Rolls‑Royce Spectre

THE EXTRAORDINARY UNDERTAKING IS COMPLETE: Rolls‑Royce SPECTRE CONCLUDES GLOBAL TESTING PROGRAMME WITH METICULOUS LIFESTYLE ANALYSIS

9 June 2023

• Rolls‑Royce concludes 2.5-million-kilometre testing programme of all-electric Spectre
• Motor car has been exposed to temperature extremes of -40°C to +50°C
• More than 50,000 total driven hours expended testing the motor car
• Test programme concludes with Lifestyle Analysis testing in marque’s home market
• Programme created to respond directly to Rolls‑Royce client lifestyles

“Spectre is the Rolls‑Royce that changes everything. It symbolises not only the marque’s technological leadership of the super-luxury sector, but that a bold electric future, first prophesised in 1900 by our founder, Charles Rolls, is now upon us. To attain its final, perfect form, Spectre has passed through our engineers’ ‘finishing school’ – and in so doing, completed the most demanding testing regime in our brand’s history, spanning 2.5 million kilometres and every conceivable extreme of temperature, weather, road type and surface condition. Equally importantly, it has also undergone our extensive Lifestyle Analysis testing. Applying our detailed knowledge of our clients' tastes, habits and requirements, this unique evaluation process ensures Spectre delivers an authentic, personal and effortless super-luxury experience, as well as true engineering substance, specific to the most demanding consumer group in the world – the Rolls‑Royce client.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars

“It is a highlight of my professional life to have developed Rolls‑Royce Spectre, the car which propels Rolls‑Royce into its bold, electric future. Such a remarkable car requires a remarkable testing programme and I am enormously proud that Spectre has now completed what has been the most arduous schedule ever conceived for a Rolls‑Royce motor car. Indeed, it is where automotive manufacturers finish testing that so much of our work begins in fulfilling the requirements of the super-luxury consumer. This has been an extraordinary undertaking from a team of dedicated and highly skilled engineers that span both traditional technical disciplines and exciting emerging technologies. Rolls‑Royce Spectre brings the future of this great marque into the present.”
Dr. Mihiar Ayoubi, Director of Engineering, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars

Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars’ genre-defining all-electric super coupé, Spectre, has now concluded an historic and unique undertaking: a 2.5-million-kilometre testing programme simulating more than 400 years of use. In the most demanding development process in the marque’s 119-year history, Spectre has endured temperatures ranging from -40°C to +50°C, and in conditions spanning from Arctic snow and ice to deserts, high mountain passes and the world’s megacities.

En route, every one of Spectre’s 141,200 digital sender-receiver relations and 25,000 performance-related functions has been minutely observed, analysed and tuned by Rolls‑Royce engineers, a process representing over 50,000 collective driven hours of highly skilled work. This has resulted in thousands of iterative improvements in everything from Spectre’s acoustic performance, composure under cornering and steering precision to its charge time, electric range and torque delivery; each small in itself, but with an immense overall cumulative effect on the client experience.

LIFESTYLE ANALYSIS

As a Rolls‑Royce, Spectre must be more than just an engineering tour de force – it must also offer clients an authentic super-luxury experience. It has therefore also been subjected to the marque's unique Lifestyle Analysis process, which has informed the development of every new product emanating from the marque’s home in its Goodwood era. This additional testing programme goes far beyond standard automotive assessments to encompass how clients will use the motor car in their daily lives.

Lifestyle Analysis is based on the marque's detailed knowledge and understanding of the super-luxury consumer, and continuous intelligence-gathering across the luxury sector. It enables engineers to anticipate the very particular demands likely to be placed on a new Rolls‑Royce and ensure that final engineered and fashioned experience incorporates appropriate features and responses.

Using this knowledge, engineers have considered a range of variables of particular relevance to Rolls‑Royce clients. For example, they have examined how Spectre’s drivetrain performs on specific roads in and around the world’s most exclusive enclaves, including: Sanya on Hainan Island, China; Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Napa Valley in California; and London, in the marque’s home market.

This testing is not limited to performance under highway speeds. Specific city centre destinations are also used to ensure that features such as four-wheel steering offer the requisite manoeuvrability benefits to access areas roads and property approaches with limited space. Indeed, testing in and around the boroughs of Mayfair and Kensington and Chelsea, London, ensured the appropriate rear axle steering to approach key residential streets and luxury retail locations.

