Super Natural Rolls-Royce Wraith Review (Part 2)

Super Natural Rolls-Royce Wraith Review (Part 2)

Much has been made of the car’s satellite guided transmission, where the car monitors your driving and the road ahead, and selects the gear it feels you’re going to need next. It’s a clever idea and one that’s designed to take the work out of driving quickly by cutting back on unnecessary cog- swapping. And while that’s a great idea and in keeping with the Rolls-Royce’s waftibility goals, it seems at odds with the focus you normally pour into sporty driving.

One simply doesn’t relax like an armadillo behind the wheel at speed. You sit up and take notice, and you actually want to snap away at the paddles yourself.

It’s designed to attract younger customers to the marque and RollsRoyce describes it as the ultimate gentleman’s gran tourismo

So, we took the car to Ras al Khaimah to razz up the Wadi Bih road to real scrutinise how well it works, and to try to sense it in action. The result? Not. One. Inkling. It’s smooth and progressive as you’d expect, but there is absolutely no way on earth anyone could, hand on heart, tell you that the last change was made with the aid of Star Wars type technology.

Yet you pretty quickly get used to guiding this blunt-nosed boat using a light touch on the thin-rimmed wheel. Despite the BMW origins of its mechanical bits and the fact that its chassis was tuned by a man named Peter Kunzinger (who also tuned the BMW Z8 in an earlier life), the Wraith’s deportment is sort of the antithesis of stereotypical German tuning. Its steering is light and friction-free, though still accurate and tactile. And the mien of its suspension (which consists of multilink front and rear wheel attachments, air springs, electronically controlled dampers, and automatically adjusting anti-roll bars) is likewise free and easy.

Rolls-Royce Wraith back seat

The big body is allowed to move around a bit, front to rear and side to side, but it doesn’t bob or wallow. It’s all very gently controlled. And despite wearing 45-series tires up front and 40-series in the back, the Wraith doesn’t trouble its passengers with small, high-frequency impacts. In fact, to our backsides, the Wraith’s ride quality felt better than that of its bigger, less sporty brother, the Ghost sedan.

Car manufacturers are at pains to underscore the craftsmanship with which they pour into their cars but there’s only one manufacturer that produces exquisite handmade cars that are lovingly created using time honoured techniques and materials. Its leather is predictably buttery, and its eyeball-like HVAC vents are heavy, chromed metal balls that roll around smoothly in their sockets. The scattershot placement of buttons and screens to control the wealth of electronic doodads indicates that it’s not easy to simultaneously look like royalty and a techie at the same time. Oh, and the wood! By now you know of the absurd care and attention the wood veneers receive at a place like Rolls-Royce.

Rolls-Royce Wraith rear view

But the company has stepped up its timber game by making essentially whole door panels out of a beautiful piece of bent wood. Our test car wore Santos Palisander- a stunning variety of Bolivian rosewood and four other varieties of veneer are available. Regardless of which you choose, the grain is set at a 55-degree angle, and the way the leather-covered armrest floats in the middle of all this pulpy goodness might represent the single best use of a tree in any car at any time in history. If you must know, the two rear seats will accommodate adults.

The other thing we didn’t manage to accomplish on the press trip was drive the car at night and experience the Starlight headlining. It doesn’t add a whole lot of performance, but the lighting is gorgeous, and you can adjust the intensity so that you can drive around bathed in a sift glow or dazzling flash. The Spirit of Ecstasy has a ring of light under her pedestal which, at night, even gives her soft flowing lines a little menace.

Rolls-Royce Wraith wheel detail

Rolls-Royce views the Middle East and the UAE as one of its most important markets, and while the Wraith wasn’t designed specifically for the region, it is already doing exceptionally well here. And with good reason: it’s one of the most exquisite GTs on the road today.