Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge Gets 100 lbs Of World's Darkest Paint

With its new edgy Black Badge sub-brand, which debuted on the Wraith coupe and Ghost sedan in 2016, Rolls Royce began making a concentrated push to target younger and nicer consumers. More than one in every four Rolls Royces sold today is a Black Badge vehicle, and the Ghost, now in its 2nd gen, has just been treated similarly.

The Black Badge, according to Rolls, is meant to attract clients seeking something discreet and free of extraneous design.

You can choose from one of the company's 44,000 available colors or create your own, but most consumers will opt for the model-specific black color.

It's said to be the deepest black possible on a production vehicle, and it's made up of 100 lbs (45 kg) of paint that's atomized and put into an electrostatically charged body before getting covered in two layers of clear coat and manually polished. It can take up to 5 hours to complete the procedure.

However, the Ghost Black Badge is more than just a nice trim and paint job. The 6.75-liter twin-turbo V12 has been tweaked to create an extra 29 hp and 37 lb-ft of torque, while the aluminum space frame body is suspended on larger air springs to reduce body roll.

The 591 hp output is 12 hp less than the 2016 Ghost Black Label, but torque has increased from 619 lb-ft to 664 lb-ft, reducing the time from 4.6 to 4.5 secs from 0 to 60 mph. If you're interested in the Ghost Black Badge bundle, your wallet will have a lot to bear. Prices begin at $393,500 before taxes.

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