The Rolls-Royce Ghost: The Name Alone Is Heavy (Ghost) Lol

It was a cool Friday evening sometimes in 2012, we were having our Banking Services Group Retreat at the Southern Sun Hotel in Ikoyi, I was a bit bored so I decided to step out for a while, lo and behold, I spotted this super clean white Rolls-Royce in front of the Hotel entrance, I was confused and was like "this Phantom look different, its smaller and has a sleeker look", anyway I took a picture and went back inside the hall, showed it to the man beside me and he was like "wow, that's a Rolls-Royce Ghost". Another hotel employee was like "you haven't seen anything yet, wait till Sunday morning if you want to see cars, I'm sure you'll go crazy" and he was right, it was on that Sunday morning as we were leaving that I spotted a Lamborghini for the first time in my life, the number plate was DILLY, but since today is not for Lamborghini, and for the Ghost, I guess ill be talking about the Ghost.

For those who desire sybaritic luxury and a spirited driving experience in the same ultra-pricey motorcar, the Ghost Series II is your answer. Under the hood topped by the Spirit of Ecstasy is a twin-turbo 6.6-liter V-12 good for 563 hp paired to a satellite-aided gearbox, which uses GPS data to read the roadscape ahead of you, anticipate your driving needs, and shift the transmission accordingly. The interior boasts sumptuous leather seating and handsomely crafted wood veneers.

If you’re truly wealthy, you’re not visiting your local Rolls-Royce dealership at Coscharis to buy a Ghost, but rather a Phantom EWB at a price that starts just above N175million (I was there myself). The Ghost, while still outrageously expensive at N100million, is for the merely rich. To better delineate the difference, let’s paraphrase, Don Jazzy who is a Glo Ambassador is rich; Mike Adenuga who signs Don Jazzy's Endorsment paycheck is wealthy.

Recognizing that money can be a sensitive subject in the wake of increasing income disparity in Nigeria, Coscharis Motors executives incessantly throw around the word “entrepreneur” to describe their Ghost clients. Everyone still loves the myth of the bootstraps.

Other myths punctuate the Rolls-Royce narrative: 60 craftsmen in Goodwood spend some 450 hours laboring over each custom, hand-finished automobile. Rolls-Royce says that in excess of 85 percent of the 4000 cars it will sell this year are bespoke, which means that if a buyer has a grove of trees on his estate, for example, he may choose to have some of that wood included in the interior trim. Or, in the case of someone like billionaire Femi Otedola, he can just buy one for Dj Cuppy and have it painted entirely Gold.

With this clash between the traditional staid Rolls-Royce idioms and the shamelessness of our global culture, the inconsistency of a proud British firm being owned and run by the Germans at BMW seems much less important than it did a decade ago. That the underpinnings of the Ghost are borrowed from a BMW 7 Series doesn’t matter; what does is the option to personalize your fitted umbrella with up to two canopy colors and a further option for the beading.

Yes, that’s a feature newly available on the 2015 Ghost Series II, one of relatively few changes from what we can now start calling the Ghost Series 1, one of the 2010–2014 models. As inducements to upgrade go, the Series II is left wanting, although according to Rolls-Royce, that is by design. Customers who have spent large sums as recently as last month do not like to be told that their impressive ingot has been made less impressive by a new one.

Yet this new Ghost is more ingot than before, with a front fascia that’s been made to look ever so slightly more substantial by moving the grille higher and emphasizing the character lines on the hood. New adaptive LED headlights help widen the look of the nose, just as they put Rolls-Royce back on the lighting-technology lead lap. Similarly, the Ghost Series II sees its interior electronics updated to use the current iteration of BMW iDrive, with a Spirit of Ecstasy–festooned controller that supports touch input.
Perhaps recognizing that the Ghost’s ride could use a little more BMW in it, as well—since the introduction of the Wraith, the Ghost’s role as the driver’s Roller has been undermined—a firmer suspension setup is now offered as an option on the standard-wheelbase Ghost SII. While the retuned settings certainly allow less listing than with the standard configuration, the Dynamic package is best identified from the driver’s seat by the thicker steering wheel. Pitching the 5600-pound Ghost into a corner still results in tire-squealing understeer.
With the exception of the transmission, the rest of the mechanical package carries over, including the 563-hp, 6.6-liter twin-turbo V-12. The SII replaces the old ZF eight-speed automatic with essentially the same transmission, but now it’s wired into the navigation system so that it can predict when to shift, a setup that first appeared on a Rolls in the Wraith. Shifts in the Ghost were already a nonevent, so it’s hard to tell whether this is legitimate technology or an apparition. What’s indisputable is that the SII Ghost still drives like a Rolls-Royce, wafting along like a mint thousand naira note caught in a strong updraft.

I have had the opportunity to be in a Phantom and a Wraith, still hoping to be in a Ghost someday, I see it most weekends on my way to Church and on the way back, although its smaller to the Phantom, its still a beauty to behold, we sef go afford am one day, and not only write about it, say amen, lol.

More pictures after the cut...