raising the specter of luxury
Hand-built Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II features artistic style
Walking out of the posh Eilan Hotel in San Antonio — the same place actress Eva Longoria would be appearing later in the day — I was greeted with a question few people on the planet have ever been asked.
“Mr. Price, which Rolls-Royce would you like to drive?”
Seeing a row of luxury cars laid out in front of me like the world’s most expensive buffet, I picked one at random and drove away in a $350,000 piece of art.
I hesitate to even call the vehicle a car, because this new Ghost isn’t something you buy because you need a vehicle to scoot around town. You don’t cross-shop dealerships, comparing the features and prices to pick the best one. Even in the rarified air of super-high-end luxury cars, The Rolls-Royce Ghost doesn’t have a direct competitor.
Instead, the people who buy this kind of machine are more likely to ask themselves, “Do I want a vacation home, a yacht or a Rolls?”
And if they pick the Rolls, I don’t blame them one bit.
After all, this is a car that can inspire you like a great piece of artwork, and it is as relaxing as any vacation spot. After spending time driving and being driven in the Ghost Series II, I understand more than ever before why people with money would buy one.
You can reach down to run your fingers through the wool floor mats, and your hand sinks down through inch after inch of cotton-candylike fluffiness — and that’s just what you rest your feet on. The Ghost has control knobs covered in genuine crystal, and of course, there’s all the custom woodwork created by some of the best craftsmen on Planet Earth.
The interior’s leather comes from
young bulls raised on ranches over 6,500 feet in elevation with no barbed wire. Why? Because their hide will have no scratches, no imperfections from carrying babies, and not even a mosquito bite. Mosquitoes can’t live at that altitude.
Because this car is hand-built, you can personalize virtually everything on your new Ghost. If you’re a wealthy rancher and want to outfit the interior using wood from a tree on your ranch, for example, Rolls-Royce can send someone to cut down your tree, create wood veneer from it, and then use that material to actually build your car.
It takes 60 pairs of hands 450 hours to build a single Ghost.
But there’s a limit to how much those hands can do. I asked a RollsRoyce representative whether that wealthy rancher could have a pickup bed installed on the back of the car. The answer is no — but not because Rolls-Royce isn’t capable of doing this or doesn’t want to do it. It’s because if the vehicle’s body structure was changed like that, the car would have to be crash-tested again and recertified by the government.
So if your heart is set on driving a Rolls-Camino with a pickup bed, you’re out of luck.
What’s it like to drive and be driven in a car like this? From the driver’s seat, it’s all about having an overabundance of power, a ridiculously heavy-feeling body and the smoothest, quietest ride you can imagine.
Even better, I asked someone to drive me around while I sat in the back seat. You can adjust the seat to lean back like a living-room recliner and prop your feet up on a footrest, making it feel like nap time. And if you need to get some work done, you can control all the car’s electronics from the back seat and use a foldout table to hold your laptop or iPad while you work on your company’s next mega-merger.
Walking away after driving a RollsRoyce for the first time, the biggest impression I got was that the Ghost doesn’t really feel like a car. It feels more like a piece of sculpture — something you don’t buy because you need it, but because you’re deeply inspired by it.