The new Rolls-Royce Black Badge Spectre is the most powerful model in the West Sussex car maker’s history, packing up to 650bhp and 793lb ft.
Its arrival also takes the Black Badge moniker into the electric age for the first time. Launched in 2016, Black Badge branding is intended to denote powerful and more individualistic versions of its most luxurious cars and is targeted at younger buyers.
Arriving just over a year after the Spectre went on sale as the brand’s first electric car, the Black Badge model is pitched as a more aggressive proposition than the standard EV.
While the dual-motor Rolls-Royce Black Badge Spectre offers the same 577bhp as the standard car in normal running, a new Infinity mode unlocks a further 73bhp and quickens throttle response.
This performance-enhancing feature is said to be inspired by the Rolls Royce Merlin engine that powered aircraft such as the Supermarine Spitfire during the Second World War. It allowed pilots to call on an extra burst of power to escape dog fights.
As well as the Infinity mode (the symbol of Black Badge), Rolls-Royce has added a launch control setting called Spirited mode, which boosts torque from 660lb ft to 793lb ft and primes the car for a 0-62mph time of 4.1sec.
In all, the potent new Spectre model surpasses the output of the 2016 Wraith Black Badge, which made 623bhp and 642lb ft from its twin-turbocharged V12.
In sync with the extra reserves of the Black Badge Spectre, engineers have fitted new dampers to reduce the effects of the three-tonne EV squatting under acceleration and diving under braking. They also increase the roll stabilisation for flatter cornering. The car gets heavier steering too.
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Launch control on a Rolls Royce! Have they gone mad? I thought Rollers were for wafting around in with dignity and majesty not tyre-smoking getways.
Unbelievable it looks this Spectre has been given the full Pimp My Ride treatment who was the genius who thought of having a black Rolls Royce grille looks like it's been coated in Teflon
Yes, well I sat in the back of one of these cars and the experience was good, would I drive one as an everyday hack? , well of course not, where could you park it safely,not worry about some jealous person putting a Key along its flanks, yes, there are some naughty people out there doing just that, no, just the occasional treat to be driven in one for a Wedding or an event, but not to own.