Black Badge applied to Rolls-Royce Ghost

ROLLS-ROYCE has applied the popular Black Badge treatment to its Ghost sedan in a bid to attract a younger audience to the prestigious model. 

The company says the affluent black-label treatment is “crucial” to reducing the average age of its audience, the application “such an integral part of the brand” that it now adorns 40 per cent of all Rolls-Royce vehicles sold. 

The all-wheel drive Ghost Black Badge is powered by the same twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre V12 engine as the donor but with an additional 22kW/50Nm to total of 441kW/900Nm, the latter available from just 1700rpm.

A new ‘low’ driving mode and uprated air springs are said to sharpen the cornering abilities of the hefty luxury sedan, as have a bespoke throttle map and all-wheel drive tune. The four-wheel drive steering system is likewise sharpened, and the brake pedal stroke reduced. 

Rolls-Royce has also quickened the gearshift timing of Ghost’s eight-speed automatic and opened the taps of the voluminous twin-outlet exhaust.

“After considerable internal debate, Rolls-Royce announced that it would create an officially sanctioned response to a new kind of client: a permanent bespoke treatment to its motor cars named Black Badge. These products, which were launched in 2016, would be darker in aesthetic, more urgent in personality, and dramatic in material treatment,” Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said.

“In the five years since the Black Badge became publicly available, this bold family of motor cars has come to symbolise the pinnacle of a new type of super-luxury product, setting in motion a shift across the wider luxury industry. Subsequently, nearly all luxury makers create products that seek to capture the Black Badge spirit.”

The Ghost now joins the Cullinan, Dawn, and Wraith in wearing the exclusive Black Badge and shares elements including the now instantly recognisable dark-chrome garnishing, 21-inch alloy wheel design, darkened grille and Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament.

The theme is continued inside the prestigious cabin with black wood veneers and fabrics, subdued brightwork, and a model-specific clock and LED illuminated dashboard fascia.

“[The Ghost] represents a new kind of Black Badge motor car, one that seizes on the minimalist, Post Opulent design treatment that has recast the legend of the Ghost but amplifies and subverts it with the application of black.

“Our most advanced motor car yet has been reengineered to characterise the alter ego of Rolls-Royce: assertive, dynamic, and potent. This is the purest Black Badge motor car in the marque’s history. This is the Black Badge Ghost,” Mr Müller-Ötvös concluded.

The Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge is available to order now.