Similarly, given the environments Spectre will be placed in worldwide, a large number of static testing procedures are undertaken that address key client concerns. These include if it is possible to hold a normal telephone conversation inside the motor car while it is parked alongside a waiting helicopter, the strength of the motor car’s in-car internet connection between specific skyscrapers, and ease of access when placing specific objects inside the motor car – the long garment bags used to protect formal evening suiting and gowns.

As with the technical road testing, the Lifestyle Analysis phase of testing is in place to highlight necessary adjustments to the motor car's specification or performance. For example, after testing the power-assisted doors on an exceptionally steep hill – replicating the steep driveways common to the hills of Los Angeles, California – engineers added gyroscopic and G-force sensors to ensure that doors open and close at the same effortless speed, regardless of longitudinal or transverse parking angles.

Additionally, one corner was used so frequently to test the steering precision of Spectre, which the marque’s engineers believe is the most exact in Rolls‑Royce history, they have named a switchback within the environs of Rolls‑Royce’s home in Goodwood, West Sussex, ‘Spectre Corner.’

Fittingly, it was during Lifestyle Analysis testing in London, the capital of Rolls‑Royce’s home market, that Spectre completed its 2.5-million-kilometre odyssey in preparation for client deliveries, which will commence in the fourth quarter of this year.

SPECTRE APPROACHES TWO MILLION KILOMETRE MARK IN LATEST PHASE OF RIGOROUS GLOBAL TESTING

8 February 2023

• Rolls‑Royce continues 2.5 million kilometre testing programme of all-electric Spectre
• Almost 2 million kilometres of testing now completed across the world
• Extreme hot weather testing currently being undertaken in South Africa at 50°C
• ‘Marginal gains’ theory employed to make substantial overall improvements
• Spectre will be cycled through ‘final four seasons’ of conditions to ratify results
• Final ‘Lifestyle Analysis’ process will conclude Spectre testing

“Spectre has already secured its place as the most anticipated Rolls‑Royce in history. This remarkable and transformative motor car represents the beginning of the marque’s bold electric era as well as our unquestionable technological leadership of the super-luxury space. Equally, this vast, ambitious and demanding testing process symbolises our promise to ensure Spectre is undoubtedly a Rolls‑Royce first. A profound aspect of our approach to this precious brand is to inspire greatness in everything we do and with Spectre, we are elevating the automotive experience to unparalleled heights, creating a new benchmark of distinction. It is the fulfilment of this promise that underpins the marque’s ongoing success and drives our constant focus to meet, and exceed, the expectations of our discerning clients.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars

“The reason for our extraordinary and restless global testing process is simple: there has never been a motor car like Spectre before. As the first all-electric Rolls‑Royce, Spectre represents not just a new paradigm in our technology, but the entire future direction of our brand. Only Rolls‑Royce engineers could conceive this astonishing journey, and only Rolls‑Royce engineers could undertake it: the task is not to test a motor car but to elevate the benchmark of automotive excellence.”
Dr. Mihiar Ayoubi, Director of Engineering, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars

Rolls‑Royce SPECTRE: HOT WEATHER TESTING

Spectre, Rolls‑Royce’s genre-defining all-electric super coupé, has now covered almost two million kilometres as it completes the third phase of the most rigorous testing programme ever devised in the marque’s 118-year history. This has already surpassed every Rolls‑Royce testing programme before it – and it is still far from over.

Spectre is currently undergoing extreme hot weather tests in two locations in South Africa: Augrabies in the Northern Cape; and Franschhoek, the ‘French Corner’ in the Western Cape winelands. The stable yet contrasting climates provide some of the finest summer-weather driving in the world, with dry and extremely hot conditions in the north and more humid, Mediterranean-style, conditions in the south. At its hottest, temperatures can exceed 50°C, while the southern region hosts a great variety of surfaces and terrains, including twisting country roads replete with gravel, dust and dirt. Truly testing conditions, by any measure.

During this stage, engineers are observing and refining every system, hardware item and software protocol that has been developed over the course of almost two million kilometres of continuous testing. Only through such painstaking assessments can Rolls‑Royce’s technical experts achieve the exacting levels of ride refinement that are so central to the experience beloved by clients, and successfully translate the marque’s defining ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ to the new all-electric paradigm.

Throughout Spectre’s testing, each of the motor car’s 25,000 separate performance-related functions have been meticulously tailored to deliver a quintessentially Rolls‑Royce experience. The refinements being made now follow the principles of ‘marginal gains’, in which individual, very small and incremental adjustments cumulatively produce a significant overall improvement. Though widely used and proven in elite sport and high-level business, this theory is being used during Spectre testing to an unprecedented extent, as part of the wider validation process characterised internally as the Rolls‑Royce Finishing School.

