Rolls-Royce Spectre Black Badge: absolute luxury with a sporty edge

When one dreams of travelling in a Rolls-Royce, they are always seated in the rear seats while the vehicle cruises at a steady speed. This type of vehicle has always stood out for the level of luxury it offers, but not for other capabilities such as its cornering at high speeds or, ultimately, its sporty character.

That has always been the case, but that does not mean it will remain so. The Rolls-Royce Spectre Black Badge has arrived to change everything, turning upside down the concept we had of the vehicles of the British luxury brand.

The Rolls-Royce Spectre Black Badge stands out first and foremost for being fully electric, but also for being even more powerful than the conventional model, with a total of 485 kW of power and 1,075 Nm of torque, which allows it to reach 100 km/h from a standstill in just over four seconds. It is, therefore, a fast, very fast and also very powerful vehicle, with the performance needed to shine on the track.

You didn’t expect this from a Rolls-Royce

The sporty character of the Rolls-Royce Spectre Black Badge is further enhanced by being one of the few vehicles from the brand, if not the only one, that features a sport driving mode. With the new “Infinity Mode” it incorporates, the driver can make use of all the available power to outperform their rivals. But that is not all, because if what you want to dominate is the start from a standstill, the new “Spirited mode” is similar to the launch control found in any sports car and will help you achieve optimal acceleration with this 2.9-tonne monster.

The Rolls-Royce engineers have also modified the dampers, in order to mitigate the squat at the rear when accelerating and the nose dive under strong braking. This damper tuning in the Black Badge version has also made it possible to limit body roll when tackling successive corners. Additionally, the extreme attention to detail has led the brand’s engineers to increase the weight of the steering wheel, in order to improve the driver’s experience and enjoyment.

The Black Badge’s Achilles’ heel is, on the other hand, its range. As is the case with many other vehicles with high-performance versions, if the same battery pack is kept and the power is increased, the range is negatively affected as a result. Under the EPA homologation cycle, the Rolls-Royce Spectre Black Badge is capable of covering 266 miles -429 km- with 22-inch wheels, and 251 miles -404 km- with 23-inch wheels.

At this point, you are surely wondering how much this marvel costs. Well, I don’t think I’m wrong if I tell you that it will most likely be beyond your budget, since the base price of this Black Badge version of the Rolls-Royce Spectre starts at 490,000 euros in the US market. That is 70,000 euros more than the conventional version, to which you will also have to add the cost of any options you wish to include in the initial configuration. In any case, it is always nice to dream.