Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has introduced a Black Badge version of its Ghost to Malaysia, joining the likes of the Cullinan, Wraith and Dawn within the more expressive Black Badge family. While Rolls-Royce is renowned for developing new colour palettes, the colour black has long been associated with power, strength and authority. It is intense and substantial yet speaks of elegance and confidence.

Catering to a new generation of clients who desire a Rolls-Royce that is agile, discreet, highly connected and free of any superfluous design, the Black Badge Ghost is a minimalist yet is the most technologically advanced Rolls-Royce thus far. In the 12 months since this motor car has been available, it has become one of the fastest-selling products in the marque’s history, representing more than 3,500 commissions worldwide.

The Asia Pacific region now has one of the highest proportions of Black Badge in the world. Clients are now increasingly familiar with the mathematical symbol that represents a potential infinity, which is found within the motor car’s interior. This graphic, also known as the Lemniscate, was applied to Sir Malcolm Campbell’s record-breaking Rolls-Royce-powered Blue Bird K3 hydroplane and the marque’s designers nominated this hallmark for Black Badge motor cars to reflect their own unrelenting pursuit of power.

The new design conversation of Black Badge Ghost centres around ‘Post Opulence’, an aesthetic movement characterised by reduction and substance. Despite its “black” theme, you are still free to select a body colour from the marque’s 44,000 ‘ready-to-wear’ available choices, or create your own entirely unique Bespoke hue. However, the overwhelming majority of clients who requested this darker expression of Ghost have selected the signature Black.

To create what is the motor car industry’s darkest black, 45 kg of paint is atomised and applied to an electrostatically charged body in white before being oven dried. The motor car then receives 2 layers of clear coat before being hand-polished by a team of 4 craftsmen to produce the marque’s signature high-gloss piano finish. At between 3 and 5 hours in duration, this operation is entirely unknown in mass production, creating an intensity simply unattainable elsewhere in the automotive industry. It is this depth of darkness that serves as the perfect canvas for clients to add a high-contrast, hand-painted Coachline, which has done much to create the Black Badge ‘black and neon’ aesthetic that has come to characterise this vivid family of Rolls-Royce motor cars.

The car revealed at the launch is white, to highlight the iconic Rolls-Royce hallmarks such as the high-polished Spirit of Ecstasy and Pantheon Grille that are specially treated for the Black Badge range. Instead of simply painting these components, a specific chrome electrolyte is introduced to the traditional chrome plating process that is co-deposited on the stainless-steel substrate, darkening the finish. Its final thickness is just 1 micrometre (around one hundredth of the width of a human hair). Each of these components is precision-polished by hand to achieve a mirror-black chrome finish before it is fitted to the motor car.

Further, the exterior treatment resolves with a Bespoke 21″ composite wheelset. Designed in the Black Badge house style and reserved for Black Badge Ghost, the barrel of each wheel is made up of 22 layers of carbon fibre laid on 3 axes, then folded back on themselves at the outer edges of the rim, forming a total of 44 layers of carbon fibre for greater strength. A 3D-forged aluminium hub is bonded to the rim using aerospace-grade titanium fasteners and finished with the marque’s hallmark Floating Hubcap, ensuring the Double R monogram remains upright at all times. To celebrate the material substance and remarkable surface effect, a lightly tinted lacquer is applied to protect the finish but still allow clients to observe the technical complexity of the wheel’s unique carbon fibre construction.

The Black Badge Ghost’s Post Opulent design philosophy using bold yet luxurious materials. Typical of Rolls-Royce is the meticulously created and crafted interior suite. In this spirit, a complex but subtle weave that incorporates a deep diamond pattern rendered in carbon and metallic fibres has been created by the marque’s craftspeople. Multiple wood layers are pressed onto the interior component substrates, using black Bolivar veneer for the uppermost base layer. This forms a dark foundation for the Technical Fibre layers that follow.

