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Story by: Pat Devereux
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
It might seem excessive to devote a separate road test to an opentopped version of a car we drove more than a year ago. But in the case of the Bugatti Veyron, still the fastest production car you can buy, it’s worth it.
That’s because the work done to make the Veyron Grand Sport such a vibrantly different driving experience needs detailed explanation. The engineers and designers at the car’s Molsheim, France, home did more than peel off the roof of the existing car and fabricate a removable roof panel. They completely, subtly redesigned and reinforced the whole car so that it would, as we have come to expect from Bugatti, perform above and beyond any other open-topped car in the world.
Let’s start with the stuff you can’t see: The car’s carbon-fiber monocoque has been strengthened, the doors are now also made of the super-strong black weave, the air intakes behind the driver and passenger’s heads now provide rollover protection, and there’s a huge brace beneath the transmission. So, unlike most roadsters, it remains rigid as a safe and not half as heavy. On the outside, you will notice that the windscreen is slightly higher, new slim-line LED units replace the headlights, and the wheels are now diamond polished.
Other than that, the big news is the removable polycarbonate roof panel. It requires two people to displace, and the car has no place to store it. You have to leave it where you remove it, but the effort and potential inconvenience seem worth it.
With the top removed, you are fully exposed to the whole theater of the beast you are driving. In the fixed-roof Veyron Coupe, you are only faintly aware of the extraordinary W16 engine’s actions, a flat mechanical thrum being the only audible indication of the unit’s exertions. But in the Grand Sport, you hear and savor every part of the quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter orchestra. It’s like watching a film in 3-D or listening to your favorite piece of music in surround sound with headphones for the first time.
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That’s because the work done to make the Veyron Grand Sport such a vibrantly different driving experience needs detailed explanation. The engineers and designers at the car’s Molsheim, France, home did more than peel off the roof of the existing car and fabricate a removable roof panel. They completely, subtly redesigned and reinforced the whole car so that it would, as we have come to expect from Bugatti, perform above and beyond any other open-topped car in the world.
Let’s start with the stuff you can’t see: The car’s carbon-fiber monocoque has been strengthened, the doors are now also made of the super-strong black weave, the air intakes behind the driver and passenger’s heads now provide rollover protection, and there’s a huge brace beneath the transmission. So, unlike most roadsters, it remains rigid as a safe and not half as heavy. On the outside, you will notice that the windscreen is slightly higher, new slim-line LED units replace the headlights, and the wheels are now diamond polished.
Other than that, the big news is the removable polycarbonate roof panel. It requires two people to displace, and the car has no place to store it. You have to leave it where you remove it, but the effort and potential inconvenience seem worth it.
With the top removed, you are fully exposed to the whole theater of the beast you are driving. In the fixed-roof Veyron Coupe, you are only faintly aware of the extraordinary W16 engine’s actions, a flat mechanical thrum being the only audible indication of the unit’s exertions. But in the Grand Sport, you hear and savor every part of the quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter orchestra. It’s like watching a film in 3-D or listening to your favorite piece of music in surround sound with headphones for the first time.
More........ Click next tab
Apply a light pressure to the gas pedal and you can hear every fuel injector, piston, and turbo spool up as the engine takes a sharp intake of breath and prepares to do what it does better than any other car: go. With the roof installed, the Grand Sport will catapult you all the way to the same 253 mph top speed of its hard-topped brother. With the panel removed, max speed drops to a still-ridiculous 217 mph, presumably due to the inferior aerodynamics of the human head versus a wind-tunnel-smoothed panel.
The only time the car asks that you travel any slower than this is when the temporary roof is installed. Looking like a square carbon-fiber umbrella, it easily slots into the roof void. The one caveat is that you don’t travel more than 100 mph with it in place, as it’ll be sucked out and lost to the wind.