Examples of the meticulous attention-to-detail that Spectre prototypes are being subjected to are manifold but often impossible to quantify, as they represent the judgement and instinct of the marque’s peerless and long-standing engineering elite. For example, over 1500 hours have already been dedicated to finessing the car’s regenerative braking to ensure it feels effortless but present. Data-logging equipment processes sensor inputs generated by this braking force, to ensure that adjustments do not compromise the overall serenity of Spectre under any driving conditions. However, it is only the experience and judgement of long-standing Rolls‑Royce engineers that can ensure the motor car will, when testing is completed, meet the inimitable standards required to deliver an elevated expression of the Rolls‑Royce experience.

Similarly, anti-roll stabilisation is being tuned to reflect the dynamic promise of Spectre’s dramatic super-coupé design while still delivering on the marque’s hallmark ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ qualities. In South Africa, this testing has specific significance as high temperatures can alter the hardness of rubber suspension components, providing a parameter that is bookended by the results of extreme cold weather testing.

This exhaustive approach has also been applied to ensuring the correct colour-quality and brightness for the theatre of light that is prompted by opening Spectre’s coach door. To ensure a sense of harmony in the cabin, whatever the external light conditions, all internal illuminations, including the marque’s celebrated Bespoke Starlight Headliner, instrument cluster and SPIRIT interface, must be perfectly coordinated. This requires detailed analysis of a global range of sunlight exposure and types, to ensure consistency of colour-quality wherever in the world Spectre is.

As the car approaches the later phases of its exhaustive testing programme, further adjustments will be made to sealing materials to deliver Rolls‑Royce’s famed aero-acoustic performance. This process is essential because rubber sealing materials perform differently through the spectrum of temperatures. For example, during Spectre’s testing phase at Arjeplog in Sweden, seals hardened in sub-zero temperatures. Conversely, in South Africa, Rolls‑Royce engineers will be assessing the acoustic performance of seals softened in hotter conditions. Their work is therefore to find optimum balance to ensure the cabin is insulated in all extremes of climate.

In South Africa and throughout the remaining programme, the audio system will also be tuned and finessed to achieve fractional gains in the quality of the sound offered through Spectre’s 17 speakers. Following initial testing and calibration in a laboratory setting, the system is now being tested exhaustively in real-world conditions. A specially curated playlist presenting a wide range of genres to represent a full spectrum of sonic requirements is used.

This commitment to ensuring perfect acoustic performance extends to the key functions of the motor car. Indeed, even the speed at which the self-closing coach doors shut is being scrutinised to ensure that the perfect level of positive noise is generated upon closure.

Rolls‑Royce SPECTRE: THE EXTRAORDINARY UNDERTAKING NEARS COMPLETION

When the experience and data collected from South Africa has been fully analysed, and relevant actions and measures have been implemented, Spectre’s testing programme will be around 80% complete as it sets off on the final ratification phase. This consists of taking the motor car through a condensed programme of ‘all-season’ testing, including return visits to the Arctic extremes of Arjeplog and the more temperate conditions of the Côte d'Azur.

The final 500,000 kilometres of Spectre testing will focus on Lifestyle Analysis. This proprietary testing process will see Spectre tested in super-luxury situations and use-cases specific to Rolls‑Royce clients, to ensure Spectre performs as required in the centre of global megacities, around new and historical luxury destinations, and in other settings commensurate with owners’ needs, habits and lifestyles.

Rolls‑Royce SPECTRE: TESTING BACKGROUND

Ahead of the first cars being delivered to clients, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023, Spectre has undergone exhaustive trials designed to replicate almost 400 years of normal use, in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth. In total, the car will cover more than 2.5 million kilometres – the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe 62 times.

Testing began in the winter of 2021 at a special testing facility in Arjeplog, Sweden, just 55 kilometres from the Arctic Circle. In temperatures of -40°C, Rolls‑Royce engineers examined and refined every aspect of Spectre’s performance and handling in snow and ice, and any effects of prolonged extreme cold on the motor car’s batteries and other electronic systems.

With this examination successfully completed, Spectre then spent the summer of 2022 in the sunnier, but no less exacting climes of the French Riviera and around the Côte d’Azur. This included testing at the historic Autodrome de Miramas proving ground, a former Grand Prix circuit that now provides over 60 kilometres of closed routes and 20 state-of-the-art test track environments. The majority of the testing, however, was conducted in the Provençal countryside, assessing Spectre’s capabilities under real-world conditions in an area where many production cars are likely to spend their lives.

