Bold and Bespoke: Exploring the Black Badge Ghost Series II

Reading Time: 5 minutes

The most powerful, agile and technical expression of Black Badge, Rolls-Royce’s disruptive alter ego, is embodied by Ghost. The marque presents a daring evolution of this unapologetic and uniquely driver-focused motor car with Black Badge Ghost Series II, meticulously redesigned to provide this rebellious group of clients with a dramatic canvas for their bold Bespoke commissions.

“As an authentic House of Luxury, we are driven by the desires of our clients. Our Black Badge series of motor cars is a space that we have created within our brand for them to make the most daring and self-confident statements. Black Badge Ghost responds to a very specific demand among these individuals – those who wish to enjoy the potency of this motor car’s uncompromising engine and inherent agility almost exclusively from the driver’s seat. For Black Badge Ghost Series II, we have enhanced its owner-driver appeal by incorporating a high-power expression of our legendary engine along with an even more assertive and technical design treatment and textile palette. This motor car, which is the most powerful and driver-focused V12 Rolls-Royce ever, signals our ongoing commitment to the world’s boldest and most dynamic super-luxury consumers.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

“With Black Badge Ghost Series II we have introduced subtle but impactful design impulses that clearly signal this motor car’s incredible agility and power, while upholding the purity and presence of our overarching design approach. These restrained but disruptive styling details, reserved exclusively for Black Badge Ghost Series II, reflect our clients’ desire to command attention with their Bespoke commissions, and experience every journey with a bold sense of purpose.”
Juliane Blasi, Head of Exterior Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

The most powerful, agile and technical expression of Black Badge, Rolls-Royce’s disruptive alter ego, is embodied by Ghost. Today, the marque presents a daring evolution of this unapologetic and uniquely driver-focused motor car with Black Badge Ghost Series II, meticulously redesigned to provide this rebellious group of clients with a dramatic canvas for their bold Bespoke commissions.

BLACK BADGE GHOST SERIES II: EXTERIOR

Black Badge Ghost Series II’s daring is in its subtle yet impactful exterior design. The most significant styling statement is the lower grille, marking the first time Black Badge Ghost has received a unique styling treatment. The lower brake air intake now features a new geometry, with two darkened chrome strips running longitudinally to functional air ducts, surrounded by technical black chrome frames. These pieces emphasise the verticality and solidity of the motor car’s Pantheon Grille, behind which lies the centrepiece of this motor car – the uncompromising and potent V12 engine.

Black Badge Ghost Series II retains the Black Badge-defining black chrome treatment, where Rolls-Royce hallmarks such as the Spirit of Ecstasy, Pantheon Grille and side-mounted ‘Badge of Honour’ are darkened. To create the effect, a specific chrome electrolyte is introduced to the traditional chrome plating process that is co-deposited on the stainless-steel substrate, darkening the finish. Each darkened component is precision-polished by hand to achieve a mirror-black finish. For the first time on Black Badge Ghost, the door handles are completed with a black finish, further extending the noir effect that captivates the world’s most disruptive super-luxury consumers.

BLACK BADGE GHOST SERIES II: A DRAMATIC WHEEL TREATMENT

Black Badge Ghost Series II’s most dramatic exterior statement is a 22-inch part-polished, seven-spoke forged wheelset. Styled to project the mechanical complexity of its legendary high-power V12 engine and chassis technology, the reduced visual mass of the wheel and slender spoke geometry provide a clear view of the powerful disc brakes. This design signals the motor car’s potency and extraordinary dynamic abilities – a defining aspect of Black Badge Ghost’s character that draws an increasing number of clients to the Rolls-Royce brand and inspires the boldest Bespoke commissions.

BLACK BADGE GHOST SERIES II: INTERIOR

The dark, technical surfaces that codify Black Badge are used discreetly yet extensively within the interior of Black Badge Ghost Series II. Perhaps the subtlest illustration of Rolls-Royce’s alter ego is within the new Clock Cabinet; the vitrine houses an analogue timepiece and an up-lit Spirit of Ecstasy figurine, presented in black chrome rather than a mirror-polished finish. This elegant expression of contemporary craft is placed alongside the uprated Central Information Display, which now integrates the marque’s new advanced SPIRIT operating system.