Once you have selected your roof option, the next part of the Grand Sport concerto is to choose the chassis mode. If you are only cruising around, the standard setting is enough for any speed up to 137 mph. If you have access to a race circuit, performance mode lowers the car closer to the track and sets the rear spoiler to 15 degrees — unless you have the roof off, in which case it kicks up to 20 degrees to correct the car’s aerodynamics.
If you want to set speed records, a second key has to be inserted before starting the car. Turning it sinks the Grand Sport down onto the tarmac like a crocodile, and the rear wing chips in with only two degrees of trim.
As impossible as it sounds, the Grand Sport’s vast carbon ceramic brakes remove the 4,387-pound Veyron’s speed as fast as the 1,001 bhp, 16-cylinder engine manages to accumulate it. The Grand Sport can accelerate to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds and bring itself back to a stop in only 105 feet — less than half the distance of a regular car.
And it sounds 10 times better while it’s doing it. As thrilling as it is to be squashed back into your seat by the jet-fighter thrust of the engine, it’s when you lift off that the engine’s fabulously mechanical noises stop being blown into the slipstream and wash into the cabin. At this moment, you understand why Bugatti thought some people — only three in the United States to date — would spend nearly $300,000 more on the Grand Sport than a regular Veyron 16.4.
It might seem excessive, but all other things being equal between the coupe and the roadster, if you had the money, I know you would, too.
Bugatti Grand Sport, from $1,990,064.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
Once you have selected your roof option, the next part of the Grand Sport concerto is to choose the chassis mode. If you are only cruising around, the standard setting is enough for any speed up to 137 mph. If you have access to a race circuit, performance mode lowers the car closer to the track and sets the rear spoiler to 15 degrees — unless you have the roof off, in which case it kicks up to 20 degrees to correct the car’s aerodynamics.
If you want to set speed records, a second key has to be inserted before starting the car. Turning it sinks the Grand Sport down onto the tarmac like a crocodile, and the rear wing chips in with only two degrees of trim.
As impossible as it sounds, the Grand Sport’s vast carbon ceramic brakes remove the 4,387-pound Veyron’s speed as fast as the 1,001 bhp, 16-cylinder engine manages to accumulate it. The Grand Sport can accelerate to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds and bring itself back to a stop in only 105 feet — less than half the distance of a regular car.
And it sounds 10 times better while it’s doing it. As thrilling as it is to be squashed back into your seat by the jet-fighter thrust of the engine, it’s when you lift off that the engine’s fabulously mechanical noises stop being blown into the slipstream and wash into the cabin. At this moment, you understand why Bugatti thought some people — only three in the United States to date — would spend nearly $300,000 more on the Grand Sport than a regular Veyron 16.4.
It might seem excessive, but all other things being equal between the coupe and the roadster, if you had the money, I know you would, too.
Bugatti Grand Sport, from $1,990,064.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
Story by: Pat Devereux
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
Luxury is such an overused word, particularly in the auto business. There are personal luxury sedans — invented by Ford with its 1958 four-seat Thunderbird — and near-luxury brands, such as Audis and Infinitis. Then there are the mid- and full-sized luxury offerings. Yet however marketers try to refine and polish their ever-more similar wares, only one true luxury car remains: the Rolls-Royce.
You can argue that your Maybach is more expensive, has more gadgets, or is more customizable, but you would be missing the point. The Rolls has more class in one carefully turned wheel nut than the Maybach can muster in all 62 inches of its finely crafted but ultimately soulless wheelbase.
You could say your Bentley is faster and handles better — and costs less than half the price — and you would be both right and wrong at the same time. The Phantom (base price: $320,000) might not zip down the road like the GT, but it never feels slow or underpowered.
Rolls-Royces have the breeding. They might share a few parts with the visually challenged BMW 7 Series — notably the V12 engine and a dumbed-down version of the fabulously overcomplicated I-drive instrument system — but the new Phantom feels more British than the Houses of Parliament, cricket, or a wet weekend in the middle of summer.
