The current Rolls-Royce Ghost isn't a radical visual departure from the one it replaced, but in fact features only two carryover parts – the badge and the umbrellas. It's the product of an intense, five-year feedback loop between Goodwood's creative brains and its most influential customers. The result is a car that is both more of the same, but also less of the same. And it's now been joined by a Black Badge version, developed alongside the regular Ghost. Black Badge editions of various Rollers have been selling very strongly in the five years since the sub-brand was launched. But does it really move the game along, or is it just another cunning way for Rolls-Royce to deprive wealthy customers…

The blacked-out Ghost looks great, but its ride quality darkens our mood. More than any other nameplate, Rolls-Royce promises the best the automotive industry has to offer. There is no doubt the Rolls-Royce Ghost is among the finest sedans you can buy—top honors goes to its larger sibling, the Phantom—but driving the new-for-2022 Black Badge version has us asking an uncomfortable question: Is this really the best Rolls-Royce could do? Ghosting The Black Badge Treatment A quick backgrounder on Black Badge: Introduced in 2016, it is primarily a styling exercise most notable for its darkened brightwork, particularly the trademark Rolls-Royce grille and Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament. Black Badge has been an inordinate success for Rolls-Royce, and for 2022 the …

While the new Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost is just as great as the standard car, it also offers a level of customisation that will appeal to many buyers Verdict The Black Badge Ghost is every bit as comfortable and beautifully finished as the regular car, but it stops short of delivering a quantum leap dynamically, since to do so would be to take the model beyond the brand’s comfort zone. Buyers drawn in by the different approach to finishes and customisation - and there will be plenty of them - are unlikely to care much about this. For many, Rolls-Royce remains an iconic brand built on sophistication, luxury and a subtle-yet-imposing road presence. But the British firm has been quietly…

Are we “post opulence?” Try post ostentation. The British are famous for their understatement, so much so you'd believe it if I told you it was codified in common law. Rolls-Royce, the most British of British automakers, treats understatement in reference to its products with the same reverence it treats the Spirit of Ecstasy that adorns them: the utmost. Six years ago, Rolls-Royce launched the Ghost Series II, insisting it was a "subtle" update. Now it presents us with a third-generation 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost (no "series" appellation) described by a design movement Rolls-Royce itself made up: "post opulence." A New Sharpness For The 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost's Design Much as no Rolls-Royce is ever subtle, it is never unopulent, either. But…