Fenice Milano Previews Ghost-based Diva, Rolls-Royce Fans Cringe In Horror

In an apparent homage to Mansory, creator of such elegant eyesores as a gold-and-blue Rolls-Royce Ghost and a pink Continental GT, Italian firm Fenice Milano has created a handful of garish photoshops as a warning to car fans everywhere. Guys, if you need some fresh ideas, just ask (I'm here all week).

The car seen here is Fenice Milano's "Diva" and, for all intents and purposes, it's the kind of Ghost the "Opulence" commercial guy would drive with his 'wimmens' and giraffe in the back.

This is not the kind of "Italian elegance and style" I have come to expect from the boot-shaped Mediterranean country known for beautiful women, beautiful suits, beautiful cars, and beautiful food.

For those brave enough to consider the Diva, the car will be available in three colors: navy, bronze, and white (with 24k gold flakes); all three colors and a variety of color schemes can be seen below.

Inside, the car gets biscuit leather and 24k gold throughout, optional Alcantara inserts for the more ergonomically-designed seats, and wood trim that is supposedly limited to teak or grey oak.

Performance boosts of some sort are also mentioned, though with something called the Diva there's no telling what the ECU/intake/exhaust mods will do for it. On a more positive note, at least their website has some nice music to listen to.

By Phil Alex

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Rolls-Royce Planning to Expand Ghost Lineup with New Derivative

Rolls-Royce is planning a derivative of its Ghost uber-luxury sedan. The Ghost, which starts at US$245,000, is the 'baby' brother of the US$380,000 Phantom.

"I'm quite confident that we're going to see a Ghost derivative to come," said the British automaker's CEO, Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes in an interview reported by Bloomberg. "There's still a lot of potential in the market."

Mueller-Oetvoes would not elaborate on what the derivative would be, but hinted there may be more than one. The company is awaiting more feedback from its customers before committing to a bodystyle and timeframe for launch.

Rolls-Royce also announced that it is expanding its operations in China (the brand's biggest market after the United States), India and the Middle East. In spite of this, Mueller-Oetvoes has assured buyers that the brand will remain exclusive:

"We will definitely not end off in the tens of thousands of units. That's not the right strategy for us. Rolls-Royce always needs to stay very exclusive. We only build a car when there is a customer behind it."

Rolls-Royce suffered a 17% drop in sales in 2009 due to the global financial crisis. With the market now in recovery, Rolls aims to sell at least 2,000 cars in 2010. To date, the automaker has sold 1,467 cars worldwide, trailing Volkswagen-owned Bentley which had 2,489. Much of the growth has been attributed to the Ghost, which went on sale late last year.

By Tristan Hankins

Source: Bloomberg

Rolls Royce Sales Surge 146% in the First Five Months of 2010

Boosted by its new "entry-level" Ghost limousine that was launched in most markets in December '09, Rolls Royce sales surged to 678 cars in the first five months of 2010, recording an impressive 146 per cent increase on a year ago.

The new Ghost sells for around $250,000 compared with $380,000 to $450,000 price tag of the four available variants of the British firm's flagship Phantom series, thus opening a new market for Rolls Royce.

Last year, the BMW Group-owned brand saw its sales fall by 17 per cent to just over 1,000 units which led the maker cut production and fire some temporary workers.

Rolls Royce boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös told Financial Times that the firm's global sales "will be at least double the volume of last year" and that the company is entering into "new league of business."

According to Müller-Ötvös, China, where Rolls Royce has a total of seven dealerships, will most likely surpass in sales the brand's home market for the very first time this year.

"I could see China overtaking the UK this year as our second-biggest market after the US," said the Rolls Royce CEO.

Via: FT (Sub.Req.)

Money Well Spent: Rolls Royce Ghosts Shredded in Iron Man 2 Were Real [with Video]

There's something to be said for keeping it real. Making a movie? Keep it real. Getting interrogated by the cops? DO NOT KEEP IT REAL.

While it's obvious that a film like Iron Man requires a planet's-worth of special effects, stuff like wrecking cars usually shouldn't. We all saw how poor choice of CGI affected Ithe fourth Indiana Jones movie.

That's why it's refreshing to see that some of the fancy cars destroyed in Iron Man 2 were real. Tony Stark's Rolls-Royce getting destroyed at a race in Monaco was legit (but filmed in California).

Rolls-Royce built two near-identical Phantoms for the filmmakers at $438,000 a pop. According to the New York Times' own Jerry Garrett, one has a cool box in the back and the other doesn't.