A SPIRIT OF BOLD INNOVATION: THE EXTRAORDINARY HISTORY OF THE SPECTRE NAME

10 October 2022

• Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars reveals the history of the name chosen for its new battery-electric vehicle, Spectre, from the beginning of the project
• First time that the Spectre name has been given to a series production Rolls‑Royce
• Previously used only for one early demonstrator car and 10 experimental chassis
• Historic Spectre models profoundly influenced key Rolls‑Royce developments in the 20^th Century
• Part of a long-standing use of ethereal names to encapsulate Rolls‑Royce's near-silent running

“The advent of our first battery-electric car marks the start of a bold new era for Rolls‑Royce. It is also the culmination of a long, painstaking process, in which every element in creating this landmark car has been considered in the minutest detail, over numerous iterations. But one aspect of this landmark motor car has always been certain: from the very outset, we determined that it would bear the name Spectre – the first series production Rolls‑Royce ever to do so. It was a decision initially inspired by our heritage: 'Spectre' cars were always associated with ground-breaking technical innovations, the relentless pursuit of perfection, and a sense of mystery and otherworldliness. The motor car we now present to the world embodies all those qualities, while making the Spectre name entirely its own.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars

Choosing a name for a new Rolls‑Royce motor car is a crucial, highly considered and painstaking process, in which the marque's unique heritage plays a central part. Of the current product family, all but Cullinan (named after the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered) bear storied names from the past: Phantom, Ghost, Dawn and Wraith all have namesakes spanning Rolls‑Royce's 118-year history.

In naming its first battery-electric vehicle, Rolls‑Royce sought to maintain and strengthen these important 'genetic' links, while also marking a definitive shift into new territory defined by innovation and progress. As the following brief history explains, it found the perfect solution with Spectre.


WHAT'S IN A NAME?
According to a Chinese proverb, ‘the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names’, reflecting our innate need to identify and classify objects as a way to make sense of the universe. This is entirely obvious in relation to people, of course; and for our early ancestors, naming objects was a crucial survival technique. But why name an inanimate object like a motor car?

The practice is as old as the motor car itself. Before the First World War, road transport was still dominated by horses and horse-drawn vehicles and those who could afford a Rolls‑Royce would certainly have also kept and used horses themselves. It would therefore have been entirely natural and logical for them to name their new car, just as they would have done a favourite steed.

The marketing potential of this fundamental human trait was immediately evident to the keen business mind of Claude Johnson, the commercial managing director of Rolls‑Royce. Between 1905 and 1913 he personally devised, often in consultation with the client, individual names for almost 50 cars the company produced – the most famous of which was 'The Silver Ghost', created for the 1907 London Motor Show. The car's silver paintwork and silver-plated brightwork so impressed motoring journalists and the public alike that 'Silver Ghost' was adopted as the official model name for all 40/50 H.P. chassis built until 1925, when the New Phantom was introduced.

Johnson would surely be gratified that these ethereal, otherworldly names, intended to capture the car's near-silent running, still grace Rolls‑Royce models, referencing this same quality more than a century later.


‘THE SILVER SPECTRE’ (CHASSIS 1601, 1910)
In August 1910, the marque built Chassis 1601, which Johnson used as a trials, or demonstrator, car. Johnson named it ‘The Silver Spectre’ ­– the first recorded use of the Spectre name in the company's archive.

Chassis 1601 was sold to the War Office in 1915 and its last known whereabouts was at a firm of motor engineers in Sheffield in 1933. Over the course of its lifetime, this car was rebodied at least three times. This was typical during this period, often to suit the new owner's tastes if the car had changed hands, and sometimes for more prosaic reasons: early coachwork employed materials and methods that, while perfectly suited to horse-drawn vehicles doing 10mph, quickly succumbed to the strains of travelling at 50mph or more in automotive use. While the eventual fate of Chassis 1601 remains somewhat unclear, one thing is certain: no Rolls‑Royce would bear the Spectre name again for over 20 years.

THE EXPERIMENTAL PHANTOM III 'SPECTRE' CARS (1934-7)
Early in its history, Rolls‑Royce established a special naming convention for its experimental cars, giving them chassis numbers with the suitably tantalising suffix 'EX'. Beginning with 1EX in 1919 and running through to 45EX in 1957, these 'large-horsepower' development models were subjected to test-runs of up to 15,000 miles, often covering 800 miles a day on the unforgiving roads of France. They also clocked up thousands of additional miles in heavy London traffic and through the British countryside. The EX designation continues in the modern era, the latest example being the 103EX electric vision vehicle, unveiled in 2016.

