Rolls-Royce Spectre - INSANE Luxury!

This is the new Rolls-Royce Spectre, and could it be a bit like when David Beckham met Victoria Adams, you know, a match made in heaven? You see, what you've got there is a luxury of Rolls-Royce combined with silent, effortless, luxurious electric propulsion. Or could it work out a little bit more like when Brad Pitt hooked up with Angelina Jolie and turned into a bit of a disaster? Well, in this video, we're gonna find out whether the Rolls-Royce Spectre is more Posh and Becks or Brangelina. Now, to do that, what I'm gonna do is check out the exterior design, talk you through the interior. So that's a shame. See how practical it is. Sorry, Rolls-Royce, please lend me a car again. I'm gonna tell you what's good about this car, what's not so good about this car. It's a little bit soft. I'm gonna take it for a drive. Everyone's gonna hate me. And of course, I'm gonna launch it to see how quick it is from nought to 60 miles an hour. That is progressive thrust. I'm also gonna get into a few scrapes with it as well. I'm Matt Watson, and you're watching Car Wow. Let's start this video by talking about the design of the Rolls-Royce Spectre. It's a wide car, but they haven't overdone it with design features. Very simplistic, very elegant. I really like the look of these protruding taillights. Let's get on the fact that they have condensation in them. Let's see if the other one does as well. Hmm. Oh dear, let's move on around the side, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. Anyhow, gotta say, this aubergine paint looks amazing, or they wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. I like it though. I like the big wheels as well. They start at 22 inches. These are the 23s. And I love Rolls-Royce's thick center caps, so they actually stay upright when the car is driving along. Now just check it out inside profile. It looks beautiful and huge. It measures five and a half meters long, and I love the coach line. So this is painted by human, by hand. And just check this out, check this out. That lines up perfectly. Absolutely perfectly. Ha ha ha, it's insane. Love the shiny bits of trim around the windows. These are the biggest doors on any Rolls-Royce. Just look at that, absolutely massive. And if you want, you can have this silver bonnet. It's quite nice with the silver bonnet. At the front here, you have the daytime running lights on top, the main headlight unit below. I think that was a design feature that was first started on the Citroen Picasso MPV, but it looks really good on this Rolls. And you've got the widest grill of any Rolls-Royce, and oh yes, that's actually hurting my fingers because that's real authentic metal, not like a fake metal grill that you get on a Bentley. What is fake though, is this. You don't need that grill. Look, car wear sticker truth, I'll just put it in there quite gingerly. There we go. It's blanked out behind there. The grill isn't grilling. The actual cooling of the battery and stuff is done through some vents in there, which can open and close when the batteries need cooling. Speaking of which, it's absolutely huge, the battery pack on this car. Weighs in at over 700 kilos, which means that even though this is like a coupe Rolls-Royce, it's almost 250 kilograms heavier than the massive Rolls-Royce Phantom four-seater limousine. It's also got a very massive charging port flap. And I would have thought that maybe it would have been like electrically operated rather than having to operate it by hand to open it. Anyway, that brings me onto the battery itself. The Spectre has a usable battery capacity of 102 kilowatt hours. And according to Rolls-Royce, that's good enough for a range of 329 miles. But I wanted to test that out for myself. So I fully charged the car and the trick computer said that will give me a range of 271 miles. Anyway, I embarked on my journey and it took me 261 miles and I still had 11 miles of range remaining, which meant a total possible of 272 miles on a full charge. So it means that trick computer is pretty accurate and that I achieved 83% of Rolls-Royce's claimed range. However, things aren't that simple with these electric cars. You see, while the trick computer may get to a point where it says you're out of range with no miles remaining, you do often have about 10 or so extra miles available as a safety net. So if I was to include those, you could say this car will do over like 280 miles on a full charge before it'll conk out. And in fact, when you look at my average energy consumption of 2.8 miles per kilowatt hour, multiply that up by the battery of 102 kilowatt hours, then you're looking at a real world possible range of about 286 miles. And interestingly, the trick computer is now saying 291 miles on a full charge. Also, I should point out that most of my miles were done at motorway speeds where