Rolls-Royce "Ghoul" Rendering Blurs All Lines Between High End Luxury and Performance

Then there's Rolls-Royce, which has always stood for the pinnacle of luxury, going back all the way to 1906 when the first motor cars were built and marketed under the Rolls-Royce brand. The company itself was first established in 1904, when Charles Rolls and Henry Royce took the latter’s Royce 10 model and rebadged it as a Rolls-Royce.

The so-called Rolls-Royce 10 was then unveiled at the Paris Auto Show in December of that very same year, but the company’s first all-new model wouldn’t be introduced until a few years later. In fact, they had so much confidence in this new car, later dubbed the Silver Ghost, that they even discontinued all earlier models.

What followed was a full century of iconic luxury automobiles, from the 40/50 Silver Ghost to the 40/50 Phantom (the original one), the Phantom II, Phantom III, the original Wraith, Silver Wraith, Silver Dawn, Phantom IV, Phantom V, Silver Shadow, Phantom VI, or the Corniche, among others.

Then came the modern renaissance, with the arrival of the Silver Spirit, succeeded by the Silver Seraph, the modern-day Phantom (with all its iterations), the Ghost, Wraith, Dawn, Cullinan, and now the upcoming, fully electric Spectre.

As you’ve undoubtedly noticed, the folks at Double-R weren't big on taking massive chances with their designs prior to the SUV and EV revolutions, but the arrival of the Cullinan changed all that. Scratch that, the first-gen Ghost series I was controversial too back in 2009 when it was first unveiled in Frankfurt. People called it a posh BMW 7 Series and many other names, but it nevertheless proved extremely popular.

Today, there’s only one thing missing from the British carmaker’s portfolio, and that’s a super sports car or a hypercar – something capable of out-running a Bentley Continental GT Speed, at the very least.

Granted, Rolls-Royce does make some remarkably quick cars when you consider how much they weigh, and the absolute quickest would have to be the Wraith Black Badge with its 6.6-liter twin-turbo V12 engine, rated at 623 hp and 642 lb-ft (870 Nm) of torque. It depends on whom you believe, but you’ll generally be able to hit 60 mph (97 kph) in under 4.5 seconds with one of these babies – some say 4.4 seconds, others say 4.3 seconds.

As impressive as that may be, it’s nothing compared to that previously mentioned Conti GT Speed, which is roughly a full second quicker to 60 mph than the Wraith Black Badge.

To me, a Rolls-Royce super sports car would have to be at least that quick, somewhere in the 3.5 second range, if not quicker, depending on how much power it’s got.

This is where our exclusive rendering comes in, depicting a genuine Rolls-Royce supercar which we’ve decided to call Ghoul. It’s only fitting, given how Rolls-Royce usually name their cars various ghostly synonyms, and a “ghoul” is meant to be particularly evil and frightening.

In terms of visuals, we’re dealing with a mid-engine design, as you would in a Bugatti, and to be fair, a lot of influences were taken from the French marque. Otherwise though, there are still plenty of easily identifiable Rolls-Royce features to be seen here, like the Pantheon grille, Spirit of Ecstasy badge, the wheels, rear-hinged coach doors (or suicide doors), and even the rather familiar rear pillar and shoulder line aesthetic.

As for the interior, well, we’re unable to show it to you, but rest assured it would be considerably plusher and more luxurious than that of a Chiron.

Which leads us to how much one of these things could conceivably cost, and “realistically” speaking, there’s no way something this fast and prestigious would go for less than a million dollars.