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Rolls-Royce rolls out one-off Ghost Golden Sunbird in China

In 2001, archeologists in the palace city of Chengdu, China, uncovered the Golden Sun Bird, an ancient artifact that dates back to the Shang Dynasty from 1000 BC. The disc depicts the sun and is made of almost solid gold, measuring five inches across and weighing 20 grams. The city adopted it as its logo, and now Rolls-Royce has commemorated the find and the heritage behind it with a unique one-off.
Based on the long-wheelbase version of the Ghost, the Golden Sunbird edition features a two-tone white and gold paint scheme, with gold coachline and gold grille topped by a gold Spirit of Ecstasy. The interior has likewise been gilded with gold embroidery atop the light brown leather and white trim to match the coachwork.
The result may be elegant but is certainly not subtle. And of course it's just the latest in a long line of special editions and one-offs Rolls-Royce has crafted, particularly for markets in the Middle and Far East.

Rolls-Royce planning one or two new models based on the Ghost

Fourteen years after Volkswagen bought Bentley, its English brand has two distinct lines, Mulsanne and Continental - with numerous variants at the Continental's lower price point - an SUV on the way and perhaps a sports car and a Mulsanne convertible, too. In the 14 years since BMW bought Rolls-Royce, its English brand has the Phantom and Ghost - with three variants at the Phantom's much higher price point. Rolls-Royce doesn't chase sales, but the difference in the brand direction helps explain why Bentley has sold more cars in the first six months of this year than Rolls-Royce sold all of last year.
And even though Rolls-Royce isn't solely about the tally, it would still like to improve on the 3,538 cars it sold last year - a sales record that eclipsed a mark set in 1978. To do so its CEO is planning one or two more Ghost-based models beyond the as-yet-unnamed Ghost Coupe due next year, perhaps to be called the Corniche, according to a report in Autocar. A convertible version of the Ghost Coupe is the obvious guess for one of them, and it would get the double-R "closer to 4,000" sales, where the CEO would like to be.
Sales might not be the only part of it, though; the headline of the Autocar piece says the CEO wants the new models because they're "required to give Rolls-Royce a proper identity." If that is accurate, we have no idea what kind of identity Rolls-Royce could be missing that would be served by a wider range of cars in the Ghost range, which by their place in the brand's own lineup are admittedly not the most opulent carriages on the planet.

Rolls-Royce's CEO shares his 3 favorite details of the Spectre EV

Rolls-Royce's first electric car, the $420,000 Spectre, has arrived. At a press event marking the EV's launch, the brand's CEO, Torsten Muller-Otvos told Insider he's proud of what Rolls-Royce has achieved in a big-picture sense — by transplanting the essential character of a Rolls into a vehicle with a completely novel powertrain and fuel source. But when asked about his absolute favorite parts of the new model, a few smaller, more subtle details sprang to mind.  Those taillights Rolls-Royce is renowned for painstakingly making sure every detail on a vehicle is as elegant as possible. Look closely at the Spectre's taillights and you'll notice they're single, uninterrupted parts, plunged into a smooth, uninterrupted body panel. Rolls-Royce says this sophisticated look is meant to evoke "islands in a lake." Most cars' taillights are broken up by a trunk lid, or butt up against a gap in the bodywork. That makes things easier, the brand's design director, Anders Warming, said. But the Spectre isn't most cars.  Achieving that look and making sure everything was water-tight took lots of engineering, Muller-Otvos said.  "The effort we've put into those rear lights to give them that shape and also more or less stick them into the body was quite something," he said. "We finally got there, and it works." A grille? On an EV? What's a Rolls-Royce without its iconic, upright grille? It's such a recognizable design element that Rolls-Royce decided to keep it for the Spectre, even though there's no radiator or engine up front. "I also love the detail of the Pantheon grille, because that was also something not in any way debatable," Muller-Otvos said. "You might argue you don't need a grille because there is no cooling air needed, but obviously this is such a signifier of our brand that we said it's unthinkable not to have one." Muller-Otvos said the company went to great lengths to adjust the grille's design so it would deflect air around the car and aid aerodynamics. In an EV, every bit of drag you can eliminate adds driving range.  A brake pedal with a new feature Every new Rolls has doors that electronically swing shut at the push of a button. The Spectre introduces a new feature that makes things even more effortless. Now all you need to do is hop in and press the brake pedal, and the driver's door closes automatically.  Read the original article on Business Insider