electric cars aren't that efficient. So it's not completely implausible that this car should be able to break the 300 mile mark if you're very, very careful when driving it. Welcome to the inside of the Rolls-Royce Spectre. And the first thing I want to show you is this. The car is the very first Rolls-Royce to have fully digital dials, but I think they've done them in a very sympathetic way. That looks lovely, doesn't it? Now you've got a main infotainment screen here, which is based on the BMW system. It's reasonably easy to navigate, so that's absolutely fine. And then moving over here, there's something that you don't get on a BMW, and it's the special spectrographic here, like this galaxy thing going on. Now this isn't painted on. These are loads of little holes that are punched through some wood, and behind there, you have some lights, so it's actually illuminated, that is. Insane. Do you know what's also insane? Look at this. That's solid metal. The air vents feel so, so expensive. So do all the switches and buttons. Oh, yeah, that's satisfying. Everything feels really nice to move and to touch. Wait a minute, what's that? Apart from that, oh, no. What's going on there? So that's a shame. So this is a real cheap-feeling bit of plastic, the kind of thing you'd expect to find on something like a Dacia, not a Rolls-Royce. They've tried to cover it up a bit by putting leather on the stalk and stitching it. It doesn't really work, because you don't touch that part, you touch that part. And actually, the leather makes it look like something a little bit rude that I'm not gonna mention. That's another cheap-feeling bit of material in here. It's a vanity mirror. Everything else is just lovely, like the diffuse light from there, this, the grab handles, the lighting area up here, everything else that you touch. It's just so gorgeous and special-feeling. I mean, I love it. I love the door handles up here and the metal strip that you get. And you just touch that as you're reaching the door handle, and it just adds a feeling of luxury quality to this car. One thing I find quite weird, though, is that you sit really quite low in it. Makes me feel short, because the dash is quite tall and quite bluff, upright. Now, you can, of course, jack up your seat quite a long way. I thought that the actual electric motors in the seats would be a bit quieter, seeing as this is a Rolls-Royce. Let me just check the windows. That's better. That's quiet. The electric window motor is definitely quiet. Yeah, I like that. You can also move the steering wheel, of course. That's not so quiet either, is it? Hmm. Oh, well. Let's check out storage spaces. Oh, yeah, this is all lined with felt, so it feels nice. You've got wallets charging there, USB-Cs and 12-volt socket itch down there. There's a little place here for your keys. You've got the controller there for the infotainment system if you'd rather rotate and push rather than touchy-touchy on the screen. Back to the storage. You've got your cup holders there. And just look at the damping on this. Oh, that feels so solid and expensive. Really, really nice. Let's check out the glove box. Oh, nicely damped as well. It's not the biggest, but it's large enough. Oh, let me just have another go at that. Hmm. As for the door bins, well, they're not the largest. I do have a bottle in here, and let me just see if I can get a larger bottle because Rolls-Royce drivers still want a drink. There we go. You can fit a large bottle in there. I'll take it all back. Decent size. Can it fit the larger bottle? This is make or break for Rolls-Royce. Oh, yeah, there we go. This car's bound to be a roaring success now. Potential customers have breathed a sigh of relief. There is one problem I actually find with these door bins, and you probably noticed it then, that they go back a little way. So there's been a few times that I've been out in this car and I've looked down there, I guess, is my wallet in there? No, it's not. And I got out of the car, then I realized my wallet isn't with me, so then I have to come back and just check. Down back there. Look, look, look, look, let me show you. Look, phone. Can you see my phone? No, you can't. It's gone, isn't it? It's disappeared. No phone in there. Oh, wait, it's all the way back there. Oh, do you know what? Can you hear that noise? I've just hit the button to activate the seat massaging. In fact, there's so many options on this car in terms of seat massaging. You can massage your lower legs, your back, your buttocks. You can also alter all the heating of the steering wheel and the armrests, and you can alter how the seating actually warms your body, whether it's more on your legs or more on your back. It's quite incredible, really. In fact, the ability to completely spec this car up and make it completely bespoke for yourself is also incredible. So if you