In 1930, Sir Henry Royce began developing a brand-new V12 engine for a completely new chassis with independent front suspension. However, his death in 1933 meant he never saw the project through to completion. The new car, 30EX, was finally ready for road-testing in November 1934.

As with all innovations, maintaining secrecy around the new V12 engine was commercially critical. Therefore, together with its chassis number, 30EX was also assigned a codename: ‘Spectre’. Nine further EX cars, with the ‘Spectre’ codename would follow, before the car entered production as Phantom III in 1936. Of these development chassis, seven would later be repurposed for sale to private customers, who presumably never knew of their motor car’s previous covert operations. It was the testing and refinement conducted using these ‘Spectre’ cars that allowed Phantom III to uphold the marque's reputation, first established by Silver Ghost in 1907, as “The best car in the world”.

SPECTRE (2023-)

Like the EX cars of the past, the present-day Spectre represents a bold and enormously significant shift, both technically and philosophically, for Rolls‑Royce. As the first all-electric Rolls‑Royce, it marks an evolution in powertrain technology arguably even greater than the introduction of the marque's first V12 engine – the configuration, which after almost 80 years, is still used in every current Rolls‑Royce model.

The Spectre name itself sits alongside Ghost, Phantom and Wraith as an evocation of silence, refinement and mystery; of something imagined and dreamlike that exists outside normal parameters and experience. And though it has previously been given to individual and experimental cars, no series production Rolls‑Royce has worn the Spectre nameplate until now. This meeting of innovation and continuity makes Spectre the perfect name choice for a car of such singular and historic importance.

Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars, says, “There is a pleasing symmetry between the Spectres of the past and the present-day incarnation. In our history, Spectre is a name synonymous with technical innovation and development, and Rolls‑Royce motor cars that go on to change the world. Though separated by almost a century, both the Spectres of the 1930s and our own today are the proving-grounds for propulsion technology that will shape our products and clients’ experiences for decades to come.”

SPECTRE UNDERGOES MORE FORMAL SCRUTINY ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA

28 July 2022

• Rolls‑Royce continues 2.5 million km testing programme for first electric product, Spectre
• 625,000 km testing phase in French Riviera region of southern France
• Spectre tested at Autodrome de Miramas facility and on Côte d’Azur roads
• Unprecedented processing speeds leveraged for new standard in ride
• Proprietary smart suspension system confirmed for production
• Developments in marque’s architecture make Spectre stiffest Rolls‑Royce ever
• 30% increase in rigidity enabled by integrating battery pack into structure
• New drag coefficient of 0.25 makes Spectre most aerodynamic Rolls‑Royce yet
• Spectre development now approximately 40% complete

It is no exaggeration to state that Spectre is the most anticipated Rolls‑Royce ever. Free from the restrictions connected to the internal combustion engine, our battery-electric vehicle will offer the purest expression of the Rolls‑Royce experience in the marque’s 118-year history. This latest testing phase proves a suite of advanced technologies that underpin a symbolic shift for Rolls‑Royce as it progresses towards a bright, bold, all-electric future. This will secure the ongoing relevance of our brand for generations to come.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars

“Spectre unlocks the extraordinary potential of integrating a fully electric powertrain into our Architecture of Luxury platform. From this engineering starting point, our testing and refinement processes combine empirical data and human experience, intuition and insights acquired over more than a century to refine the motor car’s driving dynamics and character. In coordinating this orchestra of systems with precisely defined responses to driver inputs and road conditions, made possible by the latest software and hardware developments, Spectre delivers the Rolls‑Royce experience in exceptionally high definition.”
Dr. Mihiar Ayoubi, Director of Engineering, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars

SPECTRE: BACKGROUND

Whilst Rolls‑Royce has built a reputation for creating the pinnacle of super-luxury motor cars using internal combustion engines, the concept of electrification is long familiar to the brand. Henry Royce began his working life as an electrical engineer and dedicated much of his career to creating internal combustion engines that simulated the characteristics of an electric car – silent running, instant torque and the sensation of one endless gear.

Yet the connection with the marque’s founders is far deeper. When Charles Rolls drove a 1900 electric car named the Columbia, he made a prophecy: “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.” Spectre is the fulfilment of this prophecy.