BLACK BADGE GHOST SERIES II: CRAFTING CARBON FIBRE

Below the glass fascia and throughout the interior, Black Badge Ghost Series II features a meticulously crafted Technical Carbon surface finish. The marque’s craftspeople developed a complex but restrained diamond-shaped weave using carbon and metallic fibres on top of a black Bolivar wood base. Leaves woven from resin-coated carbon and contrasting metal-coated thread are laid by hand in a diamond pattern, which creates a three-dimensional effect. Each component is then cured for one hour under pressure at 100°C. The surface is sand-blasted to create a ‘key’ for six layers of lacquer, which is hand-sanded before being polished to a brilliant finish. The final effect is subtle, yet rewards those who examine it with remarkable depth and clarity.

If Immersive Seating is commissioned with a Centre Console, clients can specify the Black Badge family motif, the infinity symbol, onto the rear Technical Carbon ‘Waterfall’ section that separates the rear reclining seats and conceals the Champagne cooler. Rendered in aerospace-grade aluminium, it is applied between the third and fourth layers of six layers of tinted lacquer, which appears to make the symbol float.

Black Badge Ghost Series II also uses an advanced technique known as physical vapour deposition to darken the interior metals. The speaker grilles and air vent surrounds on the dashboard and in the rear cabin are enhanced with this process, which does not discolour or tarnish through repeated use, exposure to temperature extremes, or over time.

BLACK BADGE GHOST SERIES II: A DISRUPTIVE MATERIAL MIX

Black Badge clients are invited to explore the new materials made available for Ghost Series II. This includes the marque’s dramatic Duality Twill textile, an innovative rayon fabric made from bamboo. The development of this bold new material was inspired by the extensive bamboo grove in Le Jardin des Méditerranées on the Côte d’Azur, which neighbours Sir Henry Royce’s former winter home, Villa Mimosa. It is embroidered with an artistic ‘Duality’ graphic, which is based on an abstract interpretation of the two interlinked letter R initials of the marque’s founders. A complete Duality Twill interior can incorporate up to 2.2 million stitches and 11 miles of thread, taking up to 20 hours to complete. This exquisite material can be made even more impactful with daring and extrovert contrast colourways that clients can create with 51 colours of thread to choose from, further elevating this remarkable new finish for Black Badge clients.

Alternatively, clients may choose Placed Perforation – an innovative contemporary craft technique in which small perforations are made in the seat leather to create unique artworks. The perforations vary in size to create the perception of depth, allowing detailed and seemingly three-dimensional graphics to be created. The initial pattern is inspired by the shifting shapes and shadows of clouds over the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood. It is composed of up to 107,000 0.8- and 1.2-millimetre perforations, each individually examined to ensure absolute uniformity.

BLACK BADGE GHOST SERIES II: ENGINEERING

In Black Badge Ghost Series II, the formidable V12 engine is presented in a high-power configuration, producing 29PS more power and 50NM more torque than Ghost Series II. As with all Rolls-Royce Black Badge models, the ‘Low’ button situated on the gear selection stalk unlocks Black Badge Ghost’s full suite of technologies, including a 50% increase in gearshift speeds when the throttle is depressed to 90%, and a subtly more voluble note from the motor car’s exhaust system – features that dramatise, but never compromise the effortless Rolls-Royce driving experience.

To harness this additional power, the Black Badge Planar Suspension system is used for Black Badge Ghost Series II. As with Ghost Series II, this decorated chassis technology incorporates a unique Upper Wishbone Damper unit above the front suspension assembly. This is linked with continuously variable, electronically controlled shock absorbers and self-levelling air strut assemblies front and rear to create an even more agile expression of the marque’s signature ‘magic carpet ride’.

To inspire driver confidence, when exploring the motor car’s significant power reserves, the braking bite point has been raised, and pedal travel decreased, directly responding to client requests for a uniquely potent expression of the Rolls-Royce brand.

THE LUXURY OF AGILITY

Black Badge Ghost Series II reflects a growing desire among the marque’s clients to enjoy a dramatic expression of the brand’s uncompromising V12 engine and uniquely advanced chassis systems while benefitting from Rolls-Royce’s peerless Bespoke capabilities. This extraordinary new motor car builds on the overwhelming success of its predecessor, embodying a bold vision of luxury in motion.