don't like this kind of aubergine cream, I do actually, you can go for something completely different. Maybe louder, maybe less in your face. One last thing I want to show you is the doors. So to open the door, I pull that and it'll open there. And then to actually open it further, I pull again and it opens electrically. So you do have to hold the handle so that it doesn't automatically open into a passerby. To shut it, I just press on the brake, like this, look. Bop, come on. Now, if I wanted to do it differently, I could just pull up on this switch and I'll show you now by shutting the passenger door without having to reach across. Toodle-pip. One other thing I want to show you about the doors is look, you've got frameless windows. Oh, that's just so cool. Go on, have a look from further away. I love cars where you can put both windows down and you don't have the frame dividing them. Coupe. Now let's see what space is like here in the back of the Spectre. Obviously, it's a two-door coupe, so you have to move the front passenger seat out of the way. Yeah, as two-door coupes go, it's not particularly difficult to get into the rear. I think if you were on the large side, you might struggle, but adults will be okay. Check out knee room. So this seat will go back to my driving position. Knee room's fine. Foot space. Come on, look at the foot space. That's really good as well. And headroom, it's a bit tight. People over six foot might struggle, but I do like the fact that these seat backs are quite reclined, so it's comfy back here. And like in the front, it's just a luxurious place to be with all the shiny bits and pieces, the lovely bits of trim. Oh, incidentally, you can have this in a kind of starry effect. Yeah, we've got some storage under here, which is a good job because there are no door bins at all. You've got your two USB-Cs there for charging your mobile phones. We've got cup holders under here. Oh, that feels expensive. Yes. Lovely cup holders. And then you've got your climate control buttons here and more metal-ness. Comfortable enough for a two-door coupe. Oh, and look, got Isofix anchor points there. Now, I actually fitted a baby seat into this car and it was easy enough to get it in. The problem was trying to get to the Isofix anchor points because these flaps are slightly offset to the middle. So you end up stretching the flaps to get to the actual mounting point. But my little daughter, Grace, absolutely loved traveling in the back of this Rolls-Royce. Though she has left her mark. Look, grubby child paw prints. I think that if she was a bit older, she might have gotten her mother's nerves a bit by pressing this button here. Really handy for adults, but children might use it to just alter the seating position of their parents like that. There you go. You know that's going to happen. Now let's check out the boot. You have 380 litres of space. And to put that into context, a Volkswagen Golf's boot is the same size. Now obviously with a Volkswagen Golf, you have the added practicality of being able to fold the seats down, which you can't in here. Still, you do have it lined with lovely carpet. And I think it's large enough to fit a man in it. Man! Be careful not to scratch the paintwork. Go on. Do you reckon there's room for me in there? Uh, yeah. That's a lie. I'd rather there wasn't. But there might be. That sounded sinister. Do you reckon I can fit in there as well? How are we going to do this? Top to tail? Sorry, Rolls Royce. Please lend me a car again. Lewis, and you can shut the... Wait a minute. I'm not sure this is the right way round, especially if you fart. Go for it, Lewis. Do you reckon we're going to fit? Oh! That's it, we're fitted. Well, is that test complete? You can fit two men in there. Oh, and actually... Yeah, jump out a second, James. Oh! Oh, my legs. Right. Just going to try not to scuff the paintwork. Watch yourself. Watch your belt on the paint and the shiny bits. And don't forget your glasses. Actually, they're nice, James. Right, so that's where you have your storage cables and rubbish and mini cheddars. I think they're Grace's. It's OK, though, because we do have some more storage in the front. Underneath here, being an electric car, you have a wonderful front boot. It's obviously under this rather expensive feeling metal cover. Oh! Oh, wait a minute. Doesn't look like it's meant to be a front boot. So it looks like we've got some more mini cheddars here. I didn't put those there. Anyway, that brings on to five annoying things about the Rolls Royce Spectre. Sometimes when you're parked on a slight angle, like I am now, the door motors won't work, so you have to do it all manually. And it's a big, old, heavy door. Look, it's not operating when I press the brake to shut it. Let me just try again. No, look, door drive restricted. Not that much of an angle. The climate