Text: Sergey Tokarev Photo by Yakub Islamov
MAKING A DECISION ON THE BEGINNING OF PRODUCTION OF CARS UNDER THE ROLLS-ROYCE BRAND, ITS FOUNDERS DEFINED THE CONCEPT OF THEIR PRODUCTS SO: "THE CAR IS ABOVE ALL CRITICISM". IS THIS REALLY REAL, WE HAD TO EXPLORE
In the 10 years that the Russian Emirates magazine has been published, we have repeatedly written about the cars of the legendary Rolls-Royce brand, but, having received an offer from AGMC, the dealer of this brand in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, to take a new test drive Ghost model, they didn’t refuse - it was interesting to experience for yourself what the British Goodwizard masters surprise the audience with.
However, in fairness, we recall: Rolls-Royce ceased to be purely British after the purchase of its German concern BMW, which not only saved the concern from closure, but also introduced a number of technological innovations into its products.
Choosing a car for a test drive, we settled on the Rolls-Royce Ghost model, formerly known as the “Concept 200EX”. Although it is not the newest one (it was released in September 2009), it was the marketers who entrusted it with a responsible mission - to instill a love for the brand in the “younger generation” of wealthy customers. The 200EX concept was originally created in order to prove that it is not necessary to have a personal chauffeur in the Rolls-Royce kit, that the driver's seat is no less comfortable and that not only owning, but also managing four-wheel luxury can and should bring pleasure. And what does youth like? That's right - speed, power and aggression! However, Rolls-Royce is usually associated with important slowness, pomposity, deliberate slowness and other attributes of royal majesty. Even the meaning of the figure on the hood, embodying the spirit of the car, is "reasonable speed, grace and beauty, a spirit in which there is not a drop of vulgarity, frivolity and rage."
But everything flows, everything changes, in the courtyard of the 21st century, and in order to shatter the old-fashioned and non-modern associations, the Rolls-Royce 200EX was created.
So, meet - Rolls-Royce Ghost. Under the hood is a 12.6-cylinder twin-turbo engine with a capacity of 6.6 liters, which allows you to disperse a car weighing 2.5 tons (without passengers) to 100 kilometers per hour in just 4.9 seconds. By the way, Ghost is the most powerful model ever created by Rolls-Royce. From the important:
Length - 5,4 m
Width - 1.9 m
Engine power - 570 l. with.
Transmission - 8-speed automatic
Top speed (limited by electronics) - 250 km / h
Fuel tank - 82.5 liters, which should be enough for 605 km
Average fuel consumption - 13.6 liters per 100 km (in the city - up to 20 liters)
The AGMC press release contains 18 pages of information. Only a description of the colors in which the car is delivered to the market takes a whole page!
Actually, comparing the top models of Mercedes (from 500 to 600 thousand dirhams), Bentley (about 1 million dirhams) and Rolls-Royce (2.5 million dirhams), you do not always understand the reason for such a price dispersion. Understanding comes only when you start to pay attention to the reaction of others. I will give only one example: I did not have time to get out of a car parked near my house when a young woman approached me with a baby in her arms. Seeing me: she was surprised and exclaimed in pure Russian: “Well, they wanted to take a picture with the sheikh, but it turned out that they were their own!” It turns out that she has seen me in the parking lot more than once, but she didn’t have a desire to come up to me before. To my question: “Why? The five-hundredth Mercedes that I park here daily is also not the cheapest car!”, Sincerely replied: “There are a lot of Mercedes in the parking lot, but the Rolls-Royce has arrived for the first time!”.
In fact, in her words lies the clue to the magic power of Rolls-Royce - a car from another world, from a parallel reality, which has long been synonymous with concepts such as prestige, luxury and social status.
