2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost First Drive

Teamspeed’s Karl Peskett gets behind the wheel of the baby Rolls. Fireworks. Dancing. An Air-force flyby. Thumping music. Crowds cheering. It’s not your average Saturday night in Singapore. The city is rehearsing (yes, you read that right) for its National Day Parade celebrations to be held in August. It means walking only, no matter where you go. This town certainly knows how to party.

The flip side to all of this revelry is everyone is wiped out by Sunday morning. The city is empty and the roads are almost completely devoid of cars. We couldn’t have timed our Rolls-Royce Ghost drive better.

Teamspeed was thrown the keys to a crisp white 2011 model Ghost, and told to enjoy ourselves. That we will.

Considering this car has the impeccable build quality that Rolls-Royce is known for, but also brings to the table the most powerful engine that the company has ever built plus an agility not seen before from the brand, it’s fair to say that the Ghost is certainly the driver’s car of the Rolls-Royce range.

Fitting snugly under that long bonnet is a 6.6-liter, twin-turbocharged petrol V12 making a massive 420kW. Let’s put that into perspective – that’s the same as a Ferrari 458 Italia, but it has nearly 50 percent more torque. At 780Nm, the Ghost has some serious pulling power, but the best part is the torque curve which is completely flat, with all of it available from 1500rpm.

Press the Start/Stop button and the Ghost whirs quietly for a second and then it just sits there. Yes, the engine is running. But you can’t tell.

From this moment you can see that it fits into the Rolls-Royce family perfectly, mimicking its bigger brother the Phantom. But unlike the Phantom, the Ghost uses an eight-speed automatic and its power is much more instant and much more urgent.