you’ve wants so we’ll stop at it and just tell you to watch the show.
Remember that enraged customer that drove a 1983 Rolls Royce straight through a Tesco store?
For his uncalled for act of destruction, the man – Robert Caton – has won for himself a 16-month, all-expense paid trip behind bars. In addition to serving time behind bars, Caton has also been slapped with another 3-month sentence because he didn’t take a breath test, plus a five-year suspension of his license.
But that’s not the most depressing part, as far as we’re concerned. His beautifully restored 1983 Rolls Royce was severely damaged beyond repair after Caton decided to use it as his preferred weapon of store destruction. You can say he was partly successful too because the Tesco store he decided to crash into ended up losing over £60,000 in damages and lost sales.
For his part, Caton was remorseful at the sentencing and owned up to his reckless stupor. “I gladly offer my sincere apologies to all affected by my reckless and irresponsible behaviour,” he said.
Kudos to him for finally manning up and taking responsibility, although if he had shown this much poise at the time of the incident, then none of it would have probably happened.
After the luxury car builders from Germany Audi and Mercedes Benz unveiled their electric super car concepts at the Frankfurt Motor show, it looks like the luxury super car builder Rolls Royce is planning a shocking ride of their own. Apparently back at the Goodwood revival a spokesman for the classic English brand turned German owned coachbuilder has been toying around with the idea of a battery powered Rolls Royce Phantom. The Phantom is one of the unique cars that could actually see some weight savings by replacing the rather large gas burning V12 power plant with a lithium ion battery pack, not that the bulky electric motors would make much of a difference to the current luxury sedan’s nearly three ton curb weight.
The obvious benefits of an electric car that would fit in perfectly with Rolls Royce’s perfect passenger experience like an almost silent ride, zero emission operation and loads of torque that will be instantaneously available starting at 0 RPM, perfectly suiting the luxury brand’s wafting acceleration. The only problem that we foresee with an all electric Phantom, and is the same for any battery powered vehicle, is how will the German engineers be able to give the large luxury sedan a suitable range due to the weight of the components that are driven by the flow of electrons.
Perhaps Rolls Royce’s parent company, BMW can figure out how to fit the working parts of the new Vision EfficientDynamics Concept underneath the coach built bodywork of a next generation Phantom. Perhaps the answer to an all electric super car is a small displacement diesel engine with its incredible range and efficiency is the ideal solution to keeping the ultra low emissions hybrid luxury vehicle running long after any lithium ion battery would run out.
We’re hoping that we’ve seen the worst out of this global economic crisis. After all, the entire auto industry seems to have suffered enough, don’t you think?
But you can’t say that the economic woes have put a leash on people’s interest in the Rolls Royce Ghost.
According to Tom Purves, Rolls Royce’s CEO, the 2010 Ghost has generated over 1,200 interested customers – a surprising number even for the standards of Rolls Royce’s ‘mini-Phantom’ sedan.
It’s easy to see why Rolls Royce is ecstatic over the interest the Ghost is generating considering the recession is far from finished. But then again, in a time like this, good news becomes great news and great news becomes ecstatic celebrations.
While Purves acknowledges that the general level of interest for the Ghost is more than what they expected, the company nevertheless remains cautiously optimistic, that they can build on car’s strong reception.
"We’re not convinced we’re out of this recession yet," he says. "We know what we’re going to build in the next three months, then we’ll take it quarter by quarter from there."
In any event, Rolls Royce is expected to make around 2000 Ghost models per year and if the interest for the car is any indication, we’re thinking that we’ll be seeing a lot of Ghosts our on the road soon.
Sometimes, taking matters into your own hands can often lead to disastrous consequences.
Take the case of one Mr. Robert Caton. After purchasing a bed from Tesco Direct, Caton was livid when he found out that the bed he ordered was delivered without a mattress so just like any short-tempered consumer who lives and dies by the credo ‘the customer is always right’, Caton resorted to the dirty old trick of crashing his car through a window of a Tesco store.
That’s not the juicy part. The car he chose as his battering ram was no less than a finely-conditioned 1983 Rolls Royce Spirit. In all fairness to him, he did warn everybody inside – the security guards included – that if he wasn’t going to get his beloved mattress, he was pushing the pedal to the metal.
Canton’s stuntman act came after he blew his top off when store managers of this particular Tesco store told him that they couldn’t do anything about his complaint since the order was purchased online at Tesco Direct.
So in an act of rage, Canton drove his beautiful Rolls Royce straight through the store.
We don’t know who we’re going to pity most with this story: Canton, Tesco, or the Rolls. But knowing us, we’re most likely turning blue seeing a Rolls Royce being reduced as a battering ram by its cuckoo owner.
In March at the Geneva Motor Show Rolls Royce brought the 200EX Concept. It was previewing a new model series, known until now as the "baby Rolls Royce." The new Ghost takes its inspiration from contemporary furniture, architecture and yachts but also in the spirit of the 1930s.
Like all the Rolls Royce models, the new Ghost comes with elevated prow, long bonnet, short front overhang, sharply raked A-pillar and elegant tail, but adds self-righting wheel centers and the Xenon headlamps and curved intakes. It will be available in 12 exterior colors, contrasting with Silver Satin finish for the bonnet, grille and windscreen surround.
The 2010 Ghost will be powered by a 6.6 liter twin-turbo V12 engine that delivers 563bhp and 780 NM of torque (most powerful car that Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has ever produced). This power is enough to sprint the car from 0 to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds and to hit a top speed electronically limited to 155 mph. The engine is mated to an eight-speed, shift-by-wire, automatic ZF gearbox and has a fuel consumption of 20.8 mpg.
Post a comment
Picture Gallery
RSS -
Webmaster free news |