706hp and 1002Nm Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge by Spofec / The Supercar Diaries

Normally when we talk about ghosts we think about white things, but today our ghost is black. My question to you is, can it be a little bit too black? Where did the black badge thing all come from? It's a more sporty, more performance-orientated version of a Rolls-Royce. It originated back in the 1930s. Well, not really. It started in 2016, but the story goes back all the way to then, when in the 1930s there was a boom all of a sudden of people wanting black cars. Then in the 60s a guy came along and ordered a completely blacked-out version of the Rolls-Royce. He wanted all the vertical sides to be glossy and all the horizontal sides to be matte. Rolls-Royce made notes of all these little things. Then in 65 John Lennon came along and said, I want a completely blackened-out Rolls-Royce, and it was the first one with, in Western society, blackened-out windows, blackened handles, black ball bars, black wheels, the works. Rolls-Royce made their notes again. In 2016 they launched the Black Badge series, and six years later we've got the 2022 Ghost Black Badge. It's the blackest, darkest black badge car that they have ever specced out. To see just how black it is, we're gonna go and have a look. So Rolls-Royce went and they made this car black, but not just normal, 45 kilograms of black paint. That also includes the little coach line, which normally is hand-painted. You've got the spirit of ecstasy in black. Pantene grille over here, black, and it's illuminated from the back with some lights. You've got another black badge, black wheels, black brake calipers. You can have that in a different color if you like, but why if you can have it in black? Mirrors in black, tinted windows, and then, very importantly, you also have black, no, silver door handles. Yes, silver door handles on a black badge, because at this point in time, just like everybody else, Rolls-Royce themselves are also battling with getting parts. You know the little button that you can press over here to close the door? There's a unit that's missing, so you're now left to call Johnson to close the door for you, because it doesn't work automatically once you press the button. From the inside, you can still close it via the button, but from the outside, you have to push it. However, the blackness continues on the inside, and it's all black. Good place to sleep. Now, this option of orange with the stitching is something that the owner of this car has preferred in order to break the wave of blackness. If you didn't do that, you'll have everything in black. Interior linings everywhere, the dorsals, the ceiling, albeit with some shooting stars. All the seats in black, but not just the solid pieces, also the perforated sew-ons, which you can also have stitched in black. The backrests, black. The badges that have been printed into them, black. My feet rest on black Lambswool. You can have in here a compartment for your black decanter, your two black wine glasses, a fridge in which you can cool your black champagne with your two complementary Rolls-Royce black glasses. But that's not just all the black that you find in this car, because the rest of it continues in the front. So, over here, you've got your black steering wheel resting amid an entire dash covered in black, apart from this orange line over here, which breaks, you know, the wave of black. The rest of it with a technical fiber, also quite dark, not quite black. Leather bits and pieces, a couple of chrome bits, as will, again, the black Lambwool at the bottom. And then this shiny black fascia over here, emitting that cluster of stars that, of course, holds the emblem of the Black Badge as well. Where the Black Badge story kind of ends is where the Spofek story starts. And that really is what this video is about. First things first, what you can get for your Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge are front bumper new, rear bumper new, fenders new, and side skirt. This car has not been fitted with the front fenders, which normally has an air vent over there. The front has been totally redesigned, the bumper of this car completely, making it a bit more sporty, a little bit more aggressive, bigger air vents over there, giving the car more air. But it also aids the downforce, keeping it a bit more stable at higher speeds. Also, the LED light strips that we've placed into the bumper over there. As you look at the side of the car, it looks a bit more masculine, a bit wider, a bit lower, actually, with the side skirt. Now, you get the Ghost in two variations, wheelbase-wise. One is a bit longer than the other one. All our components fit on both of those variants. So, there you have a completely newly designed side skirt for this car. Now, the side skirts are not the only things that contribute to this car looking a bit more bulky, a bit more masculine. It's also the fact that it rides lower, not on a sport suspension, but with one of our Spofix lowering modules. It allows the car to ride lower by 40 millimeters, up to 40 millimeters, and up to a speed of 140 kilometers per hour, in which it'll then just go back into the standard height for driving safety. Another thing that aids that, though, is the SP2 rims on this car, which look absolutely stunning. You have them here in a polished black, and they hide the massive brakes of this car. Of course, those black braking calipers, 22-inch tires over here, 265 in the front, 295 at the back, really just... Yeah! At the back of this Rolls-Royce, you can see our new