Rolls-Royce Wants Younger Owners To Go Black
Rolls-Royce, long considered the pinnacle of luxury motoring, is targeting the youthful to cross over to the dark side with its Black Badge edition. The Rolls-Royce Wraith and Ghost models in particular, will get the dark alter-egos.
A key feature of the Black Badge, besides the very obvious black body, is the inversion of the traditional color scheme. The lettering is silver on a black background instead of the reverse. The famous Spirit of Ecstasy too goes from chrome to black; or as Roll-Royce calls it a “high-gloss black vamp”.
“Black Badge is an attitude to life, an aspect of the Rolls-Royce brand that appeals to those people who are elusive and defiant, the risk takers and disruptors who break the rules and laugh in the face of convention. They are driven by a restless spirit. They play hard and they change the world,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The interior of the Rolls-Royce Ghost wears tailored black leather upholstery with a healthy dose of purple while the Wraith gets black with cobalt blue. The darkened interior also sees newly developed materials like the aerospace-grade carbon fiber composite threaded with aluminum.
“In creating Black Badge, we were conscious of satisfying the different demands of these new customers. Not only did they demand an alternative image for themselves, they demanded authentic Rolls-Royce engineering substance to underpin it. As a result, the Black Badge Spirit manifests itself through a series of carefully considered design elements which together express a darker luxury sophistication. New material accents and tonalities are combined to accommodate the tastes of those fast-moving customers who adopt a strident approach to life’s finer challenges,” said Giles Taylor, Director of Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The change goes beyond the name and color theme. Rolls-Royce has changed the throttle, transmission and suspension programming of the Black Badge cars to be more dynamic and aggressive. The Wraith’s 6.6L V12 engine still retains the 624 hp but gets increased torque to 870 Nm. Meanwhile, the Ghost’s 6.6L V12 engine gets a 40 hp increase to 603 hp and torque to 840 Nm. Both engines are paired with 8-speed automatic transmission.
No prices have been announced but if you need to ask, you’re not there yet.
Watch the promotional video here.
