This article is more than 1 year old

Spirit of the Ghost: Taking a Rolls-Royce Wraith around France

There and back again in seriously British hi-tech luxury

Vroom *vroom*, baby

Press the loud pedal and this changes. A lot. The gearbox kicks down – the only perceptible gear change – and the engine roars. When you are doing lots of leptons there is an impossible temptation to press the pedal again and again just to feel the wall of power and the surge forwards. It’s addictive, like pressing the button on a useless machine.

You don’t know why you keep doing it but you don’t want to stop. Only the thought that the gendarmerie have the right of confiscation has a moderating factor. Rolls-Royce claims the Wraith will do 0-60 in 4.4 seconds. Top speed is a governed 155mph.

Our route south was all auto routes, there was a moment of joy when we found a Rolls-Royce fuel card in the glovebox which soon evaporated when we Googled the details and found it didn’t work in France. And of course we’d not filled up in Folkstone. Fuel economy clocked in at a little over 21mpg, which given the extent to which we were making progress was very impressive. Official figures are Urban 13.3 mpg, Extra urban 28.8 mpg and combined consumption of 20.2 mpg. If you believe any manufacturers' figures these days, CO2 emissions are quoted at 327 g/km.

Our route back took us along the south coast to Antibe up to Grasse and then the plan was to take the Route Napoleon all the way to Grenoble. Roadworks, however, diverted us to much smaller twistier roads and here the Wraith was unexpectedly incredible. A fine motorway cruiser? Yes, but in roads which climb and turn and dive, it really handled.

The width could be intimidating but, provided you could see that there was nothing coming the other way, it was easy to press on. Fortunately we didn’t come across any slow-moving traffic as overtaking would have been impossible.

From Grenoble we headed to the incredibly confusing city of Dijon. For the three weeks before the trip we’d been let down repeatedly by Airbnb places which claimed to have secure parking and so ended up with a hotel. It transpired that the route into the car park was through two no-entry signs, onto a bus lane and then along the pavement to the car park.

The next day was fast roads to the old motor-racing circuit at Reims where we wanted to shoot the car. It’s clearly a petrolheads' Mecca, boasting an Elise, quite a few bikes and a very loud 308 all paying the pits a visit.

We were not brave enough to switch off the traction control This is not a “dab of oppo” car and it does cost a quarter of a million pounds. But around some larger roundabouts it was clear that some sliding might be possible if you were more confident.

For the drive from Reims to Calais the skies opened. Great torrential rain and lots of spray but with enough podcasts of The Infinite Monkey Cage on a phone Bluetoothed to the Rolls-Royce, that didn’t really matter.

Once you get home after doing 2,500 miles, what do you do? Well, you phone up some friends and say “I’ve got a Rolls-Royce. Do you want to go for a ride?” ®

Bootnote

*Eleanor Thornton, secretary and mistress of the second Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, is thought to have been the inspiration for the Spirit of Ecstasy figurine that adorns all Rolls-Royce radiators.

Spirit of the Ghost: Taking a Rolls-Royce Wraith around France

A wonderful way to travel, the ultimate playboy toy. Even when your destination is Monaco sometimes it’s better to travel than arrive.
Price: Basic £190,940 exc. local taxes, as tested £266,530 exc. local taxes RRP

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like