First Drive: 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost

"The launch of a new Rolls-Royce is an historic event," says CEO Tom Purves as we sit down to dinner at West Stoke House in bucolic West Sussex, only a few miles from the Rolls-Royce factory on the Earl of March's estate at Goodwood, and in the very room where design chief Ian Cameron and team spent three months working on the Phantom back in 2000. Not as historic event as it perhaps once was, though: The 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost sedan is the fourth new Rolls-Royce to appear since the imperious Phantom rewrote the rulebook for super-luxury cars in 2003. Or, to put it another way, Rolls-Royce has now launched as many new cars in the 11 years since BMW snatched the storied marque from under the nose of VW Group boss Ferdinand Piech as it had in the previous 50.

For all that, the 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost is indeed an historic car: It's the first small Rolls-Royce launched since the 1949 Silver Dawn. "Small" is a relative term, however. Though 17.1 inches shorter than a Phantom sedan, the 212.6-inch Ghost is still 4.3 inches longer than a Bentley Continental Flying Spur, and weighs a not insubstantial 5450 pounds. This is not a compact econo-Rolls.

What it is, unmistakably, is a true Rolls-Royce, even though it shares some (deeply buried) hardware with the new BMW 7 Series. The Ghost is sleeker, sportier looking than any of the Phantoms, with a rakish windshield, taut shoulders, tucked-in corners, and an athletic stance. But from the moment you fire up the new 536-horsepower, 6.6-liter, twin turbo V-12 and snick the column-mounted shifter into "D", it's clear you're driving a car like no other. Like every great Rolls-Royce, the Ghost is a paragon of effortless motion, uncannily smooth and silent, with a ride like a magic carpet.

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There's a serious surge when you nail the gas pedal, a sensation quite unlike that you may have experienced in any Rolls-Royce until now. The new V-12 has 575 pound-feet of torque on tap from just 1500 rpm, and with the ZF eight speed automatic seamlessly shuffling the ratios, this big, heavy limo hits 60 mph in 4.8 seconds, and will hustle down the standing quarter mile in 13.2 seconds. It is the quickest production Rolls-Royce in history. While some Rolls-Royce execs profess slight embarrassment at the Ghost's impressive turn of speed, insisting the marque is really all about relaxed "waftability," their deprecating smiles suggest they're actually quite pleased their "little" car is as quick away from the lights as that upstart Bentley CFS.

It's not the performance that's the most remarkable thing about the 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost -- it's the ride. It's impossible to tell for sure without a detailed back-to-back comparison, but this "baby" Rolls-Royce may even ride better than the big Phantom sedan. The Ghost soaks up everything from big frost heaves to gnarly road acne with astonishing aplomb; no matter what's going on under the wheels, its occupants glide along in serene comfort. And yet -- and this is perhaps the most remarkable thing of all -- the Ghost doesn't wallow like a drunken water buffalo the moment you swing it into a turn.

A unique characteristic of two lane British roads, says Rolls-Royce engineering director Helmut Riedl, is their edges are often rough while the centers are smooth, which frequently induces a side-to-side rocking motion and what ride specialists call "head toss" for the vehicle's occupants. Taming this motion was one of the key objectives of the Ghost's chassis development team.

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The Ghost's suspension consists of double wishbones up front, and a multi-link rear axle, with air springs and electronically variable shocks. Nothing magical there -- the magic is in how all the components have been tuned to work together. The air springs have been calibrated to roughly the same frequency response as those in the Phantom, says Riedl, which ensures excellent rolling ride. But the natural consequence of good rolling ride is a tendency for the car to lean heavily in corners, which is why the Ghost uses a development of the BMW anti-roll system first seen on the E65 7 Series, in which electronically decoupled stabilizer bars are used to effectively hold it upright through turns.

Normally, such a system would degrade the ride quality somewhat. But not in the Ghost. Unlike steel springs, the natural frequency of air springs remains constant as load varies; the electronically controlled shocks automatically vary their damping rate to compensate, making individual load calculations every 2.5 milliseconds. Riedl claims the Ghost's suspension system is so sensitive it can detect the movement of a rear passenger from one side of the seat to the other, and compensate accordingly.

All this technology is invisible to the driver. There are no buttons offering a choice of "sport" or "comfort" settings; the car expertly does it all for you, which is exactly how it should be in a Rolls-Royce. That's not to say the Ghost is a boring, anodyne drive. Far from it - the steering, though light, provides remarkable feel, allowing the driver to place the Ghost accurately through corners. Turn-in response is crisp, though not aggressive, and with all that torque and all those gears, the V-12 is always ready to punch the car out of the turns. A sporting Rolls-Royce? Absolutely. But still a Rolls-Royce. Smooth, quiet, effortless.

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All the same, the Ghost is clearly the entry-level car in the Rolls-Royce range. While the trademark aluminum hood look is available on the Ghost, the effect is achieved via silver paint and matte lacquer rather than laboriously finishing bare metal. The interior is impeccably finished in the requisite soft leather, gleaming wood and splashes of bright white chrome, but lacks the unique theatricality of the Phantom. Where the Phantom's dash has the proportions and presence of a piece of hand-built furniture, for example, the Ghost's has a more conventionally car-like architecture. The BMW-sourced sat-nav screen is always on display, as is the new-gen iDrive controller, instead of being discreetly tucked away as they are in the Phantom.

The Ghost has Phantom-style rear-hinged "coach doors" at the rear, and the sofa-like curved rear seat squab, but with the six-light greenhouse, passengers are less able to hide away in the rear seat. The cabin is roomy, though, and despite the Ghost's rakish roofline -- it's 1.7 inches lower than that of the two-door Phantom Coupe -- passengers enjoy a commanding view of the road.

While a handful of lucky Europeans will take delivery of their Ghosts before the end of the year, U.S. buyers will have to wait until mid-2010. Base price for U.S. spec cars will be about $250,000, though Rolls-Royce Motor Cars North America president Paul Ferraiolo expects most will cost closer to $300,000 once customers have worked their way through the lengthy options catalog.

Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves says 1600 "seriously intending customers" have signed up for the Ghost worldwide. Crucially, some 80 percent of them have never owned a Rolls-Royce before. "Don't underestimate this car," says Purves. "We are in the business of trebling what we are doing." But in a very discreet and reassuringly expensive Rolls-Royce way.