2022 Rolls-royce Black Badge Ghost on 2040-cars

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Rolls-Royce hosts first ‘Cars and Cognac’ event in the U.K.

For more than 100 years, Rolls-Royce has produced some of the world's most desirable and expensive automobiles. The British automaker has now gone one step further, by instantly making any future "cars and coffee" gatherings pale in comparison to the brand's first-ever "Cars and Cognac" event, held June 8, in the U.K. Yes, we're guessing our invitation got lost in the mail, too. "The 'cars and cognac' meet demonstrated the wonderful spirit of our customers as well as their deep passion for the brand," said Julian Jenkins, regional director for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. "This evening was reflective of the rich dialogue between Rolls-Royce and its patrons; a truly unique and extremely rare relationship, one which we are privileged to nurture." We couldn't help but notice the comment about "rich dialogue," which is fitting for a brand whose least expensive offering, the Ghost sedan, starts at roughly $300,000. The evening borrowed heavily from California car culture, where cars and coffee meet-ups can see anything from slammed economy cars, customized muscle cars, or hyper-cars with multimillion-dollar prices gather at the same place. Of course, very few — i.e. none whatsoever — have featured cognac tastings conducted out of a customized Rolls-Royce-endorsed picnic basket. That's correct, a sommelier stationed at the tail-end of a Phantom sedan was handing out quaffs of fine cognac courtesy of an official Rolls-Royce Picnic Hamper. This is a thing, and you know you want one. Other cars making a cameo appearance during dinner included a Rolls-Royce Dawn Black Badge fitted with the new "Aero Cowling." This hard tonneau cover fits snugly over the rear seats, to give the 593-horsepower convertible the look of a true two-seater. The event was held at the Soho Farmhouse, a member's only club located on a 100-acre property in Oxfordshire, approximately two hour's drive northwest from central London. On its homepage, Soho Farmhouse details its indoor and outdoor pools, multiple club rooms for special events, tennis courts, horse stables, football pitch (that's soccer for you silly Americans), and the intriguingly named Electric Barn Cinema. The entry-level membership, called Local House, with access only to the Soho Farmhouse facility, starts at about $1,700 at current exchange rates. To have access to all Soho House properties around the globe, the price runs around $2,200 (depending on whether your membership application is accepted).

249 reasons you want to go to Goodwood Revival

At its most basic, Goodwood Revival is a long weekend worth of car races featuring cars made before 1970. There are lots of those, though, including some pretty great ones all over the world. But nothing is like Goodwood Revival because it's so much more than "just" vintage car racing.  First, you have to look the part. Attendees are strongly encouraged to dress in period clothing from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, with a strict dress code enforced should you want to enter the paddock. The goal is to create a more authentic atmosphere to match the cars and the meticulously restored and recreated paddocks, grandstands and other facilities of the reborn Goodwood circuit. Now, the dress code was relaxed this year since the Saturday was literally the hottest Sept. 9 on record in that part of England, and the organizers didn't want people dropping dead because they needed to wear an ascot. Some people definitely took the "relaxed" bit too far, but there was still plenty of atmosphere maintained. It really does make a big difference, as those "relaxed" individuals were often akin to seeing a Starbucks cup in a scene from "Game of Thrones."  You can see what I came up with below along with former Autoblog editor Reese Counts and various other Goodwood attendees. Second, there's the parking lot. But I'll let this entire separate post detail that. Third, there's the enormous carnival-like area featuring vintage-looking rides and various boutiques. Both of those are on the outside portion of the track, and honestly, you could easily just spend your entire day in the parking lot and carnival/shopping area without even crossing over into the circuit area. There you'll find more shops, food and drink opportunities, plus obviously, race car paddocks and the track itself.  Fourth, there are airplanes! I heard there are fewer than in the past, but they're there and they're cool. The Goodwood circuit started out life as the perimeter road around the World War II airfield RAF Westhampnett.  Fifth, with all of the above, Goodwood Revival really is fun for the whole family. It isn't just a bunch of old guys sitting around in lawn chairs. There are plenty of women and adorably dressed children, including babies in vintage prams. It's also not an event that's exclusively for the uber rich, even if they are certainly in full force given who has the sort of money needed to go vintage racing.

2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost gets high-tech suspension, AWD, rear-wheel steering

The first-generation Rolls-Royce Ghost started life as a BMW 7 Series, and in 10 years on sale became the best-selling model the brand has known. That sedan ended production last year, leading Rolls-Royce to begin the process of introducing us to the second-generation Ghost. Having abundant feedback from customers about what they'd like in the new model, and, more importantly, having listened to the feedback, Rolls-Royce realized it would need to start from scratch. Engineers modified the aluminum-intensive Architecture of Luxury that supports the Phantom and Cullinan to fit the Ghost's needs, in standard and Extended Wheelbase spec. Instead of the predecessor's rear-wheel drive, the coming Ghost will get standard all-wheel drive. And taking another page from the big brother Cullinan, the entry-level offering will come with rear-wheel steering, too. Going beyond the other two models in the brand's lineup, the Ghost will be the first to fit what Rolls-Royce calls its Planar suspension that brings together three technologies. The first is an upper wishbone damper unit that's been three years in development, placed above the front suspension. The automaker didn't go into details, but the damper unit is said to provide an improvement on the brand's "hallmark magic carpet ride and dynamic abilities." The Flagbearer camera system monitors the road surface ahead to prepare the suspension, a technology offered on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class for a few years now. The third Planar trick is a satellite-aided transmission, wherein the ZF eight-speed automatic "draws GPS data to pre-select optimum gear for upcoming corners," a technology already in use on the Phantom. The bodywork won't stray far from what we know; designers wrapped Spirit of Ecstasy opulence into a discrete package. Inside, the gauge cluster will go digital inside three fixed instrument bezels, next to a widescreen infotainment display, and driver assistance features could include everything from night-vision to some advanced self-driving capability. Under the hood, we expect the same 6.75-liter V12 utilized by the Phantom and Cullinan, with something like 560 horsepower. The global situation pushed the Ghost's launch back, we're told. Deliveries should begin early next year, with a debut sometime between now and then. The first-gen ran $314,400 in standard length, $348,400 in EWB guise.