Top 3 things you need to know about the Rolls-Royce Wraith
Far more than just a motor car, the Rolls-Royce Wraith is a cocoon of isolation from the world outside, as well a signal to society that its driver has truly arrived at the top of the food chain. We highlight the top 3 things you need to know about the Rolls-Royce aimed at that sub-section of the super-rich who prefer to drive themselves around.
Leaving mega-expensive hypercars out of the equation, the Rolls-Royce range occupies the topmost rung of the luxury car hierarchy. And, out of their selection of smaller (in other words, merely massive, instead of gargantuan) cars, the Wraith (coupé) occupies the upper echelon alongside its Dawn (cabriolet) sibling.
These are the “driver’s Rolls-Royces”, if you will, purely on account of their unique two-door arrangement making them less suitable for limousine duty. But what should the prospective Wraith buyer know about their intended purchase before ordering one?
Related: If you want the power and almost as much comfort but prefer to fly under the radar, the BMW M760Li xDrive may interest you.
1. Unique door design
Frameless door glass and pillarless hardtops are a rarity these days, and rear-hinged “suicide doors” is a concept only applied by Rolls-Royce at the moment. What happens when you combine these three design elements? Something completely unique in the marketplace: rear-hinged doors without window frames, combined with side glass that drops all the way down into the flanks.
There are many benefits to this layout, of which the first is entry and egress from the front seats. Stepping into a Wraith through these backward doors, especially with the windows down, is a most unusual experience, because there’s so much more room for your legs and feet to swing about. And, if it’s raining, there’s an umbrella with a leather grip in each door frame, ready to grab on the way out – in a manner becoming of exiting one’s mobile lounge, of course.
Don’t discount the gratification of driving with all the windows rolled down, either – cruising the boulevard in this baby with the side glass out of the way will give you all the nice sensations (wind in the hair and so on) without the bad ones (sunburn) of a full-on convertible. Money can buy the best of both worlds, see?
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2. Power to the powerful
Whispering away under that imposing bonnet is a 6.6-litre, twin-turbo V12 engine. It’s one of BMW’s finest creations, and also powers the M760Li super saloon. For its duty in the Rolls Royce, this creamy power unit is tuned to deliver 465 kW and 800 Nm to the rear wheels via an 8-speed automatic gearbox (we’ll get to that next). That’s rather “more than adequate”, in old-Rolls-Royce-speak.
As a result, the performance is frankly preposterous for a 5.27-metre-long luxury ship with a kerb weight of 2 360 kg. From a standstill, it will hurtle to 100 km/h in a claimed 4.6 seconds, and it is governed to sit at its 250 km/h speed limiter all day long. Or as long as the fuel in the tank lasts, maybe. Driving in this manner will definitely not realise the claimed 14 ℓ/100 km average fuel consumption, although fuel consumption is largely irrelevant in this market segment at any rate...
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3. The gearbox knows where the car is
No, the ZF 8HP gearbox in question isn’t a Decepticon, but it does constantly interface with the Wraith’s built-in navigation system, to make sure it selects the best possible gear for the driving conditions. There’s communication going on between the driver assistance systems and the transmission as well, so that ratio selection can be fine-tuned for an even smoother ride in all traffic conditions.
And that’s just on the electronic side. The mechanical specifications of this particular gearbox are quite spectacular too: it has a maximum rated input torque of 900 Nm, making it suitable for dragsters such as Dodge Hellcats and all-wheel drive missiles like the Audi RS 6. In a slightly ironic twist, the same transmission is also used in the Wraith’s closest opponent – the much less-expensive Bentley Flying Spur W12...