Ironically, it took a German company to bring the marque back to prominence, but then BMW is rather good at reinventing British brands. It breathed life into Land Rover, bringing us the fabulous Range Rover. Then it saved Mini from a near-death experience by throwing away everything other than the badge and starting again. And now, with classic Teutonic attention to British detail, it has completely reinvented the Rolls.
One noticeable side effect of this revamping is that all three cars have become highly attractive caricatures of their previous forms. You don’t notice it so much with the Land Rover and the (now not so) Mini, but get close to the 19-foot-long Roller and you feel positively Lilliputian.
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You can argue that your Maybach is more expensive, has more gadgets, or is more customizable, but you would be missing the point. The Rolls has more class in one carefully turned wheel nut than the Maybach can muster in all 62 inches of its finely crafted but ultimately soulless wheelbase.
You could say your Bentley is faster and handles better — and costs less than half the price — and you would be both right and wrong at the same time. The Phantom (base price: $320,000) might not zip down the road like the GT, but it never feels slow or underpowered.
Rolls-Royces have the breeding. They might share a few parts with the visually challenged BMW 7 Series — notably the V12 engine and a dumbed-down version of the fabulously overcomplicated I-drive instrument system — but the new Phantom feels more British than the Houses of Parliament, cricket, or a wet weekend in the middle of summer.
Ironically, it took a German company to bring the marque back to prominence, but then BMW is rather good at reinventing British brands. It breathed life into Land Rover, bringing us the fabulous Range Rover. Then it saved Mini from a near-death experience by throwing away everything other than the badge and starting again. And now, with classic Teutonic attention to British detail, it has completely reinvented the Rolls.
One noticeable side effect of this revamping is that all three cars have become highly attractive caricatures of their previous forms. You don’t notice it so much with the Land Rover and the (now not so) Mini, but get close to the 19-foot-long Roller and you feel positively Lilliputian.
More........ Click next tab
From a distance you don’t notice it; all the proportions appear normal. But standing next to the 20-inch standard wheels and the chest-high hood gives you a feeling of being in the presence of a highly substantial object.
This does nothing to stop people from staring, whether standing silently at the side of the street or cutting a broad swath through traffic. Seeing a Rolls on the road is a memorable occasion — that huge portcullis of a grille rushing silently toward you on the front of a more than 5,700-pound mass of aluminum, rubber, and leather.
Driving the Phantom is similarly imposing. Literally climbing behind the wheel, you perch yourself on the high-set seats and look over the roof deck-sized hood as you clasp the skinny three-spoke wheel and wonder if your feet will reach the pedals.
In among the hand-polished wood, lovingly tanned leather, and old-new sans serif typefaces are all the usual controls for heat and sound. But then you play with the organ-stop air controls and the clock rotates back into the fascia to reveal the high-tech central control that allows you to do everything from see a weather forecast to watch television.
Once you are underway, the Phantom is not one of those cars that shrinks around you in the way the Bentley GT does. It stays resolutely huge. Even so, you quickly overcome initial intimidation and sit back and enjoy the ride. This is not a car you throw into corners and screech out of intersections with your knuckles wrapped tightly around the wheel. You drive it with your fingertips, often with one hand, such is the ridiculously small effort required to navigate it.
But don’t think it’s slow, because it’s not. Even lazily applying a shoe to the accelerator has the Phantom burrowing down into its vast torque reserves and catapulting you forward satisfyingly. It doesn’t feel 100 percent right to do it, a more sedate pace being much better suited to the rest of the Rolls’ character. However, it’s good to know that you can beat that annoying, spotty kid in his noisy Honda away from the lights.
For all this praise, the triumphantly reborn Phantom is not perfect. To my eyes, those rear lights are too small and the wheel rim design is not up to the rest of the car’s high standards. But that’s just my view. A Rolls-Royce will always have its own character and personality – if you don’t like all of it, so be it. That doesn’t stop it from being simply the only true luxury car in the world.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
In among the hand-polished wood, lovingly tanned leather, and old-new sans serif typefaces are all the usual controls for heat and sound. But then you play with the organ-stop air controls and the clock rotates back into the fascia to reveal the high-tech central control that allows you to do everything from see a weather forecast to watch television.