Leaves woven from resin-coated carbon and contrasting metal-coated thread laid in a diamond pattern are applied by hand to the components in perfect alignment, creating a 3D effect. To secure this extraordinary veneer, each component is cured for an hour under pressure at 100°C. This is then sand-blasted to create a keyed surface for 6 layers of lacquer, which is hand-sanded and polished before being incorporated into the motor car.

If specified in the client’s commission, the Technical Fibre ‘Waterfall’ section of the individual rear seats receives the Black Badge family motif: the mathematical symbol that represents potential infinity known as a Lemniscate. Aesthetes from the marque’s design team elected to further enhance the noir ambience of Black Badge Ghost by subduing the brightwork.

Air vent surrounds on the dashboard and in the rear cabin are darkened using physical vapour deposition, one of the few methods of colouring metal that ensures parts will not discolour or tarnish over time or through repeated use. The Post Opulent principles of simplicity have also been applied to dramatic effect in the Black Badge Ghost timepiece design i.e. only the tips of the hands and the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock markers are picked out in a subdued chrome finish, creating a remarkably minimal clock. Additional timepiece choices are also available to suit your preference.

The clients who requested this motor car demanded that the Bespoke treatment of Black Badge Ghost extend from the design atelier into the marque’s engineering department. In doing so, the Bespoke Collective of designers, engineers and craftspeople collaborated to create a vivid driving personality that matches Black Badge Ghost’s visual intent without compromising the marque’s effortless ride proclivities and exhaustive acoustic tuning.

Key to its potent character is the Architecture of Luxury, Rolls-Royce’s proprietary all-aluminium spaceframe architecture that debuted with Phantom. This sub-structure not only delivers extraordinary body stiffness, but its flexibility and scalability allowed Ghost to be equipped with all-wheel drive, 4-wheel steering and the award-winning Planar Suspension system. For Black Badge, these peerless engineering qualities have been comprehensively re-engineered, including the fitting of more voluminous air springs to alleviate body roll under more assertive cornering. This motor car was designed for the owner to be chauffeured and to drive him/herself.

Moving this 2,490 kg masterpiece is the Rolls-Royce twin-turbocharged 6.75L V12 engine mated with an 8-speed transmission. The flexibility of this celebrated powerplant has been exploited to generate an extra 21 kW, creating a total output of 592 hp (600 PS), with 900 Nm of torque (+50 Nm) available between 1,700 – 4,250 rpm. The powertrain has also received Bespoke transmission and throttle treatments to further enhance the engine’s increased power reserves. This is sufficient for the Ghost to clock a 0 – 100 km/h time of 4.7 seconds. Top speed is limited to 250 km/h.

As with all products in the marque’s Black Badge portfolio, the ‘Low’ button situated on the gear selection stalk unlocks Black Badge Ghost’s full suite of technologies. This is asserted by the amplification of the motor car’s engine through an entirely new exhaust system, subtly announcing its potency. Once underway in Low Mode, gearshift speeds are increased by 50% when the throttle is depressed to 90%, delivering Black Badge Ghost’s abundant power reserves with dramatic immediacy.

To bolster confidence when exploiting Black Badge Ghost, the braking bite point has been raised and pedal travel decreased. Non-Black Badge Ghost is provisioned with a robust braking hardware package that was deemed more than ample under extreme conditions, even accounting for the Black Badge alter ego’s increased power output. However, a new suite of bold high-temperature brake calliper paint colours has been developed in preparation for forthcoming Black Badge Ghost commissions.“Black Badge is the ‘alter-ego’ of Rolls-Royce, an alternative to a segment of super-luxury customers who value the bold and non-conformist. We are witnessing highly successful entrepreneurs who are more diverse than ever before, coming from non-traditional industries. They are innovators, trailblazers — and above all — those who dare. Black Badge is their code of luxury,” said Anas Zawawi Khalid, Director, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Kuala Lumpur.

The Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost is available to commission now, with customer orders already arriving. Pricing starts from a base of RM1.8 million before taxes and customised specifications. As Rolls-Royce motor cars are Bespoke, pricing is dependent on specification. The launch unit shown here is spec’d to around RM2.3 million (before taxes etc).