Spofix bumper design for the Ghost Black Badge. Lovely! And, of course, the body parts that you see on this car that we've made, the fenders, the front bumper, the rear bumper, the side skirts, they're all carbon fiber, and you can have them, of course, painted in body color. I'm not 100% sure who exactly will put visible carbon fiber onto their Rolls-Royce. Is that something that you do? Let me know down in the comments. You also have the opportunity to maybe have a lip over here at the back. A little bit of a spoiler. How's it? Now, we've decided not to have that fitted onto this car. Massive! Would you give us five, six bodies easily? So, what I've done is I've brought it with. So, what are you for? To lip or not to lip? The choice is yours. May the force be with you. Now, in order to experience the sound of that sports exhaust system that we fitted to this car, flap actuated, as well as the tremendous power increase that it has undergone, we'll have to take this car out for a drive. Flimsy! And it still sounds as if there could be something loose inside it, which is a bit of a pity. I do like what it looks like, especially the little accent of orange over there that complements the rest of the car. But for now, vroom vroom! So, welcome to the pulpit of luxury driving the Ghost Black Badge. Your senses are working overtime trying to figure out why you're not experiencing that which you're seeing in front of you in the road in unequal surfaces. It is the epitome of luxury, of commuting in style and class. This is driving a cloud of caviar. Sort of. Just without the smell. 6.75 litre twin turbocharged V12 motor up front, driving all four wheels through an automatic gearbox. This is not a normal Black Badge. This is the Spofig Black Badge, which means that we've got to work on it. Now, it churns out a hell of a lot of power. That's equally impressive. Nearly a thousand. And it really holds gut, this thing. It doesn't really give you the sensation that a supercar will give you, but if you look at the needle, it's just effortlessly climbing that mountain of speed. But there is something else about this car that is going to liven everything up. If I press low, which is, well, Rolls-Royce's interpretation of the sport button, things get a little bit more peppy. But before I explain that, I'm going to press on this button over here. So I've activated our exhaust system and just listen to the gurgles that it generates in a ghost Black Badge. And that is exciting. It just gives that little hint of sportiness, that little hint of, hey, I can do this. I can play in the big league. Fantastic. But it does not steal the ride finesse in this car. Now, in the Black Badge version, as we've said, they've pumped a bit more air into the suspension setup so that it's slightly harder. It's a bit more robust, gives you a bit more a connected feel to the road, especially when you try and drive it a little bit more sporty in your low mode. And the throttle response is also a little bit more lively in low mode, as well as the brake pedal feel. As a matter of fact, the brakes stay the same. They haven't changed at all, but they have changed the way that the brake pedal behaves in that it takes a little bit higher up and is ever so slightly more sensitive. It'll keep the gears a little bit longer than what it normally does. And that sort of honey noise that comes from that lovely exhaust system that we built into this car is just absolutely lovely. Oh, and the little gurgles that it gives. It still wears a tuxedo, it's still drinking, you know, it's martini and it's still having a cigar, but it's kind of just cracking jokes all the time. I mean, this car just absolutely effortlessly gets off the line, but it's not like it's begging you to do that. Even with all that power and that big V12 up front, it's just delivering that power in a sort of nonchalant kind of way. What is this Rolls-Royce actually telling us? Well, I think the fact that they do black badge is exciting. I love that. I applaud them for taking a brand where everybody says, oh, it's about being like this and giving a more youthful, sporty touch. That's really good. I'm very, very, very proud and very excited about the fact that we, Novitec Spofek, take on cars like this and do something special with them. Is it too much? I don't know. The question of excess is how is it being applied? If it's being applied constructively, then it's like beauty in the eye of the beholder. And this has been done constructively. And what we've done to this, well, I have to be biased there and just say we've really made a car that is already super special now in the black badge segment. Just giving it that Spofek touch made it all the more special. Let me know what you guys think down in the description, especially about that little Rorschach exhaust note at the back. Would you do it? Would you not? Is this your cup of tea? Would you drive it or would you rather sit in the back? That's all from me. Thank you so much for joining me until next time, because the sun's going down. If you guys haven't yet, feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Click that little bell icon, that way you're going to get notified every time we upload a new video. And you can follow us on Instagram, me personally at beyondthecorp or novitecgroup at novitec. And if you want to see anything more about this car that you might not have seen in the video, if you want to see different examples, then visit our website, novitecgroup.com. I'll see you in the next video. Until then, God bless and take care. Cutty, cutty, cut, cut.