Once you are underway, the Phantom is not one of those cars that shrinks around you in the way the Bentley GT does. It stays resolutely huge. Even so, you quickly overcome initial intimidation and sit back and enjoy the ride. This is not a car you throw into corners and screech out of intersections with your knuckles wrapped tightly around the wheel. You drive it with your fingertips, often with one hand, such is the ridiculously small effort required to navigate it.
But don’t think it’s slow, because it’s not. Even lazily applying a shoe to the accelerator has the Phantom burrowing down into its vast torque reserves and catapulting you forward satisfyingly. It doesn’t feel 100 percent right to do it, a more sedate pace being much better suited to the rest of the Rolls’ character. However, it’s good to know that you can beat that annoying, spotty kid in his noisy Honda away from the lights.
For all this praise, the triumphantly reborn Phantom is not perfect. To my eyes, those rear lights are too small and the wheel rim design is not up to the rest of the car’s high standards. But that’s just my view. A Rolls-Royce will always have its own character and personality – if you don’t like all of it, so be it. That doesn’t stop it from being simply the only true luxury car in the world.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
Story by: Pat Devereux
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
In a speed test, the last US born-and-bred Viper silences European competitors.
The Viper SRT-10 ACR is the last version of the Dodge supercar before its ailing parent company, Chrysler, sells off the Viper brand (Update - Viper will now stay with Chrysler). It’s also by far the best. Powered by an 8.4-liter V10 producing 600 bhp, this genuine 200-mph car has been transformed into a raw, undiluted thrill seeker that works so well you wonder why it took Dodge so long to make it.
Before you think this is another straight-line missile with no cornering ability, you should know that ACR stands for American Club Racer, a badge that Dodge takes seriously.
In a recent test against a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera and a Porsche GT3 RS, with a professional race driver at the wheel, the Viper ACR was a full three seconds faster a lap than either Italy’s or Germany’s finest. It’s so much faster it’s almost embarrassing.
How it does that comes down to a small team of engineers at Dodge called the Street and Racing Technology department. They have no huge budgets, so to make the car lighter and faster they discard nonvital parts and retune what remains.
They first tried this on the original 1999 Viper ACR, but the 2008 version is a more comprehensive makeover. Where the first was something most weekend mechanics could have done to their Viper, this new one is something else.
The first reason for this is the extensive aerodynamic package. You won’t notice it at a glance, but look closely and you’ll see small aerodynamic devices designed to pin the car onto the road surface.
There’s a new deep front splitter and an adjustable rear wing, plus the bodywork was redesigned for efficient airflow over the car’s curves. More........ Click next tab
The Viper SRT-10 ACR is the last version of the Dodge supercar before its ailing parent company, Chrysler, sells off the Viper brand (Update - Viper will now stay with Chrysler). It’s also by far the best. Powered by an 8.4-liter V10 producing 600 bhp, this genuine 200-mph car has been transformed into a raw, undiluted thrill seeker that works so well you wonder why it took Dodge so long to make it.
Before you think this is another straight-line missile with no cornering ability, you should know that ACR stands for American Club Racer, a badge that Dodge takes seriously.
In a recent test against a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera and a Porsche GT3 RS, with a professional race driver at the wheel, the Viper ACR was a full three seconds faster a lap than either Italy’s or Germany’s finest. It’s so much faster it’s almost embarrassing.
How it does that comes down to a small team of engineers at Dodge called the Street and Racing Technology department. They have no huge budgets, so to make the car lighter and faster they discard nonvital parts and retune what remains.
They first tried this on the original 1999 Viper ACR, but the 2008 version is a more comprehensive makeover. Where the first was something most weekend mechanics could have done to their Viper, this new one is something else.
The first reason for this is the extensive aerodynamic package. You won’t notice it at a glance, but look closely and you’ll see small aerodynamic devices designed to pin the car onto the road surface.