control system in this car is a little bit quaint, but you could say it's antiquated, because rather than setting an exact temperature and the car just gets the car to that temperature for you, you have this dial here, so hotter or colder. Now, in the front, they're split, so you can mix and match the temperature for the upper part of the car and the lower part. The only thing is, though, it doesn't actually work that well. If you have, like, upper hot and lower cold, you never really get the top-half hot and the top-half cold. Likewise, the other way around. If you really want it very hot or very cold, you do have to slide them both together. I mean, I should be thankful that we don't have buttons or a pin in the menu on the screen, but it just doesn't work that well for me. And then there's the blower fan speed, because, yes, I know they probably want to diffuse air in a Rolls-Royce, but, yeah, look at that. It's a little bit soft. Sometimes you just want to be blown hard, and this car won't do it for you. Rolls-Royces are all about luxury and comfort, and getting that extra mile to make their car seem more refined than any other normal vehicle. Yet they somehow haven't managed to fix the creaky brakes that you get on many electric cars, especially from the rear brakes. Have a listen to this. It does it just the same as the cheapest electric car. You shouldn't have it on a Rolls-Royce. I can just about accept it on some cheap Dacia Spring or something like that, but a Rolls-Royce, come on. You've got some very thick windscreen pillars, which do create a bit of a blind spot, but that's not the worst bit. Because you sit quite low, that, plus the position of these rather large door mirrors, do create a worse blind spot, and I've noticed it's really problematic when you're approaching a roundabout and you want to filter straight onto it, but you need to look to your right to make sure there's no cars coming from the side. So have a look at this. I'm going to disappear. Ready? I've gone. Where am I? Nowhere to be seen. Absolutely nowhere to be seen. I'm actually here. Hello? Crazy. Many electric cars emit a synthetic noise to make it for the fact they don't have a normal engine noise. And this Rolls-Royce is no different. Though I'm not convinced by the noise that Rolls-Royce have gone for. Listen. It's the kind of noise they use in thriller movies just before something bad is about to happen. So it sort of makes you feel a bit tense, which is the exact opposite of what a Rolls-Royce should be about. At least you can turn it off by pressing a button on here. And that brings me on to five good things about this car, because there are some noises I do like, such as this, the indicator click. It's like the tick of an expensive clock. The lambswool mats in this car are so thick and luxurious. Oh, it kind of makes you want to go barefoot. Though I wouldn't go barefoot as a driver, not for safety reasons, just because the design of the mat for the driver sort of weirds me out. I've been staring at it thinking, what does that remind me of? I don't know what it is. Sort of reminds me of a gorilla. Bare chest the gorilla has, then they're like furry elsewhere. Definitely is. Look at that. For the Spectre, Rolls-Royce have now redesigned the spirit of ecstasy ever so slightly. Hello, how are you doing? Her wings are now slightly more back swept to reduce drag, because every bit helps on an electric car. It's also illuminated, though you can't see in the daylight. So come and have a look down my top. Sounds sinister, but there we go. Have a look. You see? Get in there. It's a bit rude, isn't it? Oi, get out, you filthy bugger. Did you see that? Also, as before on other Rolls-Royce products, you can make the spirit go away. You can make it return. And of course, if some grubby thief tries to steal it, that happens. You can get the car with Rolls-Royce's famous Starlight headliner. So it has over 5,000 individual LEDs, and you can have any star constellation you want. So a lot of people would choose the one over wherever their main residence is. I say main, because obviously they're going to have a few properties. This one is apparently the constellation over the Goodwood factory. One of the cool things about this is that you get these occasional shooting stars, and they're really handy if you've got young children. You see, I went on a long journey in this car with my daughter, Grace, and instead of having to play I Spy for the entire journey, I just got her to play a game, shout out when you see a shooting star, and it kept her entertained the whole way. Thanks, Rolls. The Spectre's cameras, sensors, and sat-nav data is linked to its suspension. So when you're driving down the road, it can gauge the surface, and if it needs to, it'll slacken off the dampers to make it just absorb the bump a little bit better. Also, it can decouple its anti-roll bars when you're going straight, so that they don't cause the car to rock from side to side when you go over a bump. And when you go into a corner, they'll lock back up again, so it keeps it nice and flat in the bends. And also, it can alter the damping and air suspension on each side of the car to keep it nice and flat through the turns. And we'll find out exactly how all of that works now, as I take it for a drive. 