Spectre also represents a promise kept. In 2011, Rolls‑Royce showcased a fully electric Experimental Phantom concept named 102EX. This was followed by 103EX, a dramatic design study that anticipated a bold electric future for the marque. These experimental cars prompted significant interest from Rolls‑Royce clients, who felt that the characteristics of an electric powertrain would fit perfectly with the brand. Rolls‑Royce Chief Executive Officer, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, responded to this with a clear promise: Rolls‑Royce will go electric, starting this decade, and by 2030 Rolls‑Royce will be a fully electric motor car brand.

In September 2021, Rolls‑Royce confirmed that it had commenced testing of the first all-electric Rolls‑Royce, Spectre. To ensure Spectre is first and foremost a Rolls‑Royce, it will undergo the most demanding testing programme ever conceived by the marque, spanning 2.5 million kilometres, simulating on average more than 400 years of use for a Rolls‑Royce. It is an extraordinary undertaking.


SPECTRE: RIVIERA TESTING

Earlier this year, at a bespoke testing facility in Arjeplog, Sweden – just 55 kilometres from the Arctic Circle – Spectre received the first ‘lessons’ in a finishing school that is custom designed to teach the motor car how to behave and react like a Rolls‑Royce. Over the past months, the marque’s test and development engineers have shifted their focus from extreme conditions to more formal scrutiny in a location that reflects the motor car’s everyday use: the French Riviera.

In evoking its spiritual successor, the Phantom Coupé, this Electric Super Coupé will be the first all-electric super-luxury motor car with continental touring central to its proposition. The French Riviera and its roads present a perfect combination of the types of conditions that will be demanded from Spectre’s clients, ranging from technical coastal corniches to faster inland carriageways.

Forming a crucial part of Spectre's 2.5 million kilometre global testing programme, a total of 625,000 kilometres will be driven on and around the French Côte d’Azur. This phase is split into two parts, beginning at the historic Autodrome de Miramas proving ground, located in the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône in Provence. Once a circuit that played host to the 1926 Grand Prix, the site is now a state-of-the-art test and development facility, incorporating more than 60 kilometres of closed routes and 20 test track environments that provide a vast number of testing opportunities over its 1,198 acre footprint.

These include irrigation units that create standing water, demanding handling circuits with tight corners and adverse cambers, as well as a heavily banked 3.1 mile three-lane high-speed bowl, enabling Spectre to be tested at continuous high speeds.

The second phase of testing in the region occurs in the Provençal countryside surrounding the Autodrome de Miramas. This region is enjoyed by many of the marque’s clients, therefore a significant 55%of testing here has taken place on the very roads that many production Spectres will be driven on following first customer deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2023. This provision for testing under local, real-life conditions is repeated in key markets around the world, as the marque goes to painstaking lengths to ensure that its products meet – and so often exceed – the expectations of its highly discerning customer group.


SPECTRE: A BESPOKE ELECTRONIC ARCHITECTURE

Spectre is unlike any Rolls‑Royce before it. This is not only because of its fully electric powertrain, but also its unprecedented computing power and application of advanced data-processing technologies. Spectre is the most connected Rolls‑Royce ever and each of its components are more intelligent than in any previous Rolls‑Royce. It features 141,200 sender-receiver relations and has more than 1,000 functions and more than 25,000 sub functions. This is around three times more sender-receiver signals than a typical Rolls‑Royce.

The dramatically increased intelligence of Spectre’s electronic and electric powertrain architecture enables a free and direct exchange of detailed information between these functions with minimal centralised processing. To unlock the potential of this technology, Rolls‑Royce software engineering specialists developed a decentralised intelligence for Spectre. This is based on data being processed closer to its source rather than being handled in its entirety by a single central processing unit.

By sending more sophisticated data packets – that not only describe a variable but propose a response – the motor car’s reaction time is significantly faster and more detailed. This advanced technology sees much of the development of Spectre pivot from the workshop into the digital space.

Yet developing Spectre is not an exercise in computer science alone. The motor car requires a response to hundreds of thousands of possible scenarios, and therefore it needs the most skilled and experienced specialists to define and finesse an appropriate mechanical reaction. Over the course of the Riviera Testing Programme, the marque’s most experienced engineers are painstakingly creating a dedicated control for each of Spectre’s 25,000-plus functions, incorporating variations of response depending on factors including weather, driver behaviour, vehicle status and road conditions.