To get the cars all destructified, the body panels were stripped off and then rigged with charges. After they were put back on, everything was cleaned up using Bondo and a fine touch. Then it all got blown up.

The final resting place of the wrecked Rollers is a prop warehouse in Downey, California (no relation to the movie star).

On the other side of all this, autoofcars2011.blogspot of the old-school racers provided by the Historic Grand Prix Association were hurt.

Fun facts: "The blue and white Stark Industries race car was driven by the stunt driver Tanner Foust. The yellow Kodak car, the only other vehicle that was capable of running had the driver's name of "Elon Musk" painted on the side. Mr. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors, had allowed the filmmakers to use his SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, Calif., as the site of the film's "Hammer Industries." He also made a cameo appearance in the film." - Jerry Garrett

By Phil Alex

Via: NYT & eGMcartech

Rolls-Royce Releases Ghost App Configurator for iPhone, iPod Touch

Got an iPhone? Or maybe an iPod touch? Good, because that means you'll be able to download Rolls-Royce's first official smart phone application ever (and its free!). The app gives people the ability to customize their very own small roller, the Ghost.

If you've got the time there are a bunch of variables to choose from: 12 colors (although any color you can dream up they'll do), three kinds of wheels, and a Ghost-exclusive Silver Satin hood (although with the right investment, people could probably get it on any model they choose).

Inside, Rolls-Royce provides eight standard shades of leather and five different types of veneer, "including contemporary woods such as Dark Wenge and Malabar" (not Mallomar).

Other services provided by the app include a dealer locator, specs page, and a variety of media (pics and vids, or if you eat Grey Poupon, "images and films").

Also, much like other configurators, Rolls provides a virtual garage in which you can store your fake, digital car.

The Ghost App is available at the iTunes App Store now.

By Phil Alex

Golden Gaudy: Rolls Royce Ghost with 720HP Tuned by Mansory

The same German-based tuning company that brought you the pinked out gem called the Bentley Continental GT Vitesse Rose is getting ready for another round of pure gaudiness with the world premiere of its Rolls Royce Ghost proposal at next week's Geneva Motor Show.

Mansory's motto for its latest creation is "Unlimited Luxury in a Golden Robe". That translates to a blue colored body finish and more decorative gold (or gold paint, we're not sure) than you would find at a Mr. T lookalike convention in Las Vegas.

The package also includes an aero kit with side skirts, new front bumper with additional LED lights and side air vents, a boot lid spoiler and a rear apron with an integrated diffuser that houses unique tail pipes.

The car is fitted with 22-inch alloy rims shod with low-profile rubber from Dunlop (265/30 R22 at the front and 295/30 R22 at the back).

There are no teaser pictures or sketches of the interior, but Mansory claims that it has refined the cabin with special leathers, diamond-quilted ornaments, ultra-suede lining from the roof line to the dashboard and carbon fiber trim.

Under the bonnet, Mansory's tuners performed several upgrades including enlarged bi-turbochargers, recalibrated ECU, a new exhaust system boosting the 6.6-liter V12 engine's output from 570HP and 780Nm to a whopping 720HP and 1,020Nm or 752 lb-ft of peak torque.

The extra power shaves half-a-second off the 0-100km/h (62mph) sprint with Mansory's Rolls Royce Ghost completing the task in just 4.4 seconds while the removal of the electronic speed limited allows the car to reach a maximum velocity of 310km/h or 193 mph.

We'll have more on Mansory's Rolls Royce Ghost after its official presentation at the Geneva Show next week.

Wald International Preparing Kits for New Porsche Panamera, BMW 7-Series, Rolls Royce Ghost, Infiniti M / Fuga and Jaguar XJ

Looks like 2010 will be a busy year for Wald International, the Japanese tuner known for its huge collection of aggressive body kits. Among other projects, Wald International is working on the development of exterior packages for five brand-new luxury sedan models, the 2011 BMW 7-Series, 2011 Infiniti M / Nissan Fuga (JDM), 2011 Jaguar XJ, Porsche Panamera and the new 'baby' Rolls Royce, the Ghost.

Despite the fact that the Japanese tuning firm has only released one teaser shot of each saloon, we can tell that the packages include new bumpers, spoilers, rocker panels, larger alloy wheels and suspension kits.

We'll bring you all the details on Wald International's new tuning proposals as soon the company launches the products.