There’s a new deep front splitter and an adjustable rear wing, plus the bodywork was redesigned for efficient airflow over the car’s curves. More........ Click next tab
Together they create more than 1,000 pounds of down force at 150 mph — more than 10 times the standard Viper.
The SRT engineers then created the optional Hard Core package, which omits the entire stereo system, all sound insulation material, boot carpeting, the emergency tire pump, and another 40 pounds. It adds carbon-fiber door panels and a lap timer.
The engine is mostly untouched. The V10 is hardly among the smoothest or most-fantastic-sounding engines in the world, but the numbers make it worth a little compromise.
The SRT engineers then created the optional Hard Core package, which omits the entire stereo system, all sound insulation material, boot carpeting, the emergency tire pump, and another 40 pounds. It adds carbon-fiber door panels and a lap timer.
The engine is mostly untouched. The V10 is hardly among the smoothest or most-fantastic-sounding engines in the world, but the numbers make it worth a little compromise.
The only change in the powertrain is the addition of a new six-speed transmission.
Driving the ACR is a different experience altogether. Not only because of the nonstandard four-point racing harnesses and roll cage, which helped make it feel like a racer, but also because of the extraordinary sound.
In the stock car, the rumbling engine sounds relatively distant. In the ACR, it sounds like it’s sitting in the seat next to you. It doesn’t feel that fast at first, the engine gathering speed rather than soaring up to the redline, but that is deceiving: Snatch a couple of gears, give it some throttle, and you quickly find yourself way on the wrong side of 100 mph with little effort.
That might seem scary in a car as big and imposing as the Viper, but it’s not. Despite its apparent size, which is more of an optical illusion created by that huge hood — the Corvette has a wheelbase 7 inches longer than the Viper — the ACR handles corners like cars half its size and weight.
It’s not that the car is ridiculously fast; it’s not. The ACR simply gets better the faster you drive it. Get it into the race zone and all the aerodynamics, suspension, brakes, and tires blur to create a car you could drive to the track, win a race, and then drive home again.
As Dodge’s mission with the ACR was to create exactly that kind of car, it can only be described as a huge success — particularly as, like Dodge, I’ve been saving the best until last: The Viper SRT-10 ACR costs less than $100,000. The great American supercar has never looked meaner, faster, or better value. Get one while you still can.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
Driving the ACR is a different experience altogether. Not only because of the nonstandard four-point racing harnesses and roll cage, which helped make it feel like a racer, but also because of the extraordinary sound.
In the stock car, the rumbling engine sounds relatively distant. In the ACR, it sounds like it’s sitting in the seat next to you. It doesn’t feel that fast at first, the engine gathering speed rather than soaring up to the redline, but that is deceiving: Snatch a couple of gears, give it some throttle, and you quickly find yourself way on the wrong side of 100 mph with little effort.
That might seem scary in a car as big and imposing as the Viper, but it’s not. Despite its apparent size, which is more of an optical illusion created by that huge hood — the Corvette has a wheelbase 7 inches longer than the Viper — the ACR handles corners like cars half its size and weight.
It’s not that the car is ridiculously fast; it’s not. The ACR simply gets better the faster you drive it. Get it into the race zone and all the aerodynamics, suspension, brakes, and tires blur to create a car you could drive to the track, win a race, and then drive home again.
As Dodge’s mission with the ACR was to create exactly that kind of car, it can only be described as a huge success — particularly as, like Dodge, I’ve been saving the best until last: The Viper SRT-10 ACR costs less than $100,000. The great American supercar has never looked meaner, faster, or better value. Get one while you still can.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
Story by: Pat Devereux
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
It might look like it has just driven out of someone’s vivid fantasy, but the Spyker Aileron C8 Coupe has a heritage that stretches back almost to the 19th century. It’s more like the forgotten grandfather than a new kid on the block — older than Ferrari and Lamborghini combined.
I don’t want to get too bogged down in the Dutch brand’s early history. Despite selling fewer than 50 cars worldwide last year, it’s making modern history taking over Saab from GM and launching this Aileron C8 Coupe. Only time will tell if Spyker management can make sense of the ailing Scandinavian car company. But we can find out right now if the C8 Aileron is a success or a failure.