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Or you can just click on the pop-out banner that should be appearing in the top right-hand corner of the screen now. Alternatively, just Google Help Me CarWow, and we will help you sell your car quickly, easily, and for a fair price. On with the video. One of the problems with driving something like this Rolls-Royce around smaller villages is the sheer width of it. So it's over two metres, excluding the door mirrors, so people do have to pull over to get out of your way. Let me just bring up the cameras because I do not want to scrape. Oh, this is not good. I'm not enjoying this. You sit quite low as well, so the view out and knowing where the corners of the car are is a little bit tricky. Okay. Well, I do think I've got away with that by not having too many cars coming in the other direction. Oh, no. Wait for me, please. I'm in a Rolls-Royce. Thank you, fellow electric car driver. I'll tell you what, though. While there might be moments of concern when driving through a village, most of the time it's super relaxing. So quiet in here. The suspension is absolutely glorious. This bit of road is horrible, really, in terms of the condition. And yet this just soaks at the bumps. Let's get the parking thing on, see if I can find a parking space. There we go. Start reverse parking. Let's see what it does in this situation. Is it really going to do this? Or is it just going to park it in the weirdest way possible? Has it figured out that there's a low curb? It misinterpreted this as a parking bay. Don't crash into the wall. I think it's as bad at parking as me. This is just, what's it doing? Yay, that's perfectly fine. I think I'd better get out of this space because I'm sort of blocking the road. To be fair on this Rolls-Royce, it did spot that as a bay park, even though it wasn't one. And I did select for it to go into the bay. So my fault, not really the car's. Oh, hello. We've got bay parking here. Hey, what's the bay parking here? I've got someone behind me. They're not going to move. Oh, they are going to move. Sometimes people move for Rolls-Royces. Oh, I'm causing chaos here. Everyone's very cross at me. I'm trying to park the car. She's really annoyed. Don't know what she's going to do. Try not to crash into the Rolls-Royce. It's wanting to park me here. I caused chaos again. Everyone's going to hate me. Can't blame them. Right, this is, oh, he's not happy. I don't really know if this is a good idea. Once again, I chose to do that. It selected a space. It wasn't the right space. I mean, I guess I can sort of park here. Let's just get out of here. So the length of this thing does affect the maneuverability. Even though I have rear axle steering, it's not easy to do a U-turn in a car this size. I'd normally do it here, but I'm kind of a bit scuppered by this van. Let's just try it up there. So the turning circle's 12.7 meters. Let's see if we can get around here. Definitely using my cameras. Will I get back around again? Absolutely no bloomin' chance. I do all the wrong maneuvers here. Very close to that old Peugeot. And no. I'll give this car one thing. It might be big. It might not have the best turning circle, but my gosh, it's easy to turn this steering wheel. And normally, if I was getting into these kind of shenanigans in any other car, I'd start to get a little bit stressed, but this car is so relaxing. I don't mind so much. Sometimes electric cars can have grabby brakes as the first part of your braking is using the regen. It's just smooth, smooth, smooth. One of the key problems with this car is parking it in a parking bay, because it's rather huge. Can I even get in here? I think I can. Now I'm staying quite a bit away from that curb, because I don't want to curb it, obviously. But then I think the issue I'm going to have is if someone gets out of that vehicle, they're going to dig my door. And if I try and get out of this, oh dear, I've dinged their door. You literally can't get out. And the way the door system works makes it hard. You can't not put your hand around it to get to it. So what you have to do is be a little bit selfish. Everyone's going to hate on you. I guess you've got to do what you've got to do when you've got a car as expensive as this, and paintwork that will be quite expensive to repair. Fortunately, it wasn't the paint that hit the door of that Land Cruiser. The Land Cruiser's are, so