One of the few upsides of the pandemic is that when you visit a car firm’s headquarters, you’re now usually part of a small group.
At Rolls-Royce in Goodwood for the unveiling of the new Ghost, the group comprised one person – me – which made the walk-around, the assembly plant visit and the prototype ride especially enjoyable. My hosts were designer Henry Cloke and project chief Jon Simms, who added evidence to my previous recent impressions that Rolls-Royce is nowadays populated by young people, not the venerable set you might once have expected.
There’s plenty to tell about this all-encompassing Ghost project, but I was especially fascinated by the way the acoustics team has “tuned” every important Ghost component so that all of the natural resonances add up to a sound the occupants hear as an unobtrusive, unified whisper. We proved the matter on the move, too. The latest Rolls-Royce Phantom is still a shade quieter than the Ghost, they say, but there’s now very little in it. If this is ‘post-opulence’, I’ll take it.
Saturday
On the way home from Rolls-Royce, I collected my new long-termer, a BMW M235i Gran Coupé xDrive, complete with a 302bhp 2.0-litre turbo engine, an eight-speed paddle-shift gearbox, a slippery diff and front drive most of the time.
In our initial review, this car wasn’t given an excessively good time for its styling (I don’t mind it), its somewhat aggressive ride quality (true, but I like strong body control) and especially its lack of six in-line cylinders and rear drive. It has a British-built transverse four that drives the rear wheels only in times of extreme slippage.
On the evidence of 100 miles, I completely agree with our bottom-line description of this hot four-door 2 Series: effective. And although I’m not a naturally quick driver, I’m enjoying having a car with 4.9sec 0-62mph potential that naturally does its best when pressing on a bit. Everyone needs a bit of this in their lives.
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Big Slip Daddy Little Deuce
'Slippery diff'
I'm assuming that 'slippery diff' means that it has a Limited Slip Differential.
If this is the case, then the term 'slippery diff' is pretty nonsensical, because that's what a normal open differential does all of the time. A LSD is different in that it either fully or partially locks up under certain conditions (i.e. it stops slipping).
So, a LSD is less of a slippery diff than a normal one...
@ legless
....I suggest this earns you the 'Pedant of the Month award'!
Always thought the 2 series
Always thought the 2 series Gran Coupe looked like a previous generation Irish or American market Focus saloon. Not their ugliest model, but not exactly a classic.
Not that I'm against the Gran Coupe designation, think it works best in big fastbacks like the 4 series, though the 6 and 8 series Gran Coupe have been some of BMWs best looking saloons.
MGB - not so much against the rubber bumpers as the clumsy suspension raise for the US market, hopefully the blocks have been removed. One drove past me a few days ago and the sound of the V8 was glorious.