On first impression, it appears and feels like Spyker understands what today’s supercar buyer seeks. The aggressive, hunkered-down styling has an air of Aston Martin around the front, Ferrari Dino at the rear, and a submarine in the middle — thanks to the periscope-style air intake. It’s a mix that grabs and hangs onto your attention. So it passes the first test: visual appeal.
It also passes in the performance department. Powered by the same 4.2-liter Audi unit as the A8 sedan and R8 supercar, the C8 has more than enough power to cash the checks that its racy looks write. It’s not stellar fast in the mode of one of the Italian supercars, preferring a slightly gentler delivery as befits its GT status. But it could never be described as slow. Spyker claims the C8 has a top speed of 187 mph and a 0-62 mph time of 4.5 seconds.
Part of the reason for these heady performance figures is that the C8 is made entirely of aluminum in the United Kingdom by Coventry-based CPP. It’s light enough not to disappoint once you dig a little deeper into its performance. More........ Click next tab
I don’t want to get too bogged down in the Dutch brand’s early history. Despite selling fewer than 50 cars worldwide last year, it’s making modern history taking over Saab from GM and launching this Aileron C8 Coupe. Only time will tell if Spyker management can make sense of the ailing Scandinavian car company. But we can find out right now if the C8 Aileron is a success or a failure.
On first impression, it appears and feels like Spyker understands what today’s supercar buyer seeks. The aggressive, hunkered-down styling has an air of Aston Martin around the front, Ferrari Dino at the rear, and a submarine in the middle — thanks to the periscope-style air intake. It’s a mix that grabs and hangs onto your attention. So it passes the first test: visual appeal.
It also passes in the performance department. Powered by the same 4.2-liter Audi unit as the A8 sedan and R8 supercar, the C8 has more than enough power to cash the checks that its racy looks write. It’s not stellar fast in the mode of one of the Italian supercars, preferring a slightly gentler delivery as befits its GT status. But it could never be described as slow. Spyker claims the C8 has a top speed of 187 mph and a 0-62 mph time of 4.5 seconds.
Part of the reason for these heady performance figures is that the C8 is made entirely of aluminum in the United Kingdom by Coventry-based CPP. It’s light enough not to disappoint once you dig a little deeper into its performance. More........ Click next tab
Beneath those bespoke panels lies a featherweight chassis that has been designed and developed by the genii at Lotus Engineering. It’s 6 inches longer, 5 inches wider, and has a rear track 2.5 inches wider than the outgoing Spyker models — which explains why the Aileron looks so much sleeker and happier on the road. The other reason the C8 provides such a better driving experience is that it shares its suspension components with the fluidly capable Lotus Evora. This translates into ride and handling that are a light year better than any previous Spyker.
An air of relative suppleness and calm replaces the often jarring and sudden character of previous models. It’s less punk rock, more Frank Sinatra.
But that’s where the restraint ends. Remotely flip up the driver’s door using the circular key fob as you walk toward the car and you reveal the C8’s stunning, jewel box-like quilted leather interior. It looks like a cross between a vintage airplane (it’s no coincidence; Spyker used to be in the aviation business) and a classic racecar from the ’60s. Instead of all the neat swathes of plastic switches that fill the center consoles of most modern cars, the C8 has a row of fabulous mechanical, metal toggle switches jutting from the dash that are as satisfying to use as they are to see. On top of these is a row of dials that have clearly been designed as much for decoration as information. And then there’s the machined-aluminum panels in which they sit. It’s all quite extraordinary and goes a long way to justifying the C8’s price.
However, it’s the drive that seals it. Flick open the red-shrouded switch to fire up the electronics, push the starter button, and away you go. There is no bestial roar from the midmounted engine behind your head, only a calm and authoritative thrum as you flick the car into first using the beautiful, chrome gear lever and swoop away. The moment of truth, when you know you could live with the car, comes when you reach for second gear.
