Yahoo Autos Tested: 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre Is Both Absurd and Sublime
On paper, the 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre sounds like a rehashing of The Simpsons'Canyonero jingle. It's an electric coupe that's longer than some trucks, but it only seats four people. It's heavier than some of the largest gas cars, the doors are on backward, and it costs as much as a house. Yet, spec-sheet absurdity gives way to a uniquely satisfying driving experience. Over the road, the Spectre is proof positive that Rolls-Royce will have no problems adapting as the automotive world electrifies; if anything, near-silent battery-electric propulsion was made for this sort of application.
Pictures don't really convey the Spectre's transparent presence. Devoid of complex angles, every side is this massive bulwark of clean, shiny sheetmetal invariably leads your eyes frontward to the massive chrome grille and the Spirit of Ecstasy riding atop it. In addition to looking imposing, it positively swallows up space in the lane. The Spectre's 126.4-inch wheelbase is just over two inches shorter than a Ford Ranger's, but at 215.6 inches long overall, the Roller stretches some five inches longer than that mid-size truck. And we all know EVs are heavy, but for some context, the 6443-pound Spectre comes in about 600 pounds heavier than a BMW X7. Sheesh.
The cabin within is every bit the palace you'd expect. While we're too partial to wearing blue jeans to ever spec a white interior for ourselves, our test car came absolutely slathered in rich bright leather, real open-pore wood, and metal trim that was always cool to the touch. This might be Rolls-Royce's newest model, but the cockpit design—and all its small touches, like manual climate-adjustment dials—carries dashboard DNA that has existed since at least the Silver Shadow. Aside from the trunklid button in the cargo area, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single component borrowed from elsewhere in the BMW Group.
Rolls-Royce may have built itself one delectable cabin, but some of its uniqueness can eat into the whole idea of effortless grace. Take the rear-hinged doors, for example. They're motorized, but only when they close; opening the doors requires extra effort to fight the motor's resistance, and that doesn't exactly feel good. The lower part of the door juts out an awful lot, too, leading to more than a few bashed shin bones until we rewired our brains. The rear only seats two thanks to a gigantic center console, but it is sized to fit most adults, and those rear-hinged doors make ingress and egress less of a chore.
One thing you may never get used to in the Spectre is the silence. Save for a very slight hint of wind noise at highway speeds, the Roller cruises with a stillness that's almost jarring—or, at the least, makes you feel like you're in a well-sealed jar. Our microphones recorded a 34-decibel whisper at idle, rising to just 65 decibels at wide-open throttle, and settling into a 63-decibel murmur at 70 mph. We recommend liberal use of the stereo (which, as you might expect, carries some bangin' speakers) to avoid engaging with your own thoughts. There's also a Hans Zimmer–crafted EV soundtrack you can enable, which added 7 decibels at WOT and makes you feel like an extra in Interstellar.
Speaking of traveling the stars, there's nearly enough motivation in the Spectre to feel like it should be parked at Cape Canaveral. Two electric motors produce a net 577 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque, which might seem like an average amount these days, but it's enough to send this ingot to 60 mph in a downright impressive 3.7 seconds. The quarter-mile disappeared in 12 seconds flat at 116 mph. The acceleration feels powerful inside the car as well—the rear hunkers down, the nose lifts a bit, and off it goes toward the horizon.
It'll stop too; 70 mph turned to zero in just 157 feet. But the regenerative braking—enabled by hitting the B button on the dainty column-mounted shifter—is the real star of the show. It's strong at higher speeds, but once you're down in the single digits, the system will produce pitch-perfect, head-bob-free "limo stops" every time. It'll make you question your ability to coordinate your own two feet.
Even the Spectre's skidpad result was solid, with its staggered-width Pirelli P Zero PZ4 summer tires achieving 0.90 g of grip. Obviously, though, corner-carving isn't a priority here. In every other situation, the Spectre's standard air springs and adaptive dampers produce the most pillowy ride we've ever experienced. That trademark "wafting" feeling is alive and well in the Spectre, floating serenely over every crappy road surface Michigan had to offer. In the Spectre, concerns of road quality are, quite literally, beneath you.
Weight is the enemy of range, but the Spectre holds its own in that regard. Carrying the same 102.0-kWh battery as the BMW i7, the Rolls-Royce's EPA-estimated range is a decent 266 miles when equipped with 23-inch wheels. In our 75-mph range test, we managed 260 miles; BMW's batteries usually perform well on our highway-only range test, so this didn't come as too much of a surprise.
It performs admirably at the juice bar too. Hooked up to a local 350-kW charger, the Spectre took 44 minutes to add 86.612 kilowatt-hours, averaging 118 kilowatts and peaking at 201. At that rate, adding 100 miles of range takes about 14 minutes. That's good in a pinch, or for the occasional road trip, but we imagine most Spectre owners will top it off at home as needed.
The way Rolls-Royce talks about its cars can be over the top, but experiencing one reveals the truth that the Spectre is very nearly beyond reproach. Then again, with a starting price of $422,750 and an as-tested price of $501,575, it'd damn well better be. It looks and drives like nothing else on the road, and as the industry shifts to electric motivation, it's clear Rolls-Royce is ready to meet the moment.
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