Car Throttle

Apparently there are some people out there with a sense of humor: I've seen Bentleys with Hyundai badges, Hyundais with Bentley badges, and most recently, a Rolls-Royce with GM's Dual-Mode hybrid badges. By the way, we still haven't figured out whether or not that was real or just a joke (I assume it was the latter). I guess we'll know if Rolls-Royce ever releases a Phantom hybrid with the Dual-Mode hybrid system. We've got hilarious rebadges - what's next, a Phantom at Wal-Mart? Well actually, now that you mention it, yes! You know the recession has hit everyone hard when you see something like this...... Yes, that is the Rolls-Royce Phantom - at Wal-Mart. An oxymoron if I've ever heard one! I've seen Bentleys and Rolls-Royce Phantoms before, but they

When I came across this one, I just had to post it! It was just too funny for a variety of reasons. The subject of an electric Rolls-Royce has been something the company has given serious thought to. Even beyond that, it seems like it's something they want to do as well, judging from the comments made by Rolls-Royce's CEO Tom Purves: “Many of our customers do small mileages exclusively in the city....for these customers, an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal.....we stand for unmatched refinement and you can’t get a quieter and less intrusive engine than a well engineered electric motor.....we also stand for strong and instant torque – and an electric motor delivers maximum torque instantly. The ‘waftability’ would be fantastic.” Voila! Hybrid Rolls-Royce? Man on

Trickle, trickle. Rolls-Royce is really dragging this one out, aren't they? We saw the concept, then got a name announced, then heard about more variants and in among all of that, many spy shots of the car sans camouflage have been captured. The strategy must be working though: Rolls-Royce said it has received more than 10,000 "expressions of interest" in the Ghost, with around 1,500 of those "expressing a serious desire to own the vehicle." Your guess is as good as mine whether or not that means orders. 536 horsepower and 575 pound-feet to the wheels! Whoa! Talk about performance, the smaller Ghost is packing even more power than it's larger brother the Phantom. That power works out to a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds,

Rolls-Royce working on a MINI? Maybe so, but a British company called Arden Engineering has decided to produce a gussied up MINI of their own, called the Equipe. Arden has a history with MINIs, going back as far as 40 years ago, when a modified MINI of Arden's took the title at the British Touring Championship. To commemorate that, this special customization package is being released. Like the rumored Rolls-Royce conversion, the biggest changes happen inside. Nearly every surface in the interior has been modified, with a handstitched two-tone color scheme unique to the Equipe. The interior is just wow. Handmade polished stainless steel accents adorn surround the gauges, air vents and speakers and a beautiful wood trim is in place of the usual brushed aluminum of the

The 7-Series based Ghost is coming and it promises to double Rolls-Royce's sales single-handedly. Many pictures of the car have been spotted completely uncovered. The Ghost looks nothing like the BMW 7-Series, but it is noticeably different from the Phantom in proportions. That seems to be Rolls-Royce's intention though. News has come that Rolls is planning an entire Ghost lineup, just like it's bigger brother the Phantom. I assume we'll be waiting a while to see them put into production though. It's a tried and true strategy; launch the model initially, ride the sales wave and then bring out new variants later to keep interest and create more sales. Rumors has it future models could include a coupe and a soft-top. They haven't been given the green light for production

As you probably know, Rolls-Royce had a record year in 2008, selling more cars and making more profits then ever. Of course they want to continue that as much as possible. The amazing thing is, according to Chief Executive Tom Purves, Rolls-Royce expects sales for 2009 to remain flat in comparison to 2008. In the midst of a severe economic downturn where every automaker has been hit, that is extremely impressive. The Phantom has been doing very well for itself, with the new variants Coupe and Drophead Coupe helping to increase sales in 2008 from 1010 to 1212 units, a 20 percent increase. For future growth though, Rolls-Royce is counting on the Ghost to grow the brand. At the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in London,Tom Purves commented on the world

Next Bentley Arnage To Move Upscale; is that an oxymoron? Apparently not. Normally when you think of the ultimate, most expensive automobiles in the world, Bentley comes to mind. . Bentley represents some of the ultimate in motoring. Apparently, Volkswagen's management wants the brand be taken further up market to compete with BMW's Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz's Maybach.  Given that the Maybach experiment isn't going too well for Mercedes though, I'm not sure that is such a great target. Based in part on the Audi A8, the next-generation Arnage is set to grow bigger in every dimension.  Historically, Bentley has always been the sportier brand in comparison to Rolls-Royce. Free from that constraint, the brand can be taken wherever VW wants it to go. "Project Kimblerly", as it is codenamed, is set to be unveiled

In today's economy, everyone is downsizing.  And by everyone, I mean even Rolls-Royce. It certainly seems like a coming sign of the carpocalypse (all trademarks to Jalopnik on that term), but the truth is that a smaller Rolls Royce makes a lot of sense.  Even the super-rich are tightening their pockets, which can be seen in the abysmally small sales of uberluxury cars like the Rolls Royce Phantom, as well as Mercedes's rolling mistake, the Maybach - and in their miniscule resale values. Since the Phantom hasn't been making all that much money for BMW, it was naturally time for a smaller, higher-margin Roller.  Enter the new baby: the Ghost.  The Ghost rides on a slightly lengthened 7-series platform, and uses a 6.6L Twin-Turbo V12 (probably

Baby Roller, RR4, 200EX; the upcoming smaller Rolls-Royce has been called by many different names in it's short lifetime. Rolls-Royce has put naming speculation to rest though at the Shanghai Auto Show by announcing the official name. Rolls-Royce Ghost. Well, there you have it, that's the name. Not Silver Ghost, just Ghost. Kind of a break from tradition from a company that usually refers to it's cars with longer, more illustrious names. Silver Ghost has a lot of history behind it and that probably played a big part in the name choice. Ghost sounds more modern then Silver Ghost though, and I think it fits in with what R0lls-Royce is trying to do with the new model. The announcement was made by Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves at the company press conference at the

Looks like another high-end sports car manufacturer had a good year in 2008, despite the strong headwinds. Lamborghini has come out of 2008 in excellent shape considering. There was a similar situation with Rolls-Royce and it's 2008 report. Surprising, but true!

Overall sales, profits, etc are all up. The United States saw a drop of 20.3% to 741 units, from 930 the year before (2007). Given the U.S is Lamborghini's largest market and that is a significant hit to global numbers, you would think overall sales would be down. Not so though; traditional markets Germany and the United Kingdom saw small increases while emerging markets like Asia and the Middle East saw strong growth. In addition, Lamborghini saw growth in it's home market of Italy, with sales