Rather than perfectly time a manual change (always difficult in the previous-generation cars), the C8 is the first Spyker fitted with a six-speed automatic box. You flick the gear lever or use the steering wheel paddles and get a perfect change every time. A manual box is still available for true enthusiasts, but automatic is best for everyone else. More........ Click next tab
But that’s where the restraint ends. Remotely flip up the driver’s door using the circular key fob as you walk toward the car and you reveal the C8’s stunning, jewel box-like quilted leather interior. It looks like a cross between a vintage airplane (it’s no coincidence; Spyker used to be in the aviation business) and a classic racecar from the ’60s. Instead of all the neat swathes of plastic switches that fill the center consoles of most modern cars, the C8 has a row of fabulous mechanical, metal toggle switches jutting from the dash that are as satisfying to use as they are to see. On top of these is a row of dials that have clearly been designed as much for decoration as information. And then there’s the machined-aluminum panels in which they sit. It’s all quite extraordinary and goes a long way to justifying the C8’s price.
However, it’s the drive that seals it. Flick open the red-shrouded switch to fire up the electronics, push the starter button, and away you go. There is no bestial roar from the midmounted engine behind your head, only a calm and authoritative thrum as you flick the car into first using the beautiful, chrome gear lever and swoop away. The moment of truth, when you know you could live with the car, comes when you reach for second gear.
Rather than perfectly time a manual change (always difficult in the previous-generation cars), the C8 is the first Spyker fitted with a six-speed automatic box. You flick the gear lever or use the steering wheel paddles and get a perfect change every time. A manual box is still available for true enthusiasts, but automatic is best for everyone else. More........ Click next tab
Once on the move, the Aileron’s light and airy cabin, precise controls, and supple suspension make it an easy car to drive. It’s not quite in the Porsche 911 category of simplicity yet, but then few regular sedans are either. Speed is easy to add and subtract, corners fly by in a blur as the cultured V8 purrs away, and all feels well with the world -— particularly as the C8 is not as expensive as you might imagine.
With craftsmanship that’s hardly bettered by a Bugatti and performance almost on a par with a Porsche, you might expect that the tag could run to seven figures. But that’s not the case. The C8 Aileron starts at $219,190. Like I say, the jury’s still out on the Saab deal; but if it carries on making cars like this at prices like that, Spyker has a good chance of succeeding in at least one of its businesses for a couple more generations.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
With craftsmanship that’s hardly bettered by a Bugatti and performance almost on a par with a Porsche, you might expect that the tag could run to seven figures. But that’s not the case. The C8 Aileron starts at $219,190. Like I say, the jury’s still out on the Saab deal; but if it carries on making cars like this at prices like that, Spyker has a good chance of succeeding in at least one of its businesses for a couple more generations.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
Story by: Pat Devereux
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
Photography by: Andrew Yeadon
You might reasonably expect anything with the name Ghost to have an ethereally light touch, be whisper quiet, and offer supernatural levels of speed and agility. But to expect that of a 5,450-pound, very large, four-door car is probably pushing it a bit. Unless that car is a new Rolls-Royce.
It may be the junior car in the three-model RR range; but other than in price, the Ghost is in few (if any) ways overshadowed by its larger siblings: the Phantom and Drophead Coupé. While it might lack the full sense of occasion of the larger cars, the Ghost still offers the same effortless style and all of the luxury and comfort, while at the same time delivering a level of performance and handling never seen before by a car sporting the Spirit of Ecstasy.
Part of the reason for this almost unseemly, nearly Bentley-like performance is that around a fifth of the car’s components, all of which you cannot see, are borrowed from the parent company BMW’s new swift and smooth 7 Series. That means the Ghost sports a glass-smooth V12 that, even at its most extended, never raises its voice above a whisper, yet has the power to propel this rolling library of a car from zero to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds and on to a limited top speed of 155 mph.
