When it comes to high-end luxury cars for the very affluent, Rolls Royce is the benchmark. Most of their cars are chauffeur driven and instantly recognizable, but for those weekend trips way from the office, one needs a Rolls Royce that has to be driven by the owner; enter the Rolls Royce Wraith Coupe.
The Wraith is the company’s GT car but it’s still filled with all the luxury amenities one would expect from a Rolls Royce automobile, and the car is mighty powerful too.
The 2014 Rolls Royce Wraith coupe is powered by a 6.6 liter twin-turbo V12 engine that pumps out 624 horsepower and 590 pound-feet (800 Nm) of torque, power is sent to the rear wheels via a trick 8-speed automatic transmission (more on that in a bit). The Wraith is a heavy car but the massive V12 makes it accelerate like a sports car with the 0 – 100 km/h sprint taking only 4.6 seconds; 0 – 60 mph in 4.4 seconds.
The transmission has a feature that I’ve never heard of before; it’s called “Satellite Aided Transmission” (SAT). SAT makes use of GPS and calculates the type of road the car is on and the type of road the car is about to be on (e.g. straights, curves, etc.), and with the data from the GPS, it pre-selects the gear that will be most appropriate for that road. It’s a pretty neat feature but I’m not sure how much of a difference it’ll make in real life driving.
Aesthetically, on the front end, the Wraith coupe looks like the Phantom, but from the C-Pillar and backwards, it has more of a fastback style. I don’t think it really suits the car, but that’s just my opinion. Like the Phantom, the Wraith comes with “suicide doors” and is very luxurious on the inside with lots of soft leather, wood trim, and chrome pieces. Another pet-peeve I have with this car is the “Starlight Headliner”, which has over 1,300 lights that glow, giving the ceiling a “starry night sky” feeling. I think this feature cheapens an overall classy looking car.
The 2014 Rolls Royce Wraith is priced at €245,000, which is the equivalent of about $330,000 Canadian or $321,000 US, at today’s exchange rates. These figures are exclusive of taxes, PDI, and other fees. The Wraith coupe will go on sale in the fall of 2013. Via: RR
Rolls Royce Wraith Coupe Pictures
