Rolls Royce presented the Wraith at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show and finally put some numbers and detail to the most powerful motor vehicle the company has ever made.
For starters it is powered by a V12 that produces 624 bhp and a thumping 800 Nm of torque that will shove the car to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds and on to a limited 155 mph. The price (if you have to ask) will be around £215,000 including vat.
So what do you get for your money with the Wraith?
Well, to describe the car as a Ghost Coupé is perhaps over-simplifying matters and although there are obvious design similarities between the two-door and the four-door versions of Rolls Royce’s ‘baby’ motor car there are some distinct differences.
The car in profile is most definitely a proper ‘coupé’ with its roofline gracefully sloping into a pert fastback shape and the two-tone paint of the car only helps to emphasise the point of the design. Is it pretty or beautiful? Not really but it would be fair to call it elegant and most definitely imposing.
Position the Wraith up against any other flash car in the car park and it will dominate the area. Although the new car does not have the size and bulk of a Phantom or of its brother the Ghost saloon, the Wraith has something that all Rollers have today that no other manufacturer can currently match – Presence by the bucket-load.
Mercedes tried to compete with Rolls Royce via their Maybach brand and ultimately failed. They just couldn’t replicate the presence of a Rolls Royce and if you have lots of money you want a car that makes that kind of statement. The fact that Rolls Royce seems to do it without being crass or vulgar is an achievement in itself.
Let’s look at the Wraith in detail again. There are two huge ‘coach’ doors similar to those you find on the Phantom Drophead Coupe that open in such a cavernous way that they would allow a White Rhino to step into the car without touching the sides.
Once inside the Wraith our friendly rhino would be swallowed whole by a field full of high-grade cow leather whilst being cocooned in Canadel wood panelling. Should the rhino feel inclined to kick back and relax he (or she) might marvel at the Starlight Headliner feature which has 1340 hand-woven fibre-optic lamps installed that might just simulate a star-filled night sky back in Africa.
But it’s not all about the usual Rolls Royce wood and leather-clad interior with the Wraith because some modern-day technology has also been added to the specification.
For starters the Wraith has Satellite Aided Transmission. This means that its 8-speed auto transmission will take instructions from the SatNav that will tell the gearbox which gear to select based on the way the car is being driven and what lies ahead of it. In theory this means that the driver will enjoy optimum performance without thinking about what hazards and obstacles might present themselves further down the road. Cool.
However should the driver ever decide to use the use the SatNav himself then he will have no need for any touch screen menus or button pushing. The voice activation acts as an in-car personal valet and a simple worded instruction such as “Navigate to Monaco” will suffice. Also very cool (if it works).
Other techno-frippery includes a head-up-display function, adaptive headlights and a touch-pad that allows one to draw a character rather than type or select from a virtual keyboard. Of course, why not?
First deliveries of the new Wraith are not specific apart from the company stating they will start during the last quarter of 2013.
In the meantime, the Wraith now has a configurator set up for anybody who wants to play around with the colours and options as follows:-
http://www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/wraith/
For the further information regarding the new Wraith or any other Rolls Royce model give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net
Photos copyright 2013 Drew Phillips / AOL
The Car Spy 