It also means that you can corner, thanks to fully interactive air suspension, without spilling your drinks quite as much. It’s still no sports car, as you’ll find if you really ask it to get out of its comfort zone. But compared with all the Rolls-Royces that have gone before it, it feels like a Ferrari.
As odd as it may seem, that is exactly what Rolls-Royce intended.... More........ Click next tab
It may be the junior car in the three-model RR range; but other than in price, the Ghost is in few (if any) ways overshadowed by its larger siblings: the Phantom and Drophead Coupé. While it might lack the full sense of occasion of the larger cars, the Ghost still offers the same effortless style and all of the luxury and comfort, while at the same time delivering a level of performance and handling never seen before by a car sporting the Spirit of Ecstasy.
Part of the reason for this almost unseemly, nearly Bentley-like performance is that around a fifth of the car’s components, all of which you cannot see, are borrowed from the parent company BMW’s new swift and smooth 7 Series. That means the Ghost sports a glass-smooth V12 that, even at its most extended, never raises its voice above a whisper, yet has the power to propel this rolling library of a car from zero to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds and on to a limited top speed of 155 mph.
It also means that you can corner, thanks to fully interactive air suspension, without spilling your drinks quite as much. It’s still no sports car, as you’ll find if you really ask it to get out of its comfort zone. But compared with all the Rolls-Royces that have gone before it, it feels like a Ferrari.
As odd as it may seem, that is exactly what Rolls-Royce intended.... More........ Click next tab
Considering the trend for people buying luxury cars of $200,000-plus wanting to drive themselves (take the Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG as an example) and combining that with a demand for supreme luxury and everyday usability, the Ghost slots precisely into place in customers’ hearts and minds.
The interior offers little in the way of fussy detail, leaning toward a subtly modern reinterpretation of the classic Roller layout. You access the front seats by doors that open normally, the rear thrones via a pair of opposing portals, complete with pop-out umbrellas, just like on the Phantom.
The view from behind the wheel is neither as lofty nor as intentionally distant from the road, though. In the Ghost, you feel far more linked to reality than in the Phantom, in which the outside world feels a million miles away whichever seat you’re occupying.
The steering wheel is smaller and of thicker gauge, the dials and instruments simpler and laid out in a more contemporary style. It feels like there’s more glass and less metal around you. So the net effect is that you tend toward actively driving the Ghost than just wafting along in a pleasantly detached haze, as you do in the Phantom. It’s still unmistakably a Rolls-Royce; it’s just a lot more orientated toward driving than being driven.
That’s not to say it’s without the traditional Rolls-Royce interior flair — far from it. The rear seats, which feel a touch larger than the Phantom’s, are, if anything, more comfortable and supporting. The leather might be a touch firmer, for better wear; and there a fewer dedicated switches, a version of BMW’s iDrive taking care of central controls via a rotary knob. But there are still lashings of painstakingly matched veneer; perfectly weighted, chrome organ stops to control the air vents; and carpets so deep you can hardly see your feet.
Likewise, the exterior of the Ghost is also immediately recognizable as a Rolls, despite the lack of the full-size, classic chrome grille. It shares its larger sibling’s visual ability to appear much smaller than it is in reality, which could be attributable to any one of the key details (such as the raked pillars or the perfect positioning of the wheels to the mass of the car), but is probably due to the overall finely tuned sense of proportion. Whatever it is exactly, it works perfectly.
More........ Click next tab
More........ Click next tab
And the final fact in its favor is that, being a true Rolls, the Ghost can be ordered pretty much in any color you want inside and out. You might have to wait a couple of extra months and hand over the cash equivalent of a small sports car to indulge your wishes. But if you want it, chances are it can be done.
Not that you have to spend this extra time and money to make a Ghost a pleasure to own and drive. Even in a relatively standard specification, it still offers more spiritual pleasures than a garage full of lesser cars — which is what you would reasonably expect of any car from Rolls-Royce, particularly one called Ghost.
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
Carpix Road Tests, including 8 high resolution photos are available for syndication. © carpix network 2010
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