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On one level, this is a completely pointless comparison. You see, the folks with the Benjamins to splurge on the $308,350 Rolls-Royce Ghost we show here, or the $226,485 Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed and $209,500 Aston Martin Rapide that accompany it, are unlikely to sweat the mundane details the rest of us do when choosing between a Ford or a Chevy, or a Honda or a Toyota. Stuff like gas mileage and resale values and whether one might be a couple tenths quicker to 60 than the other are mostly irrelevant.
Even the price difference between the Rolls and the Aston -- money that will buy you a house in many parts of America -- is of little consequence. The people who buy these things usually own six or seven other cars; opening their garage doors is like opening a closet: "Hmmm...it's nice and sunny. Think I'll take the Lamborghini convertible today."
Yet it's an intriguing matchup, all the same. All three cars are uber-luxury four doors powered by 12-cylinder engines of roughly 6.0 liters or more. All three wear aristocratic nameplates and carefully trade on their storied pasts to command price tags that defy logic and common sense. All three ooze "Rule Britannia" to their bootstraps, yet were designed and developed by engineering teams headed by...Germans. The links that bind these three cars together are deeper and more profound than the differences that divide them.
The Ghost is the first small Rolls-Royce launched since the 1949 Silver Dawn, though "small" is a relative term: at 212.6 inches, it's still 4.3 inches longer overall than the not insubstantial Bentley CFS Speed and boasts a 9.0-inch-longer wheelbase. The Ghost is an imperiously elegant car: restrained and tasteful, but with a powerful presence on the road. The front axle is pushed forward and the cabin set back, delivering perfect proportions, and it has the high-nose, low-tail stance characteristic of classic British luxury cars. The Ghost sweeps around a circular driveway like a Riva Aquarama carving graceful turns on Lake Como.
The Ghost dwarfs the Aston Martin Rapide, though at 197.6 inches long, and with a 117.7-inch wheelbase, the Aston is still bigger than a Cadillac STS. The lithe, sensuous, impossibly gorgeous Rapide is a near-perfect replica of the concept that all but stole the 2006 Detroit show, and the way the DB9 coupe's curves have been artfully tugged and teased over a longer wheelbase and around four doors is truly breathtaking. Car-savvy Angelinos nearly drove off the road while vying for a closer look every time we hit the freeway.
Next to the Ghost and the Rapide, the CFS Speed looks a little frumpy. It's partly familiarity, as the Continental Flying Spur has been on the road almost five years, and parts of L.A. are awash with the things. But equally, there's no disguising the VW Group architecture on which it's built. If the superbly articulated Rolls-Royce Ghost has the quintessential British luxury-car design vocabulary just right, the Bentley, with its stubby hood and short front fenders, plus its long cabin and slightly odd C-pillar, has it all wrong. In terms of proportion and stance, it looks more middle European than resolutely British.
That's not to say we don't like it, however. Any company that names its performance models Speed is just fine by us, especially when it's not just marketing hype. With its 6.0-liter, twin-turbo W-12 engine tuned to deliver 48 more horses and 74 pound-feet than the regular Continental Flying Spur (it also gets retuned suspension, and Pirelli PZero tires on 20-inch rims), the CFS Speed is a leather-lined, ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile that will hit a genuine 200 mph on the autobahn without breaking a sweat. Even the Aston Martin will reach only 188 mph, while the Rolls is restricted to a dignified 155.
But while the 600-horse Bentley's sheer, um, speed is astonishing, its herculean powertrain is not the best of this bunch. That honor goes to the Ghost's 563-horsepower, 6.6-liter, direct-injection, twin-turbo V-12, which drives the rear wheels through the only eight-speed automatic transmission in this trio. With 575 pound-feet of torque on tap at just 1500 rpm -- 22 pound-feet more than the Bentley, available 200 rpm sooner -- and better gearing, the BMW-developed engine delivers satiny Saturn V thrust the moment you caress the gas pedal. This 5381-pound limo will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds, a tenth slower than the 101-pound-heavier AWD Bentley, but obliterates that deficit over the quarter mile, crossing the line two-tenths sooner than the CFS and carrying 6 mph more speed. We're talking 12.7 seconds at 112.9 mph with little more than a polite murmur from under the hood.…
2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost vs 2010 Bentley CFS Speed vs 2010 Aston Martin Rapide Comparison - Motor Trend
) are not important. You don´t care for the seconds, you just know that you will reach the 100 and the top speed is fast, thats all.