In harnessing this new processing power, the marque’s engineers are creating unparalleled levels of detail, refinement and effortlessness for Spectre whilst ensuring continuity in the experience of Rolls‑Royce’s internal combustion engine motor cars. These highly experienced specialists describe the result as “Rolls‑Royce in high definition”.


SPECTRE: ‘MAGIC CARPET RIDE’ IN HIGH DEFINITION

Following months of continual testing, a new suspension technology has been approved that ensures Spectre delivers Rolls‑Royce’s hallmark ‘magic carpet ride’. This technology is now being refined and perfected at Miramas and on the roads of the French Riviera.

Using a suite of new hardware components and leveraging Spectre’s high-speed processing capabilities, this sophisticated electronic roll stabilisation system uses data from the motor car’s Flagbearer system, which reads the road surface ahead, and satellite navigation system, which alerts Spectre to upcoming corners.

On straight roads, the system can automatically decouple Spectre’s anti-roll bars, allowing each wheel to act independently. This prevents the rocking motion that occurs when one side of a vehicle hits an undulation in the road. This also dramatically improves high-frequency imperfections in ride caused by smaller, more frequent shortcomings in road surface quality.

Once a corner is confirmed as imminent by satellite navigation data and the Flagbearer system, the components are recoupled, the suspension dampers stiffen and the four-wheel steering system prepares for activation to ensure effortless entry and exit. Under cornering, more than 18 sensors are monitored, and steering, braking, power delivery and suspension parameters are adjusted accordingly so that Spectre remains stable. For the driver, this delivers serenity, predictability and, ultimately, greater control in unprecedented high definition.


SPECTRE: INTELLIGENT ARCHITECTURE PROVIDES UNPARALLELED RIGIDITY

The unparalleled control of such a generously proportioned motor car that is provided by this new technology is enabled by the marque’s all-aluminium spaceframe architecture. Not only has this platform, which is reserved for the brand’s exclusive use, enabled designers to create a new class of Rolls‑Royce – the Electric Super Coupé – but it has also provided Spectre with the most rigid body in the marque’s history.

Spectre’s aluminium architecture is reinforced with steel sections that provide exceptional torsional rigidity. This is combined with aluminium body sections that represent the largest of any Rolls‑Royce yet. The one-piece side panel, which extends from the front of the A-pillar to behind the rear tail-lights, is the largest ‘deep draw’ part ever produced by Rolls‑Royce – extending nearly four metres in length. Likewise, the pillarless coach doors, which are nearly 1.5 metres in length, are the longest in Rolls‑Royce history.

Spectre’s exceptional rigidity, which represents a 30% improvement over all existing Rolls‑Royce motor cars, has also been achieved by integrating the extremely rigid structure of the battery itself into Spectre’s aluminium spaceframe architecture. Only through the marque’s architecture has this been made possible.


SPECTRE: A NEW AERODYNAMIC STANDARD

In announcing the redesigned Spirit of Ecstasy mascot that will sit proudly at the prow of Spectre, Rolls‑Royce aerodynamicists predicted that the motor car would have a drag coefficient (c_d) of just 0.26, making it the most aerodynamic Rolls‑Royce ever created. The dramatic design of this landmark motor car, which itself is only possible using the marque’s spaceframe architecture, has enabled engineers to further improve on this landmark figure.

Following rigorous wind tunnel testing, digital modelling and continuous high-speed testing in Miramas, this figure has been further reduced to just 0.25. This does not just represent a record in the context of Rolls‑Royce, but is unprecedented in the luxury sector.


SPECTRE: THE EXTRAORDINARY UNDERTAKING CONTINUES

The Spectre global testing programme continues: the Electric Super Coupé will still be tested for a further one million kilometres before the marque’s engineers will consider this undertaking complete. First customer deliveries of Spectre will commence in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Rolls‑Royce REIMAGINES ITS ICONIC SPIRIT OF ECSTASY FIGURINE FOR SPECTRE

6 February 2022

• Iconic Spirit of Ecstasy figurine recreated for Rolls‑Royce’s all-electric future
• Forthcoming all-electric Spectre is marque’s most aerodynamic product yet
• Redesign contributes to a drag coefficient (c_d) of just 0.26 in early prototypes
• Product of 830 combined hours of design modelling and wind tunnel testing
• Simultaneously, Muse, the Rolls‑Royce Art Programme, announces jury for Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge
• Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge sees artists create works in textile, inspired by figurine
• Spirit of Ecstasy officially registered as intellectual property of Rolls‑Royce on 6^th February 1911, 111 years ago today

