The Ghost Extended Wheelbase shows why a Rolls-Royce is what you get in Singapore when you’re flying high 

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SINGAPORE

Rolls-Royce’s Ghost started out as the baby of the range, or at least as ‘baby’ as a car with a six-plus litre V12 can get. It’s the best-selling model in the brand’s history, and is likely to be the most common Roller you’ll see around. Again, as common as a Rolls-Royce can be, anyway.

The Ghost fits the bill for a Rolls that’s luxurious enough for chauffeur duty, but also dynamic enough for driving yourself, if so inclined. Like garden variety luxury limos, the Ghost is offered in regular and long-wheelbase form. This car is the latter, which Rolls-Royce calls the Ghost EWB (Extended Wheelbase). 

But unlike garden variety luxury limousines, the Ghost EWB amps it all up: It’s bigger, longer, more spacious, and much more expensive. It’s three times more expensive than a half-million S-Class LWB and that’s without a COE or any options, and even against the very impressive Merc, it’s a different league altogether.

You really can’t miss that impression, since the Ghost is not a small car. The Ghost II has grown compared to the first-gen car, now 5,546mm long (89mm longer) and 1,978mm wide (30mm wider), with the same height as before. But the EWB goes even longer, naturally: 170mm more wheelbase means 5,716mm length, and an unreal 3,456mm wheelbase – compare that to a Mercedes-Benz S-Class LWB at 5,289mm long. 

With the bigger footprint comes stronger styling. Rolls-Royce has never been overt or shouty, but the new design language does go for stronger lines. The impression is one of a more slab-sided car, more monolithic, and with more height and massive presence, but at the same time it’s still subtle, balanced by its proportions and cleanly-executed details. Blink and you might miss it, but notice it and you’ll find plenty to enjoy. 

The Ghost makes an impression from the first: Opening the door is effortless. Put a hand on the rear door handle and it opens effortlessly, since it’s power assisted. It’s a feature previously seen only on the Phantom, and you could say a powered door isn’t exactly a unique feature. But one where the car detects any incline and adjusts the door accordingly, plus being able to nudge it closed with a single finger, is certainly not.

Get inside and you can close the door by pressing a button. As it gently clamps shut, you sit back and you’re obscured by the generous C-pillar, then enveloped in your own private cocoon. Rolls boasts it brings the most interior legroom of any four-door, four-seat car around (barring the Phantom) and there’s no reason to doubt that. Putting the throne in full recline and stretching out left our legs far short of the first row seatbacks.

The increase in legroom aside, there’s more continuity to the cabin than you’d see in regular cars where onwards and upwards is always the name of the game. It’s the familiar mix of deep-pile carpet, flawless leather and chrome, and huge attention to detail. 

Page 2: Why a Rolls-Royce has ultimate attention to detail

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