The unconscious savagery of the Rolls-Royce Spectre

Most Rolls-Royce drivers have four cars or more: this is a car for leisure. They drive their Rolls-Royces perhaps 3,000 miles a year: I would never do that. I would treat it like any other car. Lawrence of Arabia had nine armoured Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts for his campaign in Arabia. I would go to the supermarket in it, muddy the doors, let brambles scratch it. Before I drove Rolls-Royces I didn’t like them because I didn’t like the people who drove them. Now the fact they drive them is the only thing I like about them.

The Spectre is Rolls-Royce’s first fully electric car: it will make no cars with combustion engines after 2030 so if you want a petrol Ghost – the purist’s Rolls-Royce – order it now. The Spectre is a glorious thing: long and sinuous, and certain of itself.