GHOST STORY

Change can be scary, but Rolls-Royce’s redesign of its bestselling model captures the true spirit of ecstasy.

- VIJU MATHEW

ALMOST EVERYONE HAS a vehicle that’s close to the heart, whether it’s the poster car that hung on an early bedroom wall or the first car you could call your own. Mine is the massive, stately sedan I drove on the first date with my now wife. Actually, the car was the date. Sitting under the Starlight Headliner of a 2017 Rolls-Royce Ghost, we spent hours lost in conversation, the romantic cabin providing escape without needing to leave the driveway.

So when it was announced that the Ghost, first introduced in 2009, had been redesigned according to the trendy minimalism Rolls-Royce has termed “post-opulence”, I was hardly elated. Sure, the storied automaker is catering to an increasingly younger clientele (average age: 42), but why strip anything from the brand’s bestselling model in its 116-year history? Yet after driving the 2021 model through Austin and the Texas Hill Country, I consider myself enlightened.