“The Spirit of Ecstasy is the most famous and desirable automotive mascot in the world. More than just a symbol, she is the embodiment of our brand, and a constant source of inspiration and pride for the marque and its clients. Like our brand, she has always moved with the times while staying true to her nature and character. In her new form she is more streamlined and graceful than ever before – the perfect emblem for the most aerodynamic Rolls‑Royce ever created, and for gracing the prow of our bold electric future.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars


“111 years ago today, the Spirit of Ecstasy became an official part of Rolls‑Royce. Yet, she has come to represent a spiritual direction for our brand. Her form perfectly captures the marque – she leans forward, expressing our relentless pursuit of progress, and her dress gracefully flows in the wind, echoing the serenity of our products in motion. For Spectre and beyond, she becomes lower and more focussed; braced for unprecedented speed and the exciting future her presence will define.”
Anders Warming, Director of Design, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars


Rolls‑Royce has reimagined its iconic Spirit of Ecstasy figurine to grace the bonnet of its new all-electric motor car, Spectre, 111 years to the day the Spirit of Ecstasy was first registered as intellectual property of Rolls‑Royce on 6^th February 1911.

The figurine has been remodelled with a lower, more dynamic stance that brings her much closer to the drawings made by her original creator, the illustrator and sculptor Charles Sykes, in the early years of the 20^th century. It also sees her physical form represent The Expression, a visual device that forms part of the marque's new visual language.

The new Spirit of Ecstasy stands 82.73mm tall, compared to her predecessor’s 100.01mm. Her robes, which flow behind her in the slipstream – often but erroneously characterised as ‘wings’ – have been subtly reshaped to make them more aerodynamic and realistic.

The most visible change is her stance. Previously, she has stood with her feet together, legs straight and tilting at the waist. Now, she is a true goddess of speed, braced for the wind, one leg forward, body tucked low, her eyes focused eagerly ahead. These changes have both practical and stylistic benefits, contributing to Spectre’s remarkable aerodynamic properties. The earliest Spectre prototypes have a drag coefficient (c_d) of just 0.26, making it the most aerodynamic Rolls‑Royce ever created. The figure is expected to improve during the product’s exhaustive testing protocols undertaken in 2022.

This new expression captures the essence of Charles Sykes’ original drawings, but rather than simply being ‘redrawn’ or ‘redesigned’, her new shape has been digitally sculpted by a computer modeller working at the Home of Rolls‑Royce, who has a passion for life drawing and sculpture. Their experience in this field was invaluable in developing the figurine’s elegant lifelike facial features as well as her expression, which deftly combines focus and serenity. The designers also consulted stylists at Goodwood for their perspective on her hair, clothes, posture, and expression, adding an authentically contemporary aura to her dynamism and commanding presence.

While all figurines are made using one of the oldest known casting techniques, named ‘lost wax casting’ or ‘cire-perdue’, each is individually finished by hand, so will be minutely different from figurine to figurine. As well as continuing a long Rolls‑Royce tradition – until 1939, the mascots were made and polished by Charles Sykes himself – this subtle, ephemeral human element creates an intriguing contrast to the precise, highly engineered motor car she sits atop.

Though relatively rare in the modern era, changes to the Spirit of Ecstasy have been made throughout her 111-year lifespan. She has been rendered in various sizes and materials and, briefly, in a kneeling position. The new version created for Spectre will appear on all future models: the current design will still be used on Phantom, Ghost, Wraith, Dawn and Cullinan and their Black Badge alter egos where applicable.


AN ARTISTIC EXPRESSION OF THE ICON

Simultaneously, Muse, the Rolls‑Royce Art Programme, has announced the jury for the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge. This inaugural initiative invites the brightest and boldest young creatives to reimagine the icon of the Spirit of Ecstasy in a context beyond her current home on a Rolls‑Royce motor car. In doing so, these young artists will create high-concept pieces that surprise, delight and inspire.

For each edition of this prestigious biennial event, a global panel of expert judges will select a medium for the emerging designers from which to create an artistic interpretation of the Spirit of Ecstasy. For this edition, that medium is textiles. The esteemed jury members are: Anders Warming, Director of Design, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars; Yoon Ahn, Creative Director of Ambush and Jewellery Director at Dior Men; Tim Marlow, Director and Chief Executive of the Design Museum in London; and Sumayya Vally, Principal of South African architectural practice, Counterspace. Together, they will select three finalists to participate in this extraordinary artistic initiative.