United colours of Rolls-Royce

The Ghost is the classic Rolls-Royce, but where does that leave it in a world dominated by electric vehicles and SUVs? Toby Keel gets behind the wheel of a Series II to find out

- 

CLOSE your eyes and think of a RollsRoyce. We'll wait. Back? Good.

What colour did you imagine your Roller to be? Metallic dark grey? A classic bronze? Perhaps a smart, dark blue? Now take a breath and look again at the banana-yellow car on these pages. It's no outlier, but is typical of Rolls-Royce's launch fleet for the Ghost Series II, a parade of salmon pink, lime green, amethyst purple and powder blue.

And that's before you even open the door.

These colours are no accident—not least because the ultra-luxury finish can require up to 20 coats. They make a statement: Rolls-Royce in 2025 isn’t merely serving up a post-Imperial throwback to past glories. These are cars for today, tomorrow and decades into the future. Rolls-Royces have been hauled by their 6.75-litre V12 engines into the 2020s and beyond—and there’s no going back.

This very much includes the Ghost, arguably the most ‘Rolls-Roycey’ of Rolls-Royces. The Spectre and the Cullinan have the electric vehicle and SUV angles covered; the Phantom is the vast luxury barge in which you’d want to be chauffeured around. However, the Ghost—or the Ghost Series II, as it is now—is the Roller that is engineered to be equally a driver’s car and a passenger’s delight.