don't worry about it. It was this part here. No marks on that. Another great facet of this car is its ability to just deal with speed humps. Not a problem. If I didn't see it, I wouldn't know it was there. Oh, that was insane. I didn't feel it actually drop down. It's like it just lowered its suspension for me. How can going over a speed hump be so just damn pleasurable? Why do people buy sports cars? Why have I got a GT3 RS? This is better. I prefer driving this. Now let's see how this Rolls-Royce Spectre is transitioning from cruising very slowly in town to accelerating up to speed. Remember, we've got 584 horsepower, so it should go pretty well. Three, two, one. I think the way to describe that in Rolls-Royce terms would be adequate progress. Sufficient progress, maybe. More than adequate, it's sufficient. You don't need more. And it's exactly as much as you ever need. So this car is clearly super relaxing, but does it get a bit stressful when you encounter some corners because of all that weight? Well... Ooh. No, it doesn't. So this car hides its weight pretty well. So that tech, which stops it leaning in the bends, really does help. So does the low center of gravity with those heavy batteries as low down as possible in the car. Just means that it stays pretty flat through the turns. If you're going really quickly, the front tires will become overwhelmed and it'll push on, but if you're sticking to the speed limits, it's absolutely fine. And of course, you've got four-wheel drive traction so you can get your power down instantly to get you out of the bends. Now, what I can do is go one pedal drive, like this, pressed into B mode, and it'll actually come to a complete stop. So you can drive on the accelerator alone if you want to. But that doesn't suit this car because as soon as you lift off the accelerator, you do get some pretty strong regen braking, which isn't very Rolls-Royce, whereas if you're just in normal mode, it pretty much coasts. Just a little bit of regen braking to mimic the engine braking you get from one of their normal V12s with an automatic gearbox. But obviously, the response from the electric motors is more immediate than you can get from the V12 engine. Rolls-Royce says the Spectre will do 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, but I'm gonna test it for myself using my specialist timing gear to launch it. There's no launch control, it's a Rolls-Royce. You just floor the throttle like this. Three, two, one, go. That is progressive thrust. It's not brutal, but 0-60, 4.52 seconds. Here comes the 100 mile an hour mark. 9.99 beats the 10 seconds. What's the quarter mile? 12.81. That was good, strong quality performance, yet it felt effortless and wasn't intrusive. Exactly what you want from a Rolls-Royce. Last thing I'm gonna do is a brake test from 60 miles an hour. See how long it takes to stop. It's a big, heavy car, 2.9 tonnes. What is it gonna be like at stopping? Now, a little bit of ABS, but you hardly notice it. It deals with it so well. Now, I wanna beat 35 metres. Anything under 35 metres will be good. My figures are in feet, so 108 feet. Let's get the old conversion up. 33 metres, that's really impressive. This thing delivers performance, but in a very Rolls-Royce kind of way. While I do think that being electric makes the Spectre quieter and smoother, you've gotta remember that this is a luxury item, and a bit like a watch with a proper mechanical movement is a luxury good. I kind of think that the V12 engines just feel a bit more luxurious. Reason being, you can just appreciate the engineering that goes into them. No one else can make an engine as smooth as Rolls-Royce's V12. I mean, you can rev it with a coin on it and it won't even fall over. It's insane. Whereas making an electric motor quiet and smooth, anyone can do it. It's not so special. There's another thing as well. If this did have a V12 in it, it would probably go as far on a full tank as this one will go on a full battery. The only difference being that to fill it back up again will take a lot longer than this, and if you can afford a Rolls-Royce Spectre, time is obviously money. So then, should you avoid this car? Should you consider it? Should you shortlist it? Or should you just go right ahead and buy it? Well, I almost want to say go right ahead and buy it because I absolutely love it, but I'd love it even more if it had a V12 engine. So for me, it's actually not my favorite Rolls-Royce. I hope you all enjoyed the video. If you did, give it a like. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below. If you want to watch some more videos, I've picked a couple out for you there. I think you'll like them. Just click on those windows to watch them. Or if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe to this channel. You can do that just by hitting the Carwow logo there. Simple.